P.T.Z.

It seems over the last five years the word “cloud” has become so prevalent in all aspects of technology, spanning from consumer (think Apple's iCloud) to business and industrial applications. This year at the World Game Protection Conference I heard the term “Surveillance in the Cloud” and I wondered to myself what does that even mean and can it happen?

For the most part I love what I do, but sometimes surveillance gets bogged down in a quagmire of silliness and unproductive work that distracts us from the bigger picture.

A few months ago I had the opportunity to visit the Microsoft Global Security Operations Center (GSOC) in Redmond, Washington. After entering the main foyer and passing by a statue of Master Chief from Halo, I was led into the monitor room. To call it a monitor room is kind of like calling the Pentagon an office block.

I don’t think anyone can deny the difference in picture quality and the benefits it can bring casino surveillance professionals and the organizations they protect. HD is righting a wrong. From a casino surveillance standpoint, there should be an industry mandate to get the best picture quality we can get.

I’m a closet “scrap booker.” I Google and collect casino scam news reports from around the world. I’ve been doing it for over 5 years now and have managed to build quite a collection. Some people collect baseball cards. Some people collect toilet seats. I collect casino scam articles.

I’ve come to realize that one of my biggest mistakes, early in my career as a manager, was trying to motivate my staff through the wrong methods. I had to come to the realization that I couldn’t motivate anyone, they had to do it themselves.

Not every player who wins a lot of money at the casino is a cheat. You don’t have to be. Take for example the latest scam to hit Las Vegas casinos. An Asian high roller and his entourage are beating casinos not by breaking the law but by breaking the law of averages.

Most casino surveillance historians have heard the story about the Pai Gow dominoes that you could see through with a black & white camera.

Success begins and ends with the people we hire for our departments. Many times, an applicant will tell you whatever they think you want to hear to get the job. It’s the interviewer’s job to give the applicant reasons to tell the truth.

Even though many of today’s analog cameras have tremendous low light capability going down to 0.01 lux, they still cannot see into levels of very limited light or no light at all.