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Teamwork

Part II

The Surveillance Room Team

By Jim Goding

In order to build an effective team, first we need to define the team itself and its objectives.

The Surveillance Room team includes everyone, from the Director or Manager right down to the newest, greenest trainee. In fact, it also includes the senior management to whom the Director reports, and to a limited extent also includes others outside the room, such as the head of Security, Internal Audits, and a very few other areas with whom we work very closely.

Contrary to popular belief with casino staff, and sometimes within surveillance rooms, the “enemy” is not the other departments and personnel of the casino outside the Surveillance Room. The opponents are the untrained or uncaring state of other staff, the crooked individual, the cheat, thieves (both internal and external), and people who would take advantage of weak areas in the front lines of the casino and its administrative, service and product delivery departments.

The actual objective of the Surveillance team is to protect the assets and liabilities of the organization. It does this by observing and reporting the presence of any of the opponents as listed. It reports cheating, theft, and weak points where staff are not doing their jobs properly through untrained or uncaring activity. It reports areas where outsiders or inside crooks can take advantage of the casino. These reports often show up areas where other staff is incorrectly or incompletely trained or are not performing their functions in a manner that will automatically protect the corporation’s assets and liabilities.

The most basic actions within a Surveillance Room require the active participation of all team members.

The Team Members

The Surveillance team, depending on its size, is made up of a number of people with differing functions and contributions. As with any team, many of the members can do most or all of the work of the other members, but each may have his own specialized area of responsibility, knowledge or expertise.

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