OAKLAND — A man who police say serves as a manager at one of Oakland’s several illegal casinos has been charged with leading officers on a chase through the city as they were investigating his possible involvement in a shooting related to the gambling underworld, court records show.

An Dao, 44, was charged with felony counts of evading police and being a 14-time felon in possession of body armor, court records show. He is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin with bail set at $350,000.

The jail log lists Dao’s profession as a landscaper, but authorities say they’ve identified him as the manager of a gambling shack on the 1300 block of East 15th Street which was raided on Sept. 17. Three days earlier, a gambling den just two streets over was shot up, allegedly by someone in a BMW that police believe belonged to Dao. They identified him as a person of interest in the nonfatal shooting, but he has not been charged, according to court records.

Inside the East 15th Street illegal casino, authorities said they found “several bags” of methamphetamine, a loaded gun and ammunition, as well as a wooden board listing the house rules, signed by “Waldo,” which is Dao’s alleged nickname. A day earlier, police saw Dao at the residence with Tan Duong, an Oakland resident in his late 40s who has been named in court records as a suspect in numerous other illegal gambling investigations. Duong was arrested in a similar raid last year, according to court records.

The two felony charges against Dao stem from Sept. 29, when Oakland police attempted to pull him over on East 12th Street for allegedly driving a BMW with a missing front license plate. The BMW took off at a “high-rate of speed” from East 12th Street, eventually colliding with another car at East 10th Street and 5th Avenue, according to police. Dao allegedly ran out of the car but was arrested two blocks away.

Officers found a stun gun and body armor inside the BMW, according to police. The criminal complaint alleges Dao has 14 felony convictions, including for six separate gun possession offenses, and a prior police chase from 2010, in San Joaquin County.

In 2025 alone, police in Oakland say they’ve linked dozens of nonfatal shootings to an ongoing rivalry between groups that run illicit casinos in town. They’re generally converted residences in East Oakland that use arcade style machines as slot machines where cash prizes are given.

In one case, police raided a suspected illegal casino on wheels — an RV equipped with converted gaming machines, where a pay/owe ledger and ammunition were found inside, according to court records.