Distractions: Part I

By Jim Goding

For any person whose duties include detection and examination of potential criminal activity, distraction is a key concept in all its applications and permutations. To put it very bluntly, there are few methods of theft and cheating, internal or external, that do not employ distraction--either as a passive method or an active one--as a part of the scam. The concept is a simple one:

While the target, or its in-place safeguards, is looking there,

the theft or cheating move happens here.

Passive distraction takes advantage of events that are already happening. Active distraction provides an event to take attention away from the actual scam. Both are very important to us in all aspects of our duties in casino surveillance. There are many examples, and there are ways to handle all of them, either with existing technology or with allocation and training of personnel and their duties. We are going to discuss a number of criminal activities common in casinos, with examples. This is not by any means to be considered a complete list: It is only a means of getting you and your management thinking in terms beyond the immediately visible. It should be noted that these examples are taken from actual experience in the casino world; however, they apply to ANY security endeavor, from shopping malls and grocery stores to major events such as concerts, sports, and conventions. Some of them apply especially to any area where tourists are attracted. The concept of distraction applies especially to tourists, simply because they are distracted to begin with, and not really paying attention to their immediate personal environment: They are putting all their attention on something far more interesting, whether it is wider, such as the  Eiffel Tower, the Grand Canyon, or a rock concert, or more narrowly focused, such as a slot machine or gaming table. Either dispersed attention or narrowly focused attention makes it very easy to either take advantage of the situation at hand or create a further diversion which pulls the rest of a person's attention away from the scam. Passive Distractions By passive distractions, we mean those which are already in place. The criminal simply takes advantage of something already happening. The easiest example of this from the casino world . . . .

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And remember: so far we are only dealing with passive distractions--those that are already in place during the normal levels of activity. Active Distractions Active distractions are those that are created specifically to pull attention away from the real scam that is occurring. This is an essential part of many scams, both gaming cheats and straight theft activities. The simplest example is  . . .

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Solutions So, in a department or casino which is not organized to handle it, even the best of Surveillance systems and staffs, best-manned Security departments and biggest casino enterprises necessarily fall short of the necessary manpower or available attention to be able to see, in real time, everything that is going on all at once and still provide excellent customer service--whether the "customers" involved are the actual guests of the casino, or whether they are other departments being supported, such as Pit and Surveillance teamwork, Security and Surveillance, Cage and Surveillance, Security and Cage, or any other part of the normal and peak-load performance expected. Just like any business or activity in which there are variable loads, though, the solutions fall into several major areas:

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We will discuss these in detail in the next article.

Copyright © 2011 by Jim Goding. All rights reserved under US and international copyright law. Publication or distribution without the expressed consent of the author is a violation of copyright law and of the proprietary rights of the author.