Cameras in casinos

Here is the story. At Fallsview Casino, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada this past weekend. I know better than to take pictures inside a casino without asking, but my buddy did not. He snapped a camera-phone picture. However, the picture did not come out, just a blur. Kind of like if you had a very basic camera and took a picture of someone or something moving very fast back in the day.

He swears he or his wife or someone else close tried to take a pic in the same casino before and got the same results. He swears the casino somehow causes this to happen with camera pics. He is a smart and successful guy but when it comes to casinos he falls into the kind of player who doesn't go much beyond slot play. Myself, I know the casinos do not want pictures but am not so sure they could interfere with a cell-phone pic if they wanted to. I'd say they would have to do somehting with the lighting in the casino to react with the flash on the phone. This would be very expensive to do all over the floor and for what? The text and voice worked fine on all of our phones, which were still of course banned at the tables. To take a pic a phone should not even have to be activated so I doubt it would be some kind of jamming.

I say it was chance. Am I wrong? Can casinos jam digital-pics?

No. And any such generalized zone of massive static would really screw up their own computers.

Just a fluke. I recently went to an expo of all the latest and greatest casino protection equipment, and while a lot of it was quite James Bond, jamming was not a part of it. There are some devices for camera detection and interception, but those are for video type cameras like what would be used to record a shuffle. And even with the danger of shuffle recording, I know of no jamming devices even concieved, let alone used.

Technically it's usually very dark inside any casinos so you need a fast ISO to get any picture or rest the phone/camera on something solid and hold it very steady. Typical values I've needed are f2.8 1/50 and ISO=1600, phones just can't do that!

My cellphone has several pictures of casino tables that I've taken from balconies.

If you're nervous about being caught it may be hard to keep the camera still.

Quote: 7outlineaway

If you're nervous about being caught it may be hard to keep the camera still.

4-5 beers can do the same thing.

Any new comments still very welcome, but this is helpful. For the record it was a dark area this happened at, and several beers in I do not think the camera was steady. A cell camera is not the best in the first place. At a lighter bar he took a pic that was fine, which I forgot. Thanks all. for comfirming what I thought so fast.

Quote: AZDuffman

I know better than to take pictures inside a casino without asking, but my buddy did not.

I've taken lots of pics in lots of casinos with a regular
digital camera. As long as its in the slots area, nobody
has ever said a thing. In the table game area, they
don't like it. I think its they don't want pics of the pit
or the dealers, but I'm just guessing.

Each casino is different. In general, pics are not encouraged. Some, like mine, won't let a digital camera on the floor. If they see it, they'll make you check it. If your seen taking a picture of ANYTHING on floor, they'll ask you to delete it. But I see a lot of slots wins posted, so I assume other casinos aren't as stringent.

The only restriction we really have is that we don't want people taking pictures that have other people in them, for privacy reasons. Other than that we really don't care. Well unless someone is taking photos of the ceilings and camera locations.

Quote: Face

Each casino is different. In general, pics are not encouraged.

I was trying to take a cell phone pic in the
Milwaukee Indian casino and was almost
tackled by a fat assed security guard. I stepped
aside just as he went flying by me. It was pretty
funny.