Surveillance Department’s Involvement with Skilled Players

October 4th, 2010  |  Published in Security

Once a policy has been implemented by upper management, the handling of skilled players is much clearer and the roles of different departments become evident. At this point, a great deal of teamwork is needed to ensure this policy is successfully implemented by the staff.

In the instance that management decides to bar skilled players from the blackjack or in a specific way, casino surveillance must be involved. Their role in this procedure is broken down into the following sections:

  • Detection of skilled players
  • Verification they are practicing the skills against policy
  • Documenting the facts
  • Handling the players
  • Enforcing a preventative policy

The detection of potentially skilled players is usually done in teams with collaboration between surveillance and pit management. Pit managers give surveillance various reports regarding a range of bets being placed, strange hitting strategies, unusual wins or those that consistently win. Many of these aspects are also observed by surveillance.

It is quite obvious when two or three pit bosses and other managers are hovering over the same table or around a specific person. This is known in the industry as, “sweating the money.” Although they may have a good idea of what the skilled player is doing, it makes the regular players feel uncomfortable.

The verification of a player or group is left up to surveillance as they can constantly watch without interruption. They are primarily looking for strategies involving money management and betting patterns that are consistent with card-counting policies. However, only a small few are able to have enough discipline to maintain an advantage over a casino.

Documenting these facts is the responsibility of both pit management and casino surveillance. This provides a record of these skilled players and the actions they are taking. Once the player is documented, the handling procedures must be consistent with the casino policy set by upper management or else a huge liability can ensue.

Finally, there are a few things that can be completed to prevent these skilled players from taking money from the house. The most important action is to create preventative procedures and training for dealers and supervisors. These procedures make it unprofitable and risk for card counters to attempt this skill.

There are new methods of cheating that arise constantly. The utilization of technology plays a major role. As a result, casino policy is also constantly changing to keep current with the new methods.

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