How to earn money in GTA 5 Online with the arcade? And how to get the most money out of the casino heist? We show you here.
What kind of content is this? The casino heist is a robbery in the world of GTA 5 Online, Los Santos. To start it, you need an arcade.
Earn money with free arcade – Vault, Control Terminal
This is what the arcade brings: The basement of the arcade is mainly used for planning and storing the casino heist content. That’s where the planning board is located, where you choose your approach. The garage also offers space for getaway vehicles.
In the arcade itself, you can set up machines and play video games on them.
Can you earn money with the arcade? With the basic business, the slot machines, you don’t generate significant revenue. Your vault can hold a maximum of 50,000 GTA Dollars. Every 48 minutes, it automatically generates 5,000 GTA Dollars. This only finances a few bulletproof vests and ammunition you need for the heist.
It quickly becomes clear that the casino heist is the main business of the arcades. That’s where you earn the big money. But an important feature of the arcade is waiting in the basement: the main control terminal.
What can the main control terminal do? The part costs 1,740,000 GTA Dollars and greatly facilitates your work if you are already the owner of various businesses.
The terminal gives you control over all other businesses like the nightclub, gunrunning, cocaine, meth, weed, money laundering, hangar, vehicle deliveries and warehouse missions.
To buy supplies, you no longer need to drive to each business yourself, but you can do it through the control terminal.
Is the control terminal worth it? If you have multiple businesses spread across the map of GTA Online, then the terminal is worth it. It saves you long drives and thus a lot of money. Because if you can consolidate all businesses in one place, you grind more effectively.
Which arcade to buy? The prices of the arcades range from 1,235,000 GTA Dollars (Pixel Pete’s – Paleto Bay) to prices over 2 million GTA Dollars if you want to buy an arcade in the city.
Sell / change arcade: Anyone dissatisfied with the arcade they bought can change it. Complaints come from players who got the free arcade with Twitch Prime, as it is located at the top of Paleto Bay. Thus, there is always a long way involved to reach missions or other interesting points on the map from the arcade.
Just pull up your phone, select “Internet” and then choose a new hall from Foreclosure. But keep in mind that these are quite expensive to acquire.
Casino Heist Guide – How to make the most money
The preparation: First, meet with Lester in Mirror Park. He will contact you in-game. This is practically the preparation mission to unlock and start the arcade and casino heist.
The start – scout the casino and find points of interest
One of the first missions requires you to scout the casino you are about to break into in detail. Photograph the guy from park services, cameras, guards, entrances, and more.
Important doors can be found on the roof of the casino and at the rooftop terrace. Also, the entrance for the cash transports and the tunnel entrance should be photographed.
Where you find all these points, we will show you here:
Gold, Diamonds, Cash, Art – What’s in the vault?
After scouting the casino, you should check what loot is in the vault. To do this, you hack a guard’s phone and then gain access to the surveillance cameras in the casino.
Whether gold, cash, or artworks can be found in the vault depends on your luck. It’s a random decision.
| Spoils | Payment (normal) | Payment (hard) |
| Cash | 2,115,000 GTA Dollars | 2,326,500 |
| Artworks | 2,350,000 GTA Dollars | 2,585,000 |
| Gold | 2,585,000 GTA Dollars | 2,843,500 |
| Diamonds | 3,290,000 GTA Dollars | 3,619,000 |
How to get Diamonds? In February 2020, Rockstar unlocked the diamonds in the casino heist. You now get them guaranteed once as loot, after which, according to insider reports, they have an 8% chance of appearing as vault content.
Choose approach – What preparation?
What are the differences? During your heist preparation, you will have to decide whether you choose “Silent & Sneaky,” “Big Con,” or “Aggressive” as your approach for the heist.
- With “Aggressive,” you storm into the casino with loud gunfire and explosions and then back out.
- With “Silent & Sneaky,” you discreetly gain access to the building and then best exit unseen.
- With “Big Con,” you disguise yourselves and enter the casino with Group Six gear to empty the vault and then escape.
Which preparations should be unlocked? For each approach, you can unlock patrol routes, Duggan deliveries, electric drills, masks, and many other optional preparations. But which ones do you really need?
If you are going with a small team, electric drills are unnecessary because you won’t have time to drill open the safes anyway. You’ll be busy hacking and collecting other loot.
Our recommendations for which optional objectives you should unlock can be seen in the following table.
| Option | Aggressive | Quiet | Con |
| Pat. Routes | – | X | X |
| Dug. Deliveries | X | X | – |
| Security Info | – | X | X |
| Elect. Drills | – | – | – |
| Masks | – | – | – |
| Young Ancestor | – | – | – |
| Group 6 Gear | – | – | X |
| Security Pass S2 | X | X | X |
| Noose Gear | – | – | X |
| EMP | – | X | – |
| Infiltration Suits | – | X | – |
| Maint. Equipment | – | – | – |
| Fire Equip. | – | – | – |
| Enhanced Armor | X | – | – |
Assembling a crew – Who to choose?
What are the differences? In every heist, you choose which NPCs to take with you in the crew. The better their skills, the higher your share of the loot. So it pays to choose wisely.
A good hacker is particularly important, as he gives you more time in the vault. But should you choose Avi Schwartzman or Paige? Find out here:
How to assemble the best crew for the casino heist in GTA Online.
9 Tips and Tricks for the Casino Heist in GTA 5 Online
A collection of tricks I wish I had known earlier for casino heists in GTA 5 Online:
- For the preparation missions, the armored Kuruma is still recommended
- You can only disable one security camera without triggering an alarm
- Temporarily disable the security cameras with the stun gun
- Assign one player responsible for hacking in the vault (use this guide for fingerprints)
- When the timer in the vault is under 20 seconds, stop searching for loot and leave the room so you are on time outside and the alarm isn’t triggered
- If the getaway vehicles are to the right of the racetrack, run directly to the track and follow the path around the curve – No detours
- The Big Con works easiest as a Group 6 disguise and Noose escape disguise
- It’s best to use the buyer that is farthest away, as the escape is very easy
- The sentinel getaway vehicles of the cheapest driver should be your choice for the escape
The easiest escape? Take this route!
After numerous attempts to escape from the police with 5 stars, my group was fed up. One of my colleagues had the idea to simply hide in the sewer until the stars were gone. And lo and behold: It works.
Here’s how to make the easiest escape: Run out of the building to the getaway vehicles and drive straight into the sewer. Where you should also take the photo for Lester. The entrance to this is just a few hundred meters from the casino and is easy to reach. Drive slowly through or wait in the middle. When the stars disappear, you drive out from the other end and head to the buyer.
Because this escape is so easy due to the trick, it’s worth seeking out the farthest buyer every time to maximize your profit.
If you have any more tips for the casino heist or the arcade, then feel free to share them in the comments. We show you more ways to earn a lot of money in GTA Online at MeinMMO: GTA Online earn money: This is how you get rich quickly
