You'll find the dealers questions on the bottom of page two of this interview. 

I think my website needs a page like this. Many disagree. Finding a reputable person to interview on this subject was no easy task for obvious reasons, not to mention the frightening thought of a surveillance supervisor doing an interview on Dicedealer.com....A website for dealers?  Isn't dialogue between dealers and surveillance personnel suppose to be frowned upon by the powers that be?  Fortunately I found someone who has a craps dealing and floor supervisory background and has an appreciation for what I'm trying to do here. My curiosity is as strong as any other table games employee, dealer and supervisor alike. My intention is not to get anyone into trouble, certainly myself included, but only to advocate discussion.   Inquiring minds want to know.  If there is any way we can bridge the gap of understanding one another then it seems to me everyone wins. 

The internet and cable television have cracked open the door to this issue.  The discovery channel  has a nice bit of information on an hour long "Secret world of Gambling" they air periodically,  based upon a well written text book by George L. Lewis Casino Surveillance, The Eye That Never Blinks.  So with all this information out there I think it's fair that I ask some direct questions about the job itself followed by a  Q and A session from dealers and supervisors at the end of my interview. 

Before we begin, for those of you that are new in the casino industry; you have a surprise coming your way. We call it the 'eye in the sky'. "Surveillance is the monitoring of assets and the people who have access to those assets." Casinos may define it as their last line of defense.  If all else fails, the eye in the sky can videotape any incidents that have occurred.

Casino surveillance is intended to protect the casino's assets from internal and external theft and to ensure internal procedures/controls are followed. The most important and most expensive book in the gaming business is the procedure manual.  Most, if not all, of the procedures have been implemented as a result of scams involving heavy losses to the casino. The surveillance department is responsible for overseeing the entire hotel/casino complex. 

In most casinos, the surveillance department is one of the smallest departments with the biggest responsibilities.  The surveillance room is in a restricted area and must not be accessible from the casino floor.  Due to the fact that we are in an age of high technology, cheating has become more sophisticated and with that, surveillance departments have gone through a series of changes to update equipment.  Casinos spend millions of dollars on the latest high-technology equipment to help the surveillance agent better accomplish his or her job.  

CCTV, (close Circuit Television)  has the unique advantage of recording and documenting any attempt at illegal activities.  It is surprising how closely everyone in the casino can be observed through the surveillance cameras.  In a story I once heard,  a pit clerk was working the graveyard shift.  Business was extremely slow, so the clerk started working on a crossword puzzle.  The clerk was stymied on a particular word.  Then the phone rang.  The person on the other end of the line said, Five across is 'lumber'.  The mysterious caller was the eye in the sky who was able to watch so closely he could actually read the pit clerk's puzzle.  The latest and most effective method of detection, that utilize even an more sophisticated surveillance tool, is facial-recognition software and databases.  The facial-recognition program can capture a face, convert it into mathematical data, and then compare it to images of cheaters captured on camera in other casinos.  If the face provides a probable match, the database will cough up a wealth of investigative data on the suspected cheater — height, weight, aliases and known associates.   WOW!

Costly, impressive surveillance equipment is only as effective as the person trained to use it. Surveillance personnel must familiarize themselves with camera viewing areas, as well as the capabilities of the equipment, and understand that someone out there is trying to figure a way to beat the casino illegally.  Surveillance has gone through changes as the gaming industry has.  It is no longer a reactive department but more a proactive one.  I can only imagine that observing a casino through monitors day in and day out is a long and sometimes boring task.  Learning the methods used by cheats attempting to beat the odds will eventually prove beneficial.  Casino surveillance is a continuing learning process as thieves become more inventive in their cheating habits.

Surveillance can also play a role in customer satisfaction and casino productivity.  When it comes to customer satisfaction, the surveillance tapes can prove or disprove a dealer error, a theft by another customer, or a theft by a team of thieves that uses the casino to prey on innocent customers that are caught in the thrill of gambling.  The productivity factor comes in when the surveillance team is called upon to perform game pace audits, which track the speed of each dealer in the casino to ensure they are performing up to par. (You're going to just love that!) They also record a supervisor 'spot check'  that watches a floor supervisor or boxman for a couple of days and present an edited  'highlight film' of all the things that person is doing wrong. Unfortunately, I know this for a fact. I went through this a couple of years ago. (But I'm cured now)

The last job of surveillance  is one that hopefully will be performed to its highest degree: "to keep honest people honest I suppose"  

I know that if I owned a casino you can bet your ass there would be a modern surveillance department. So, before we get started please let me introduce you to Brian Hever, an international casino surveillance consultant who wrote a small introduction followed by a Q & A session between the two of us.  I will also post a dealer's Q and A section at the bottom of this interview to get your insight upon this discussion.

Scott, as you know, casino surveillance is a strange business full of people who make an art out of giving nothing away. I am no different and am not about to "spill the beans" or train people in "How to Beat Surveillance".

However, what I have found during my time working that area is that there is a lot of misconception, suspicion and even hostility directed from the floor to what should be casino management's greatest tool. The feeling that surveillance is "the enemy" is prevalent and is passed down through the generations as new dealers come on line and receive instruction at "Pitboss Indiscretion" High. One episode of a Pitboss relaying surveillance "spy reports" to an errant dealer can be enough to shape that dealer's perception of ALL surveillance departments in the future. The higher that dealer is then promoted, the more his employers stand to lose of their investment in their surveillance operation. And the beat goes on.

A lot of these misconceptions get in the way of the successful running of the casino and may be easily eliminated by educating floor staff on what is needed by, and what can be offered by, a good surveillance operation.

Surveillance people have their faults also. Some thrive on the "we ask the questions" power that they newly acquire upon leaving the "dummy-up and deal" world of the floor. Tinpot dictators abound and many surveillance directors have a lot to answer for regarding their hiring decisions. The lazy way is to create an environment where collusion is not a possibility because everyone hates each other. That's good for preventing employee collusion but it also impedes worthwhile communication and surveillance thrives on communication from the floor. Fixing this problem is more difficult and can only be achieved by hiring good leaders who in turn hire good surveillance operators.

That all sounds kind of serious but a person starting out in the dealing business can save himself a lot of mental anguish and gain himself a powerful ally by adopting a positive attitude towards surveillance from the start. Conversely, the rookie surveillance operator will have an easier life if he can convince floor staff early on, that he is an asset an not an ass.

That's the message that I would like to get across in this interview. 

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