Assisting Management
Assisting Casino Management
By Jim Goding
Pit Supervisors and other casino officials will regularly request that special attention be given to activity at a particular table or area. These requests should be immediately evaluated by the Surveillance Supervisor or Director, and a decision made on how best to handle the request.
Evaluations of player action (count-downs, etc.) are routinely done and reported to a Pit Manager or above. A Pit Manager or above can request that a dealer or other person, or a player, be watched for suspicious activity. All requests should be honored whenever possible, when it will not interfere with higher-priority activity, such as handling a crime in progress. It should also be kept in mind by operators who handle phone calls and by Surveillance supervisors that activities called in may be the result of team activity, so attention of all Surveillance operators should never be devoted to one incident, one phone call. Keep the rest of the casino covered as well.
Record all potential criminal activity from as many viewpoints (cameras) as you can spare. Follow procedures as outlined in your own procedure manual. Recommendations are available in an article called “Crime Scene Procedure.” The recordings should be treated as evidence and all reports completed. The Director of Surveillance should be notified as soon as possible.
All telephone conversations shall be conducted in a professional and courteous manner. Discourtesy by Surveillance staff will not be tolerated. Likewise, Surveillance personnel will not be expected to tolerate rudeness from other departments. As gracefully as possible, get out of the conversation. Report discourtesy to your Supervisor.
Note: Floor Supervisors and other Casino departments do not order into Surveillance. When called by a floorperson regarding a particular game or activity, such as to determine whether someone is counting cards, or a possible crime in progress, etc., courteously remind them that this must also be reported to a Pit Manager or above. When the evaluation of play is finished, report to a Pit Supervisor regardless of results, and courteously mention that the lower-level floor supervisor called Surveillance and that requests for player evaluations should come from a Pit Manager.
Don’t confuse this with the required notifications to Surveillance of high action or suspicious activity. Simply remind them gently that this must be reported to Pit Managers as well.
However, floormen can request any help needed to correct a dealer error already made. When calling Surveillance regarding a game, floormen are also required by their own procedures to report the matter to their supervisors.
