The Camera Sees All but Knows What?

Dealers and players both seem to be aware that the camera is on, and certainly claims abound that these cameras today are very good indeed. I have long suspected, however, that although nearly all dealer mistakes and player cheating stunts are seen by the camera, most by chance are just not caught. The people responsible for surveillance can't be that focused. If some circumstance obtains to increase suspicion, yes, I could see all being caught then. Vote, and if you have special knowledge please comment.

I think most are eventually caught.

But that needs to be explained.

I assume that the poll is about the offender being caught, not necessarily that each offence gets noticed.

As was mentioned on the Vegas Cheaters show, most offenses, if noticed, are given the benefit of the doubt, particularly if they are minor. But that will draw scrutiny. A cheater will not stop at once offense, and will eventually get caught.

Eventually caught? If they're not initially noticed, how are they eventually caught? Surveillance can't keep up with things in real time...do they really watch the tapes without a known cause?

I doubt the casinos invest in enough manpower to scrutinize every play at every table. It would take more security personnel than dealers as you would have to back up and re-watch some aspects of the game. This would take more than 8 hours to view 8 hours of footage. Sure you could fast forward through a dealer change and gain some time. Or could you? There could be some chip shenanigans going on during the confusion of more than one dealer at the table.

The cost effective approach is to have one person monitor several tables and then call attention when they catch something strange. You might miss a $5 mistake, but would you double your staff to save $5?

The surveillance in a casino is given way too much credit. For starters the job pays poorly. Starting pay is usually between $15 and $18 per hour. There are also very few people in the room viewing cameras.

Most of the crime is not caught. When it is caught, it's because they have looked backwards in time to determine why a table game/machine lost above expectation.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I assume that the poll is about the offender being caught, not necessarily that each offence gets noticed.

I can see now that was an unfortunate choice of words. I did mean "noticed". I think the other comments are responding to that meaning.

I don't have any insider info, but my assumption is that there are several layers of surveillance, with the close up cameras being just one of them. If I was in charge of game protection, I would set a camera on a wide shot above each table to be able to watch the players and the dealer, and just let it run. Meanwhile, I would have my staff observe the various tables on a rotating basis. In addition, I would audit each dealer's performance for a full shift at least once a quarter by recording all their actions with the close up cameras.

If someone is skimming, I think it would be easy to catch them in the audit since all the transactions can be re-built from the video. Since the staff would, supposedly, not know when they were being observed, it would be very scary for them to attempt anything.

Other security layers would be the pit management, my people on the floor, and the numbers from the counting room.

In a large casino, I don't think all the cheater's get caught, especially since most of security's attention will be on the higher limit games where the exposure to the casino is highest. However, when cheater's are caught, the wise manager always comes down hard with a public bust to keep the others aware that there is a high price to pay.

Cameras don't need to have a good track record... cheaters just have to think that they do.

Surveillance does not swoop down on someone... their job is to build a file, particularly on a cheating employee. Often they wait for the employees next shift to make a public arrest. A good deal of what surveillance notices is intentionally ignored so as not to alert a cheating dealer. Can you imagine a dice crew that makes a five dollar error and immediately gets a call from surveillance? All they have to do after stuff like that is make a five dollar error if no call comes they can be assured that the eye is focused elsewhere. Surveillance doesn't want the dealers to be confident about anything.

Surveillance is low pay, boring work with long shifts... of course they don't catch everything. Shifts would be two hours if they were really serious.

Surveillance looks for procedure violations and unusual situations. Players at a blackjack table being males sitting together like sardines? Probably passing cards back and forth. Guy rubber necking? Probably just looking around but he might be looking around to see if there are security guards nearby.

Most shot takers are not fooling anyone. Action is often taken later though.