Behind the Casino
Casino Security: The Untold Stories of Surveillance and Safety
Land-based casinos always maintain a level of security to ensure your and other visitors' well-being. It is the same as what you would expect in any business or establishment. Take museums, banks, or supermarkets. There are plenty of items with monetary value, that require surveillance and security measures.
But casinos have got a bad rep in popular culture, and when the topic of security comes up, a lot of people will think of muscly bouncers who prosecute gamblers who are on a winning streak. In the real world, outside the Oceans Eleven or Martin Scorsese's crime dramas, casinos need to protect both their own and your valuables. The same goes for online platforms such as online casinos, social gaming sites, and sports betting sites.
Casinos Are Full of Money, and Not Just Their Own
A bank would have security personnel to ensure no one tries to rob the bank. Museums have security teams and cameras to protect their valuables from theft or damage. In shopping malls, security officers are there to make sure no one runs off without paying.
Casinos have all the same valuables. The cashiers hold millions of dollars of chips and cash, and the tables and machines themselves can cost thousands of dollars, and that is not forgetting how much the guests are carrying on their person. You may be walking around with only $100 in chips, with a few hundred dollar cash bills in your wallet. But your wallet also has bank cards, and your mobile phone may have access to all kinds of eWallets and other money vaults.
So we are not just talking about how much money the casino makes. Inside the physical venue, there is a lot of physical money, and devices or cards to access even more.
Purpose of Casino Security
Casino security is not only there to detect cheating players. Whilst they want to quickly find and eject people who are using “cheating” strategies, the casino patrons must also create a safe environment for players. This involves ensuring no one enters the casino with a weapon, aggressive behaviour is de-escalated, and making sure guests don't steal from other guests.
There is a very real danger of a guest getting aggressive at a casino because they have lost a wad of money or they have knocked back too many of the complimentary alcoholic drinks. The solution is not just to bring in the strong arms to remove the person from the premises. Instead, they must have some human expertise and calm down the patron. The surveillance team must locate these individuals quickly and gently handle the situation without bringing alarm to any of the other guests. Throwing the person out is really the last resort.
Without security, there is a high risk of theft in a casino. This can involve thieves stealing from other guests or the casino itself. For example, stealing casino chips, using counterfeit receipts, tampering with slot machines, or stealing other items such as jackets, purses, and bags.
How Safety is Maintained
From the Atlantic City Casinos to those in Macau, casinos must have on-hand security personnel and also video surveillance tools. The surveillance cameras are extremely high quality and are even equipped with advanced facial recognition software. They are positioned all over the casino floor to capture all the happenings and going ons in the casino. These do not only watch players, but also staff, dealers, and even security personnel.
The cameras can pick up even the smallest details, from sweat on someone's forehead to the serial number on dollar bills. No detail gets left out, so if your chips went missing, they would immediately find out where you left them and what happened to them.
Debunking the Winning Too Much Myth
There is a fair amount of legend around casinos, and over the years it has given rise to many myths and hoaxes. From stuff like casinos pumping oxygen to keep patrons playing to magnets under roulette wheels. Sure, they make for excellent fiction, but they are not true in real life.
The myths we want to look at here relate to winning too much. Namely, that a casino will throw you out if you make too much money. While this was true in the past, the courts in Las Vegas and Atlantic City decided to reverse the law. Now, casinos will only ask you to leave if you have consumed too much alcohol or are displaying signs of intoxication.
This is the case in Atlantic City and Las Vegas Casinos. In other parts of the world, the legislation for casino gaming is different.
Special Rules You Must Abide By
Getting drunk in a casino is a big violation of conduct, as is physical or verbal aggression towards the staff or other guests. It is quite obvious and expected etiquette, but there are some casino laws that you may not have heard before.
Especially if you have never been to a casino before.
You cannot touch other players chips, or touch your chips after a round of gaming has commenced. For example, when the roulette ball is thrown or the dice are shot, you cannot touch your chips.
Also, casinos don't like people using electronic devices at gaming tables. Taking videos or photos is not acceptable, and if you open your phone they may suspect you of attempting to cheat.
How Security is Managed at Online Casino Platforms
The dangers of playing casino games online are very different, but just as important. Operators must protect their finances, and your money, from getting lost – or worse – infiltrated by hackers. The other area that must be regulated is the integrity of the games themselves. If you are playing online casino games that are generated by computers, you need to have the assurance that the games are not rigged.
This is where casino gaming licenses are important. A fully licensed online casino is a legitimate operation that must live up to a high set of gaming standards. All the games at a licensed online casino must be fully tested for fairness. This can only be done by an approved third-party auditor, which independently runs tests on each game. After running their tests, they determine whether the game uses a valid RNG or random number generator. This is the mark of a safe game, as each outcome is fully random, just as you would expect when playing roulette or shooting dice at a landbased casino.
Here are some online gaming regulators that are approved across the world. With their seal of approval, you know that the games are fair to play.
Licensed online casino operators must also use military-grade SSL encryption to ensure the safety of all their members. This is essential to protect any ePayments from being seen or stolen by hackers.
Superior firewalls and data encryption make all these transactions and data fully secure. There is no way that hackers can access your information, so your personal information and money is always in safe hands.
Summary of Casino Safety and Security Protocols
At the end of the day, protection cannot be underestimated at casinos. The staff must be trained in human psychology and how to de-escalate any potentially violent situations. They have to know how to deal with different people and, in the worst case scenario, escort them off the premises.
But foremost, they must be vigilant and ensure that everyone is safe. Protecting their own and your money from theft and damage. By undergoing all these security measures, you can rest assured that casinos are safe venues to play at. Online or otherwise. You can play in the knowledge that you are in a fully secure and safe environment.
