Shh…Are you being followed at the Casino
Have you seen or heard this placard anywhere, “Beware! You are seen in Camera”. Maybe you have seen or maybe not but this saying comes true when you are at the casino. Casinos world wide are more concerned about their security and keep a vigilant eye on all those who enter the casino premises. They have employed advanced technology that helps them catch the fraudsters before they slink away. Remember you’re being watched before you even enter the door.
Your Car Licence
You have come to the casino in your own car and you are looking for a parking space at the casino. But your car can put you away even before security sees your face. The camera with packing licence plate recognition technology just clicks a picture of the licence plate of every car that is pulling into the casino. Optical character recognition software converts the letters and numbers on the licence plates into text. The number is then compared against the plates of undesirables and known gaming addicts. If your licence plate comes up hit, security turns you away before you even reach the casino door. This is a quick process and automatic.
Recognizing your face
As soon as you enter the casino door your face is scanned by cameras. Many casinos though have security personnel manning high-megapixel digital cameras to identify unwanted guests, but “Biometric Face Recognition” is the new technology now being used by most of the casinos for surveillance.
There are two types of biometric systems that are used: dumb and smart. Dumb systems automatically detect human faces and take a snapshot of every person entering the casino. Smart systems are a step ahead. They analyse the face of each guest and compare them against the images of undesirables in the casino’s database. If the system finds a match, it alerts security.
Your Cards at the Table
Passing to the above two is not all that makes you secure free. Reaching the table game for your play the dealer deals cards, there is a sensor in the dealing shoe that keeps track of the cards being dealt and transfers the information to a computer. After the cards on the table are revealed, the dealer presses a button on the shoe, and the results of the hand as judged by the computer are displayed. And if the results at the table doesn’t match the computer’s, security is on alert. This system is known as the Angel Eye and relies on bar codes placed on each card with invisible ink.
Cash Your Chips
With the advancement of technology the line of security too has been intense. Many casino chips now contain itty-bitty RFID chips in their core. These chips broadcast unique serial identifiers over radio frequencies (hence the term RFID). RFID-reading equipment tableside and at the chip cashing booth are tuned to detect the signal. Counterfeit chips that won’t match are refused to cash out. These RFID chips also keep track of the chips they lend to players on credit and tracking play data for specific tables.
Your Statistics at the Poker Table
Known as TableEye21 this software tracks all kinds of stats for the table like dealer rounds per hour, trend reports, and player win percentage. Casinos use this information to help identify when a player is counting cards or working in secret agreement with the dealer to screw the casino out of money. It works in combined technologies- an overhead video camera keeps track of the action, and by using a mixture of video analysis software and information from RFID chips, TableEye21 is able to overlay the video feed with real-time information of the cards being dealt and the chips being wagered.
Relationships At Casino
Shaking hands with cheaters to win big at casino is quite common form of fraud. These alliances at the casino are harmful for the reputation of a casino. Therefore casinos look towards NORA -Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness software for help. Casinos maintain massive databases of information on transactions, cheaters, employees and other people of interest. NORA — now sold as IBM Relationship Resolution scans those databases and recognises relationships that may not be obvious at first glance.
By simply plugging in a person’s information into NORA, it can identify if the particular person is applying for staff at the casino or is actually poker scammer. It can also detect relationships between multiple people by identifying similar data in their backgrounds like similar address and phone numbers.
Eye of Online Casinos
These days it is common to play at your own convenience at online casinos wither with a PC or mobile.
Commonly known as Iovation’s Reputation Manager 360 software which was named the “Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Technology Products” for the year 2010 helps online casinos block access to cheaters before they can place a single dubious transaction. The software draws on Iovation’s massive “Device Reputation Authority” database, which stores data on over half a billion different devices. Reputation Manager 360 taps into that resource whenever an IP address attempts to make a transaction and assigns it one of three ratings: Allow, Review or flat-out Deny. Just in case those cyber-cheaters trick to get tricky, Iovation’s “Real IP” application (included with Reputation Manager 360) traces connections routed through proxy servers back to its original IP address.
So next time when you enter a casino remember someone close is watching you. You may not be in the mood to play cheat but this security awareness might give you an idea that you may be stalked any time and why not after all it is in the benefit of a fair play at the casinos.
