Casinos and security cameras

I've had no luck in the past getting someone to review security footage for non-gaming specific issues. Perfect example is when I left my seat with a winter coat on it and 10 minutes later remembered, went back, and it was gone. (not ever turned by anyone).

Also had some vehicle vandalism -- no luck with that either. Not valet parking, but still...is it just me? Maybe my mistake was going directly to security when I should of gone to a host, or you know someone who knows I'm a good patron.

What's your experience been?

The coat one sucked in particular, because I'm absolutely sure they had footage.

Quote: rxwine

Maybe my mistake was going directly to security when I should of gone to a host, or you know someone who knows I'm a good patron.

Yes. I imagine if you go directly to security there will only be two response options: Average players are told No. More favored players are told No, Sir.

The host probably knows you won't hire a lawyer and have them served with a subpoena. The host probably knows you are not going to go to the police and get the police to drop the donut and call the casino's surveillance department. Yet at least the host might be able to motivate the casino executives to some degree. Remember though: Surveillance is not part of the Security department. And those surveillance cameras are there to catch casino employees cheating and casino customers cheating, not coat thieves.

They're also there to catch chip snipes and bucket swipes. I.E. Theft where the victim is another patron.

But that doesn't mean they will catch such a theft, or be willing to interrupt their surveilance for a patron's request. When they catch such an act, it's usually because they observed a suspicious person, and started watching him.

It's not very likely that they have an image of the person that swiped the coat.

It's unfortunate if indeed security does not care about lost property. My hope is that security would regard theft of personal property as theft and would try to help you... however, they have no obligation to.

In the case of both the vandalism and the lost coot, I would call the police and file a police report. The police do have the power to ask for the security footage and have a bit more leverage than you do.

I have had some luck with forgotten smaller items (like sunglasses, or [luckily] a cell phone) by going to security the next day. It turned out (it both cases) that the waitress saw the item, and picked it up. However, because she was working, she didn't drop it off at security until later in her shift.

this isnt right at all. i wouldnt give up pursuing my coat being stolen. threaten to call the police if they refuse to review the tapes and identify the patron that stole your coat. and if the patron is no longer on the premises call up the police to file a police report.

Ya know, konceptum has a point.

Quote: konceptum

I have had some luck with forgotten smaller items (like sunglasses, or [luckily] a cell phone) by going to security the next day. It turned out (it both cases) that the waitress saw the item, and picked it up. However, because she was working, she didn't drop it off at security until later in her shift.

Security might not want to bother becuase of a variety of reasons.

That's not really what Surveilance is for.
There might not be any video.
The coat might have been turned in, but has not gotten to Security yet.


Perhaps the most compelling reason to not start looking thru the surveilance video:

Security and Surveilance are two different departments. They often do not see or bother each other. To interrupt them not only prevents them from doing their job, for all they know, you are trying to distract them while something else is going on.

The point about the obligation of surveilance, I admit is probably right.

But if you went to your local furniture store and dropped a thousand or two or even a couple hundred that day on some items, and someone damaged your car in the parking lot right under a security camera and you said hey, could you check the tape, do you think they might do more than blow you off?


I don't understand why one would say they wouldn't have footage, as actual casino footage has been featured on the news showing everything from hallways, parking lots, rows of machines, people hitting jackpots. Sometimes the moving pictures are staggered in time lapse shots but some aren't.

I realize casinos have better things to do than worry about individual complaints. But that doesn't mean I'm not going bitch about it.

(also i have retreived items from when they were turned in -- coat wasn't turned in, unless someone turned it in more than 2 weeks later)

Last month, it was about 4 AM Sat morning at the craps table, and a girl behind me was hysterical over her missing purse. The boxman talked to her and then got a security person to come to the table. They were finally able to get out of her that she had been sitting at a slot machine and hung her purse on the chair. She then got up and went to play blackjack. After 10 minutes she realized she forgot her purse, and went back to the slot machine. No purse.
She was not worried about the money, as she said she had little in the purse, but she was sweating her keys, ID, credit cards, etc.
About an hour later I saw her walk through with her purse, so I asked the boxman about it. He confided that she had taken them to the slot machine in question, and that they had gone back to look at tape. They saw her get up and shortly after, a guy walked by, grabbed the purse, and walked straight into the closest men's room. A few minutes later the guy walks out without the purse. Security found the purse stashed in the bathroom with all of the contents still in it.
So, Can they do something about it? Most certainly YES.
Will they do something about it? Guess it depends on who wants to get involved in the problem. I will let the reader draw their own conclusion on what works (pretty, young, blonde, H O T), and what doesn't.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

They're also there to catch chip snipes and bucket swipes. I.E. Theft where the victim is another patron.

The casinos view chip pilferers and bucket thieves as legally a theft of personal property of the gambler but in all actuality they are motivated by the fact that a thief will cash chips but a gambler will wager them and therefore the casino views it as money that would ultimately have been theirs.

They probably have a good view of the back of someone's head or something like that. And many thieves work in teams with one or two team members serving as blockers.

Nicer casinos tend to be a bit more helpful and polite about it but in reality surveillance has to stay alert and would rather run back a tape to watch a dealer's hands than watch a coat thief's hands.

Quote: FleaStiff

The casinos view chip pilferers and bucket thieves as legally a theft of personal property of the gambler but in all actuality they are motivated by the fact that a thief will cash chips but a gambler will wager them and therefore the casino views it as money that would ultimately have been theirs.

Wow. I never thought of it that way. That's just "wrong", but I totally believe it.

Quote: rxwine

The point about the obligation of surveilance, I admit is probably right.

But if you went to your local furniture store and dropped a thousand or two or even a couple hundred that day on some items, and someone damaged your car in the parking lot right under a security camera and you said hey, could you check the tape, do you think they might do more than blow you off?

As a person who owns a business, I can tell you this much: I will never offer up security camera footage to anybody without a subpoena.

Quite frankly, there are WAY too many legal reasons for this, but they all boil down to not getting your own business into a heap of trouble.

That being said, I don't mind reviewing the security footage myself, and if anything can be deduced from it, going ahead and doing so. But again, I won't use that as a reason to accuse anybody. But if I can locate something that went missing (like in the example someone else posted about a girl's purse going missing), then that's something I can help with.

One important reason why I wouldn't allow another person to view my security camera footage is because it is, quite frankly, impossible to cover every single point from every single angle. People tend to take it for granted that if you have security cameras, and something happened, that one of your cameras would have caught it, and you can get a positive identification on the person who did it, and thus it's an open and shut case. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case. There are only a certain number of cameras that can be used. Further, it doesn't do me any good to let any people know what possible blind spots I might have. Obviously, casinos have a lot more cameras than I do, but why should they let customers know what places they have good coverage and what places they might have less than great coverage?

I won a $50 jackpot and then the machine malfunctioned. I was polite and quite the entire time. The slot girl reset the machine and said I did not win. The slot supervisor after waiting 20 for him to show up, quoted the slot girl and said I did not win. Then 2 secuity guards showed up behind me. One guard was actaully nice and radioed his boss for a tape review. 20 minutes later the secuirty supervisor show up(40 minutes now) and said I did not win. I asked for a 1 sec still picture of the exact moment the jackpot hit and he said he could not do that. All this time I just wanted to leave. I still had money in the machine and could not leave because the machine would not print a ticket. Last year at this same casino I lost my jacket. When I went to security to get it, I could see all the high resolution pictures they take. They lied to me. They lost a loyal customer.

I believe the general thought expressed in this thread that a casino will consult security camera footage only if it suits them. Last year I complained when a BJ dealer played past me without getting a hand signal for my play. While my desired play of surrendering a hard 17 facing a dealer ace is good play, it is unusual for players at a $5 table to make this play. The pit boss did not believe that was my intended play, so he consulted the security footage. I was vindicated in that I didn't give a hand signal. The pit boss still didn't believe surrendering was my intended play, but I can live with that.

This past Thursday I was in the same pit at the same casino. I was seated before a new shift started and continued play after that shift was off. They did not mark me as playing during that shift, so I asked that the security footage be reviewed to establish my play. I said I would accept a review of any random moment in the entire shift, since I was playing every hand for the shift. Nothing doing. The oompany line was now it's impossible to review security footage.

Quote: BleedingChipsSlowly

The oompany line was now it's impossible to review security footage.

My experience over the years is if its in the casinos interest to review a video, they will. If its in your interest, forget it.