The basic principle of teamwork within the casino rests upon a truth which Surveillance Department personnel may find distasteful, but know for truth within themselves: It is impossible for operators and supervisors to see it all. No matter how many monitors are operating or how many operators are watching, the Surveillance department cannot see everything as it happens throughout the entire casino-hotel complex. This is one of the two major reasons we have recordings on videotape, and also why many internal controls and company procedures exist.

Thus, teamwork must exist between the various departments of the casino. The Surveillance Director must have free flowing communication with the casino upper management and with each department head. Procedures must exist within the various departments to help safeguard the assets and liabilities of the organization, and these procedures must have, as a key element, making it very obvious to Surveillance eyes when anything is happening which puts the casino at risk from internal theft and human error, cheating and theft by outsiders.

Let’s break it down a bit, and take a look at some examples. We are not going to look at every department here, just the most obvious examples. From there, we can formulate some guidelines and principles. These are not organized in order of importance; we have put them together in order of most obvious, in terms of how most casino management know Surveillance operations.

Pit

Many casinos surveillance departments (and their seniors in the chain of command) put an inordinate amount of attention on the Pit areas; they are reasoning that because of the amount of money (in terms of cash, credit and chips) that is available and not at any time precisely accounted, this is the easiest area for cheats and thieves to hit. Opportunities exist for dealers, supervisors and even lower level managers to spirit money away, providing they can mask their actions from the cameras and accounting and auditing departments.

Because most Pits have procedures of some kind in place, it is relatively easy for Surveillance to detect errors, cheating and theft, and this is another reason for the amount of attention placed here. It is relatively easy for both staff and customers to hit the Pit, either by cheating, collusion, or outright theft. Other methods exist as well, such as advantage play on blackjack games. Many of these methods stand out because they show up in terms of relatively large amounts of money, bringing middle and senior managers to attention.

A key part of teamwork with the Pit and other areas is that, once Surveillance has begun closely watching an activity or person, supervisory personnel should move away. We call it “giving them air,” but you could just as well refer to it as paying out enough rope to hang themselves. A cheater, thief or advantage player will generally either move on or restrict their activities on a game which has the obvious attention of supervisors. Skilled advantage players will mask or cease their activities, and cheaters won’t cheat, so once Surveillance has been directed to an activity, Pit personnel should leave it alone.

This entire 25- page article is now available for sale, along with the other three parts of the series, or as part of the Casino Surveillance Operations Manual.

For information on ordering publications, please visit Publications Order form,

Topics included in the rest of this article include:

Twenty-One (Blackjack)

Craps

Roulette

Other Games

Slots

(Change booths and personnel)

Cage

Food and Beverage

Gift Shops

Hotel

Security

Summary

Copyright © 2003 by Jim Goding. All rights reserved. Duplication in any form, electronic or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author is forbidden, is a violation of the proprietary rights of the author and is actionable under law.

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