34 Indian Gaming June 2009

Best Practices for Casino Surveillance

by Derk Boss

The name of the game for the surveillance departmentis to protect the assets of the property through the

detection of internal and external theft and fraud, cheating atgambling, and advantage play. The more you detect, the moreyou prevent, and the better you protect your property. Thesurveillance department can and should have a positive impacton the property and the bottom line. While we may all go aboutit a little differently, our mission is the same. In fact, regard-less of the type of property or gaming jurisdiction, there aresurveillance best practices and techniques that when used bysurveillance personnel increase detection rates.

Your surveillance team can benefit from these best practices.Using them properly can turn a team seldom heard from intoa team that consistently and proactively protects the property.Why is this important? Because in any gaming operation thereare people who want to take your money. Whether they areoutside agents, employees or both working together, theyexist. If you are not catching them on at least a fairly regularbasis, you’re getting ripped off, one way or another. It is a fact,count on it, it will occur.

So how do you go about detecting these scams, cheaters andthieves? Maybe you have a new surveillance team or a relativelyinexperienced one. How can your team detect and attack thesesophisticated criminals and cheats? The answer isn’t asmysterious as you might think. Your surveillance operations canbe formulated and directed to detect any type of scam or crimeby using the right practices and techniques to put you in the rightplace at the right time. Or failing that, as soon as possible afterthe crime begins in order to stop the activity and your losses.

Detecting crime begins with knowing and applying thepractices and techniques that provide you the best opportunityto do so. As we all know, once we know what’s going on, we’redeadly effective. The point is to get there. Following are threebest practices you can put to work immediately.

Best Practice #1Train, Train, Train: Surveillance personnel must be trained

constantly in all aspects of gaming protection and loss preven-tion. To list just a few areas agents should be thoroughlytrained in: camera handling and patrol techniques, threatrecognition, analysis and response, monitor set up and display,gaming regulations, company and each department’s internalcontrols, policies and procedures, game protection techniques,basic strategy, card counting, tells of cheating and advantageplay, tells of internal theft and fraud, etc.

As you can see there are multiple areas in which training mustbe done. The key is to identify your training needs and begin.In order to identify your training needs you must assess them.A good way to test your individual team members is to give them

a Basic Strategy quiz. Each agent should be able to completethe chart in less than three minutes (after all they use it everyday, or should). Another method is to test their knowledge ofeach game type offered on your property. To test theircamera handling, ask security to set off an alarm as a drill. Thesetypes of assessments will identify your training needs quickly.Your goal is for your surveillance team to be the most highlytrained team on the property. Remember, the bad guys trainevery day; you must to the same!

Best Practice #2Identify and Prioritize Your Threats: Every casino, while

sharing the same type of threats, can also have varying degreesof those threats or even threats that are unique to theirparticular situation or property. The key is to identify whatthreats you are exposed to and then determine how, when (ifat all) and what resources you’ll apply against them.

For example, almost every casino may be attacked byadvantage players. In twenty-one, you expect that cardcounters will visit your property and you should prepareaccordingly. You should assign agents to monitor and patrol forthat type of play and be ready to respond. You know the threatbut you will have to determine how much time you allot tohandle a particular advantage player or whether you shouldrespond at all. This is where threat analysis comes in, forexample: a regular player who counts, but over three monthsis only beating you for $500 may not require a response at all.An unknown player winning $5,000 in a few hours may requirean immediate response. The point is to put your resources wherethey will protect the property from the most harm.

Another example is Baccarat and Mini-Baccarat. Thesegames, when compromised, can cost the casino tens ofthousands in a matter of minutes. You can’t afford not to con-tinuously monitor these games, even when there is not a playeron the game! The threat of collusion and a dealer not shufflingor false shuffling is such that you must know everything thatoccurs on the game including the status of the game and itsequipment prior to the arrival of players and during their play.

Know what your threats are and be prepared to adapt youroperation to address them. Let’s say recently there’s been a rashof purse thefts on your property. No, the property isn’t losinganything but the property and your reputation are taking a bighit. Pretty soon, you know your boss will be asking you whyyou can’t stop the thefts. In this instance, the threat level haschanged. A relatively minor crime is now a significant threat.What do you do? Apply the resources you need to stop thecrime. If you treat the first theft as a crime to be solved andassign the personnel to locate the suspects who committed it,there likely won’t be more than two thefts of this kind by the

SECURITY

June 2009 Indian Gaming 35

same individuals because you will catch them. Identify yourthreats and attack them. When you focus your resources, youwill prevail.

Best Practice #3Regularly Review Statistical Information and Exception

Reports: Being proactive means taking the time to look fornegative trends and suspicious activity daily. You shouldn’t doit with just the cameras alone. You have a wealth of leads justwaiting for you when you choose to use them. Every casino,in fact every department you are protecting, maintainsstatistical information (both gaming and non-gaming), andgenerates exception reports. These reports can normally berequested from the finance/accounting departments or mayalready be on your work computers.

Game statistical reports list valuable information such asopeners and closers, handle, drop, credits, fills, win/loss andwin percentages. These reports are normally broken down bydepartment (slots, table games, bingo, etc.) game type (21, craps,slot machine type), individual game, pit, shift, day, quarter todate and year to date.

With this information you can easily identify a losing gametype. For example, if twenty-one is holding only ten percent

year to date for no apparent reason, an investigation bysurveillance may be in order, or if BJ #2 is a consistent loseryou may want to apply your resources to determine why.

Exception reports are just that. The report is alerting you toan activity that is an exception to normal activity. An example isa “Void Report.” A void at the point of sale means that someonehad to correct or delete a transaction. There are valid reasons foran employee to do this and there are also reasons a dishonestemployee would do this. If you knew that Joe the bartender had100 voids per week as opposed to Fred’s five, who would you lookat, Joe? You should, Joe has some explaining to do.

Use these reports and statistics to drive your team where itneeds to go. If you review this type of information daily, youwill often find anomalies and suspicious activity that help youfind what’s going on under the surface. You will also find thatyou may be the first person to even notice there is a problem.A good place to be for a surveillance director and thesurveillance team! �

Derk J. Boss, CFE, CPP, CSP, is Principal of DJ Boss andAssociates, a national firm specializing in surveillance evaluationand training, loss prevention, and secret shopping. He can bereached by calling (702) 539-7448 or email info@djbosspi.com.

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