Poker player gives Fil-Am taxi driver $10-K reward

CHICAGO – Filipino-American taxi driver Gerardo Gamboa on Friday received a $10,000 reward from the owner of the $300,000 (P12.6 million) cash left in his cab last Monday.

Bill Shranko, an executive of the Yellow Checker Star Cab company in Las Vegas, confirmed that Gamboa, a native of Mabalacat, Pampanga, was rewarded by the 28-year-old poker player for returning his money.

The taxi company named Gamboa, 54, its “Driver of the Year” and he was given $1,000 and a dinner for two at a high-end restaurant for his honesty.

He said his passenger gave him a $5 tip after a trip from the Cosmopolitan resort to the Palms Place tower.

He then drove to the Bellagio resort, where a doorman helping a passenger into the car noticed a bag.

“There is a bag in your taxi full of chocolate,” the doorman told Gamboa.

When he opened the bag, it contained six bundles of $100 bills.

Gamboa took the cash to the company’s main office, where Las Vegas police and casino officials linked it to the poker player.

The poker player did not want to be identified.