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Casino Surveillance News
Publications: (by category) Managing a Surveillance Department
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July 2008 Welcome to the newsletter for Casino Surveillance and Security. Subscribe Now to Casino Surveillance News Online Surveillance Training is now available. We invite you to join us for our first major open enrollment Casino Surveillance and Security Training Seminar. Check this page for details
CSN News and Announcements: We invite you to join us for our first major open enrollment Casino Surveillance and Security Training Seminar. Check this page for details
Casino Surveillance News is now offering ONLINE TRAINING IN CASINO SURVEILLANCE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE. Visit this link for further information First, sorry for the delay. I held on to the newsletter for a couple days in order to obtain permission to publish some pictures and information on a potential cheating device, a small spy camera built into a ballpoint pen. See the link on the website under NEWS: Busts and Scams below. Casino Surveillance News is now offering ONLINE TRAINING IN CASINO SURVEILLANCE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE. Visit this link for further information: http://www.casinosurveillancenews.com/online%20training.htm The first classes we are offering are very basic classes. You can sign up and pay for these classes online. Please follow the directions on the Online Training page. We recommend the most basic classes to all who may be contemplating future enrollment in the online training. The Surveillance 101 Series, scheduled for delivery in July, form the basis for more advanced training in Casino Table Games Table Games Protection Internal Theft and Cheating detection and prevention Slots protection Security Investigations And many more subjects as the classes are prepared for online treatment. In addition, the first group of Casino Table Games classes and Game Protection classes are now available for Sign-up. Our first classes were delivered in June. Despite some technical mess-ups on my part on the very first--free--class, we can consider this a success. Though streaming video is not available for video clip delivery with the current provider, we are doing some research into another provider that does support streaming video, to make it much easier and smoother to show the video clips of how cheating and theft is done. I expect to be able to deliver streaming video with the classes within a week. Online training can be provided to casino surveillance, security and operations departments and others who are willing to commit to payment, at their convenient date and time. On-Site Training Continues On-site Training seminars are catered to each casino's individual needs. These sessions have been presented to casinos around the world to help improve worker performance and accountability while increasing profitability. We specialize in on-site training in Surveillance and Security, including all forms of game protection, detection and handling of advantage play, and training in the detection of cheating and internal theft. See the list below for of what we have available. Custom packages can be designed, and there are more classes available than what is actually listed here. Inquire at inquiry@casinosurveillancenews.com We are still looking for casinos to train, especially for casinos to host large seminars involving several local casinos, with enrollment open to all casino surveillance, security and Gaming regulation personnel. We also have classes available for Pit and Slots supervisory personnel. Gary L. Powell and Jim Goding are world leaders in casino security/surveillance training and management, offering comprehensive training for surveillance, table games, security, and slot operations on how to:
Training seminars are catered to each casino's individual needs. These sessions have been presented to casinos around the world to help improve worker performance and accountability while increasing profitability. Gary Powell is a senior trainer with over 30 years of investigative and casino gaming experience. Contact Gary for a resume of his experience: http://www.casinosurveillancenews.com/powellbio.htm or email directly to gary@casinosurveillancenews.com Jim Goding has been an investigator or supervisor in Casino Surveillance for over ten years, and has been training others for eight years, both on his own and in partnership with Gary Powell. He has a textbook currently in use at two universities and over 100 casinos worldwide, in four languages. Contact Jim directly at jimgoding@casinosurveillancenews.com for a resume of his experience. http://www.casinosurveillancenews.com/training.htm
Online payment is now available for all sales of books and
services. We are fully ready for business. Inquire at consultant@casinosurveillancenews.com
or directly contact Jim
Goding 3044 Capistrano Court Las Vegas, NV 89121 (702) 622-7915 mobile New Number (lf no answer please leave detailed voicemail message. I am often out of calling areas.)
The INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED SURVEILLANCE PROFESSIONALS is a group of like-minded individuals dedicated to improving the training and professionalism of Casino Surveillance personnel. We require that members be currently employed in a Casino Surveillance department at time of enrollment. Training seminars are offered for members on a quarterly basis. For more information visit the website through the link above. CSN News: You can now pay for Casino Surveillance News publications online. (Manuals on CD or hard copy, Glossary, packages and articles) The website has been updated with new directions for purchasing.
New policy: I will send the text of any single article of six pages or less in length, to any single individual, free of charge, in non-reproducible PDF format, by email. Send such requests for articles (including the specific article by name) to request@casinosurveillancenews.com This unfortunately cannot apply to instructors or others who would be further distributing the materials. I have to make a living too. The newly completed Gaming Glossary will be ready in about two weeks. All purchasers of the pilot product will receive free of charge the new glossary. Delivery of new purchases may be delayed for up to two weeks. If you purchase the glossary, I will tell you exactly when to expect delivery.
This month's keynote article is the second half of the one sent last month. This article forms part of the materials for some of the online training Surveillance 101 series now available. It also forms part of the Director Series, expected to be online in January 2009.
Consistent Surveillance Results By Jim Goding
Observation of routine activities is a major part of the Surveillance duties, and must never be dropped over any long periods of time due to other demands on their attention. The result of this happening is that the deterrent factor of Surveillance disappears: apparently nobody is watching. This happens most often in Surveillance departments where investigators are not replaced when they move on, or the department is undermanned for budgetary reasons. 4. Audits Audits are observations made of an area, for a specific amount of time, in order to detect and locate crooked activity and slackness in internal controls and procedures resulting in vulnerability of the area concerned to internal and external theft and cheating. Normally a single investigator is dedicated to the audit for each shift. In order for the audit to be effective, the investigator must be familiar with the normal procedures and internal controls of the area. Audits are also a major training ground for Surveillance staff. A relatively new investigator should perform audits of areas where he is unfamiliar with procedures. One or two extra days of observation are added to such an audit for a new investigator, so that he can become very familiar with the way things are done in the area, with all of the cameras available, and with the people concerned. Surveillance staff should have a complete copy of the published procedures for the area under observation. Activities should be checked against these procedures, and departures and deviations from procedure are logged. When certain people are seen to deviate often and in unexplained ways from the standard procedures of an area, they become candidates for close watches. An audit of an area is always followed up by a detailed report including all deviations from procedures and internal controls, who did it and when, as well as any actual crooked activity concerned. The full report is made to the top manager of the area. There is one exception to this: when actual crooked activity is observed—internal or external theft or cheating—the report is retained until such time as Surveillance managers have determined how to handle the perpetrators. Further covert observation and Close Watches may be necessary in order to effectively document the misconduct. Having the executive in the area start training and disciplinary actions would negate any observations made. So the report may be held until such time as further investigation has been completed. Audits are done by Surveillance of every area in which they have video recording capabilities and the responsibility for observation. Their entire focus is on gathering evidence for correction of the area. Areas subject to Surveillance Audits could include Table Games Games Dealers (and box for craps) Supervisors Slots Floor personnel Supervisors Techs Other Gaming Areas (sports, keno, bingo, etc.) Cage Cashiers Main Bank Fill Bank Count room verification Count Rooms Security Activities Any and all Point of Sale Areas Food and Beverage Front Desk Entertainment (nightclubs and showrooms) Retail, such as gift shops, etc. Back lines Purchasing and Receiving Warehouse Housekeeping Maintenance depending upon whether these areas have been made a part of overall Surveillance responsibilities. Audits of areas often yield information which requires further investigation by close watch of individuals or teamwork activity with Internal Audits and departmental managers. Audits are NOT activities which are forewarned to the executives of the area involved. They do, however, require documentary information, especially in the point-of-sale areas, slots and other cash-handling areas. Therefore it is a good idea for Surveillance to have routine (read-only) access to the computer systems for every area under the Eye, so that individual transactions can be viewed and tracked, and copies of schedules of the individuals working in an area. 5. Response to Notification, Observation or Request Surveillance is routinely notified of particular activities in the casino. Examples would include jackpots over a certain figure, players betting over a "tripwire" amount, movements of cash or cheques between areas of the casino including fills to table games, poker and other areas, or cash-outs over a certain amount in the cage. Surveillance also observes things during random and IOU patrols that require follow-up investigation, such as departures from procedure or other suspicious activity. Supervisors in the various areas also have the ability to request observations of individuals (such as players or staff) when they have witnessed unusual or suspicious activity. All of these things require a focused observation by Surveillance, until such time as it has been determined that nothing is crooked or out of the ordinary. Table games players' activities are observed and evaluated for cheating and advantage play, Slots jackpot payoffs are observed or reviewed, major payoffs such as carnival games jackpots are reviewed to ensure everything is legitimate, and so on. This can be a "reactive" activity, such as reviewing major wins and jackpots. It can be also a completely pro-active investigation, such as player evaluations, checking whether major wins in the table games area are legitimate, investigating low hold percentages in slots or table games, or reviewing to find the cause of large overages or shortages in the cage. When one finds problems such as advantage play, cheating or theft, the investigation can either progress to more major investigations and close watches, or be immediately handled in present time, depending upon circumstances. 6. Close Watches A close watch is a very focused observation of an individual performed for a specific amount of time, based upon information received from other types of observation or at the request of the manager of the area. It is done in order to find out whether the person is stealing or cheating. It is carried out by one individual who is completely dedicated to the task while it is occurring. If it crosses different shifts in Surveillance, it is handed from one individual to the next. It is not interrupted for any reason less than a life threatening situation. Its purpose is to document evidence of misconduct or illegal activity, or alternatively, to clear the name of the individual involved. A single Surveillance investigator is normally placed in charge of the close watch. He will review recordings of activities documented by others, and he will compile the final formal report of what was observed. He will prepare a composite recording of all non-optimum activities observed and be in charge of retaining the original recordings of any activity which may be illegal or otherwise result in disciplinary actions. This is the most completely focused activity in Surveillance. The person who is doing the observation and documentation should not be tasked with any other activity, specifically including responding to routine review requests and observations. Believe me, if the investigator is also handling routine Surveillance duties while doing a close watch, every time that the person under observation starts to deviate from standard operation, the phone will ring and the observation of potential crooked activity will be lost. This is a real-time manifestation of Murphy's Law. A Close Watch is always documented in a report, detailing the reason for it (observed deviations from procedure, shortages in the area, manager request, etc.), and what was observed. If no misconduct was observed, that is the essence of the report, which serves to clear the person's name. When a manager in an area requests (multiple) close watches and no misconduct is observed on the part of the persons targeted, a larger and more comprehensive audit is normally programmed to find out what and who may be involved in problems in the area—including the manager. Requesting a close watch is one method of misdirecting Surveillance attention. Sources of false information leading to close watches of innocent individuals should be investigated (reference: False Reports). A Close Watch is also normally instituted when an individual has already been observed to be making major departures from procedure, or information has been received from other sources such as guest complaints, employee hotlines, etc. Summary
Directed and focused investigations yield consistent results which can be documented for effective corrective action.
Copyright 2008 by Jim Goding. All Rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication or distribution is a violation of copyright laws and of the proprietary rights of the author. News: (if any of these links don't work, email me at inquiry@casinosurveillancenews.com and I will send the text of the article) Busts and Scams: First off, let's take a look at one of the devices available on the internet for filming shuffles (shuffle tracking and false shuffle information for cheating teams) or for filming and transmission of information such as the location of key cards. See the photos and text A self-confessed gambling addict, who routinely plays blackjack at $25,000 a hand, spent several days in April gambling at Caesars Palace and says he won $1.5 million. The casino offered to fly him home on its private jet, and as the company and other gaming establishments often fly him to Las Vegas, so he didn't even consider it a big deal. But about 45 minutes into his flight, the pilot turned the plane around and returned to Las Vegas, and he was met on the field by representatives of the company, who he claims intimidated him into signing a $3.5 million marker. See the story Three casino workers were indicted on charges they stole a list of more than 20,000 top players from the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City. See the story A federal racketeering trial stemming from the alleged embezzlement of $400 million from China’s state-run bank is delving into the secretive and high-powered world of Strip high rollers. See the story, including links to the legal paperwork and related stories, A Washoe County, Nevada, public employee lost $1.1 million gambling at a local casino in a year, most likely using county funds, according to county law enforcement officials who obtained a warrant for his arrest for embezzlement. See the story A Reno, NV, couple thought they were simply buying an antique roulette table when they responded to a newspaper ad several years ago. What they acquired, however, was a gaffed roulette table, used to cheat casino patrons. It's a classic. See the story A former Reno, NV, casino cage manager was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years in prison for stealing $343,000 from the casino in a sophisticated embezzlement driven by her gambling addiction. See the story
Other Casino News: Five years ago, a top casino executive was blamed for not spotting a criminal employee, and sent packing with a severance check. Gaming industry protocol suggests he should have kept quiet, lain low and let the incident fade with time. But he didn't, and a jury awarded him $4.5 million in one of the largest wrongful termination claims in Nevada history. See the story A professional gambler has made a compelling case that attacking “side games” — cash poker games that run around the clock concurrently with WSOP tournament play — could be the more profitable route for skilled poker players. See the story (Poker players should also be aware of the situation in which a long-time casino consultant was busted in New Jersey last year. Email me for the news stories if you did not see them: inquiry@casinosurveillancenews.com )
That’s all for this month, Folks.
Feel welcome to let us know if you come across any stories that you think we should include. Deadline for news and announcements, press releases and sponsorships, is two days prior to mailing on the last day of each month. Send me news, even substantiated rumors, with some indication of source, and I’ll check it out. I do not guarantee that anything you send will be included, but all contributions will be considered. Subscribe Now to Casino Surveillance News
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Goding 3044 Capistrano Court Las Vegas, NV 89121 (702) 406-7784 mobile (lf no answer please leave detailed voicemail message. I am often out of calling areas.)
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