Originally Published: September 12, 2011, 06:37 AM

The casinos biggest nightmare

Posted By Diego | Strategy News | September 12, 2011, 06:37 AM |

Back when I worked in gaming, it was clear to me even then where the greatest threat came from with casinos in regards to protecting themselves from cheats. This wasn’t from the customers but from their own staff. Casinos are always at risk from cheats and there are such things as professional cheats. In my experience though professional cheats are rare! In the last casino where I worked, there were roughly 22,000 members. Only about half of those were active and only about 300-400 would enter on any given day.

I wouldn’t really like to estimate how many of those were professional cheats as that is a really strong way to put it. The overwhelming number of cheating attempts is basic low grade opportunism and this can apply to a large number of people. They don’t set out to cheat but do not own up to casino mistakes when they arrive. Whether they can be classed as cheats is another matter. But I have only been aware of one person in all my years in gaming that I knew cheated and stole for a living and he was a professional pickpocket by trade.

So the threat from outside cheating is not as great as many people think as the number of real threats in terms of punters is very low. One person to my knowledge out of 22,000 people is hardly going to give the casino management sleepless nights. But the staff are something completely different. In my time in gaming, I would say that I have been involved with in the region of about 1000 gaming staff in the casinos where I have worked. As I sit here typing this article then I am trying to think back of the number of staff who were either caught stealing or who I knew were stealing and never reported it.

Of the top of my head I was aware of at least 10 and that is an alarming number because it means something in the region of 1%. If one person in one hundred is stealing from a casino then this represents a vast amount of money that is being drained out of the casino industry every single year. Then when you take into account the fact that I would have been aware of only a tiny percentage of what was actually happening then I would put the figure as high as 5%. This is why the casinos have procedures for dealers and why they cannot wear certain items of clothing.

Casino management are aware of how vulnerable they are to their own staff and they know that this is perhaps the avenue for their biggest leak in security. Whether this is direct stealing from the casino itself or collusion with a punter then it makes no difference. It is a little known fact that most of the casino security measures are taken with their own staff in mind but this is something that is kept quiet and is rarely spoken about.

Embed Back when I worked in gaming, it was clear to me even then where the greatest threat came from with casinos in regards to protecting themselves from cheats. This wasn’t from the customers but from their own staff. <a href="https://casino.bwin.com/" title="Play online casino games at bwin.com">Casinos</A> are always at risk from cheats and there are such things as professional cheats. In my experience though professional cheats are rare! In the last casino where I worked, there were roughly 22,000 members. Only about half of those were active and only about 300-400 would enter on any given day. <br><br> I wouldn’t really like to estimate how many of those were professional cheats as that is a really strong way to put it. The overwhelming number of cheating attempts is basic low grade opportunism and this can apply to a large number of people. They don’t set out to cheat but do not own up to casino mistakes when they arrive. Whether they can be classed as cheats is another matter. But I have only been aware of one person in all my years in gaming that I knew cheated and stole for a living and he was a professional pickpocket by trade. <br><br> So the threat from outside cheating is not as great as many people think as the number of real threats in terms of punters is very low. One person to my knowledge out of 22,000 people is hardly going to give the casino management sleepless nights. But the staff are something completely different. In my time in gaming, I would say that I have been involved with in the region of about 1000 gaming staff in the casinos where I have worked. As I sit here typing this article then I am trying to think back of the number of staff who were either caught stealing or who I knew were stealing and never reported it. <br><br> Of the top of my head I was aware of at least 10 and that is an alarming number because it means something in the region of 1%. If one person in one hundred is stealing from a casino then this represents a vast amount of money that is being drained out of the casino industry every single year. Then when you take into account the fact that I would have been aware of only a tiny percentage of what was actually happening then I would put the figure as high as 5%. This is why the casinos have procedures for dealers and why they cannot wear certain items of clothing. <br><br> Casino management are aware of how vulnerable they are to their own staff and they know that this is perhaps the avenue for their biggest leak in security. Whether this is direct stealing from the casino itself or collusion with a punter then it makes no difference. It is a little known fact that most of the casino security measures are taken with their own staff in mind but this is something that is kept quiet and is rarely spoken about. <br /><a href='http://www.casino-junky.com'>Casino-Junky</a> | <a href='http://www.casino-junky.com/Strategy/The-casinos-biggest-nightmare'>The casinos biggest nightmare</a>