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False Reports

By Jim Goding

By reason of the teamwork that a Surveillance Director creates between his department and the heads of other areas in the casino, the department often receives reports, both written and verbal, leading to investigations of personnel or casino patrons.

These reports must be investigated, for several reasons. To begin with, if no one pays proper attention to information received from outside the department, very soon these sources of information dry up and blow away in the wind.

What may not be understood outside the department, but absolutely must be understood by Surveillance Directors and Supervisors, is to what extent these reports must be examined, and why.

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It is actually much more important, when an investigation turns up negative results, to clear the name of an honest patron or staff member than it is to actually catch a thief. There is a limit to the amount a thief can steal, in ordinary circumstances. However, the loss of an honest patron results in the loss of many future customers and all the potential income they would have produced.

The loss of an honest staff member, however, has almost no limit in the amount that it could eventually cost the company.

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However, there is still a snake in the garden: What of the person who told of his suspicions, or deliberately gave a false report? Was this person actually trying to help the company with an observation, even if mistaken, or did he or she deliberately give a false report─and if so, why?

Investigations

As we have seen, investigation and full reporting of results, even if negative, is a necessity for Surveillance. How these investigations are carried out depends upon the resources and capabilities of the Surveillance department and any other investigations areas it may be allied with, such as Security, Internal Audits or Compliance.

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The Surveillance Director, receiving the negative results of the investigation so far, followed the original report back through the Slots Director to the other staff member, who revealed in an interview that he had heard in a breakroom gossip session that the cashier in question was stealing by shorting the customers. Questioned about the source of the information, he gave the name of another cashier, who was then watched. The originator of the verbal report was found to be doing exactly what she had accused the first cashier of doing: she was shorting customers, with the money going into her bank. At the end of her shift she figured out how much overage she had created, covertly removed the money from her bank and placed it into her tokes cup or pocket. It was only a few dollars a day, but amounted, if she did this daily, to several thousand per year.

False Reports

There are a number of reasons why a false report might be given to executives or Surveillance/Security investigators.

The first, and most common, is to divert the attention of investigators away from the person who is false reporting. This, too, might have a number of reasons behind it. First on the list is always that the person who places false information in the hands of Surveillance is attempting . . .

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Copyright ©  2002 by Jim Goding. All rights reserved. Duplication in any form, electronic or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author is forbidden, is a violation of the proprietary rights of the author and is actionable under law. This article may be purchased for a nominal fee by clicking on the following link.

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