WGPC 2023

Jeffrey Robinson is a fraud and money laundering expert. He has authored 30 books and was labeled by the British Bankers' Association as "the world's leading financial crime author.” In this talk Jeffrey will define money laundering - the three stages, the origins of the term money laundering (it has nothing to do, as many people think, with Al Capone and laundromats) and why money laundering matters, especially in the casino business. He will touch on the effects of casinos going cashless and digital currencies like bitcoin. Jeffrey will also talk about the insidious nature of fraud and why people in the casino business are prone to fall for it (he will get into his theory of fraud being a two-way street crime), why casinos offer fraudsters such an easy target, his “back door” theory of crime (that everyone has cameras on the front door and far too many businesses neglect the back door), how he revised Donald Cressey’s famous “fraud triangle” to make it a fraud square, the story of the 18th century philosopher whose 300 year old theory will change the risk exposure of theft and fraud in every casino, and how to detect casino employees who will steal. Doors open at 7:40 am.

Speakers:

Jeffrey Robinson

Some of the best lessons in life are the ones that we learn from direct experience. Not taught in a class or seen on a screen but those we are actively engaged with. This talk will consist of how Jayson E. Street works to be that bad experience in an employee and company's day (without causing damage that a real criminal/attacker would). Instead of a breach of private information, theft of trade secrets, destruction of one’s property through undiscovered vulnerabilities or massive theft of company/private equipment and money, Jayson provides lessons and works with potential victims so they will now be ready when a real criminal or attacker tries to attack them. He will walk you through how an attack can easily happen to you if you’re not prepared. We will see some of the tools and personas Jayson creates to infiltrate a company and exploit the companies own employees. Turning them from a dedicated worker to an insider threat in less than a minute all without them knowing what they have done was against themselves. 

Speakers:

Jayson E. Street

Human trafficking — or modern-day slavery — is the exploitation of human beings through force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of commercial sex or forced labor. Survivors of sex trafficking have reported their traffickers using casinos as a meeting place for buyers who were arranged online or as a venue to solicit prospective buyers, particularly when the casino is combined with a hotel. Casinos can also be a refuge for victims, offering a secure place where they can seek help or attempt to exit their situation. Because of their potential to come into contact with victims of human trafficking, casino industry employees – including security and surveillance personnel – have a critical role in helping to combat human trafficking in the course of their everyday jobs. This session will provide an overview of human trafficking and its intersections with casinos, describe red flags to look for, offer guidance on proactive steps casinos can take, and share free industry specific materials that casino managers can use to train their staff. 

Speakers:

Annie Sovcik

Michael Franzese is a former mob boss for the Colombo crime family in New York. At his most affluent, the “Prince of the Mafia” was generating an estimated $5M-$8M per week from legal and illegal businesses. In 1986, Vanity Fair named him one of the biggest money earners the mob had seen since Al Capone. One of the ways he made money was by fixing sports (gambling) contests. Now on the straight and narrow he’s making the case that he is a goodfella. Michael uses the compelling experiences of his former life for the benefit of others seeking redemption and forgiveness. He speaks openly about his past including the corruption in sports and the role he used to play putting in the fix. 

Speakers:

Michael Franzese

Arnold Snyder (“The Bishop”) is a legendary Hall of Fame Blackjack player and prolific writer. He’s written a number of books on how to beat blackjack and published the Blackjack Forum, a quarterly journal for gamblers, from 1981-2006. In this fireside chat with Anthony Curtis (Las Vegas Advisor), Arnold talks about his recent book Radical Blackjack. Written a decade ago it was held back from print due to some of the discussed techniques still being actively used by professional players and Arnold didn't wish to endanger the integrity of the plays. Arnold will talk about some of those techniques including how he milked the loss rebate programs from Las Vegas casinos and how he got casino employees to give him what he wanted.

Speakers:

Anthony Curtis

Arnold Snyder

Casino promotions are part and parcel of maintaining loyal customers, but they can also be the target of cheats and advantage players if they’re ill-conceived or not executed properly. Norman Beck is a betting expert and has been the Vice President of Claims and Security for SCA Promotions for 25 years. SCA Gaming is a promotion company in the gaming industry. Over the years SCA has administered more than 20,000 promotional events across hundreds of casinos worldwide. They’ve covered bets and promotions from 42 cents to 1 billion dollars. Norman has many interesting real-world stories about the shenanigans that can go on in the promotion world. In this candid talk, Norman will talk about how he takes the risk out of promotions. Is the math right? Is the promotion safe and protectable from a cheating standpoint and is there any moral hazard or concern? His job is to not just spot a cheater but to systematically think of every conceivable way someone could unfairly rig the promotion.

Speakers:

Norman Beck

Gaming experts and gamblers know and respect Richard Turner as a master card mechanic/manipulator. His unparalleled skill with a deck of cards has stirred and staggered audiences throughout the world. Richard has been featured on dozens of worldwide TV specials, an Oscar nominated film, documentaries, magazine cover stories, profiled in hard cover publications, newspapers features, and TV commercials. He has been recognized twice by the American Academy of Magical Arts as the close-up entertainer of the year. In Oct 2017 IFC-Sundance Selects released “DEALT”, a documentary film on the life of Richard Turner, the world’s most skilled card magician/card shark who just happens to be totally blind and whose tenacity inspires. The multiple award-winning documentary has played at SXSW and other film festival screenings to standing ovations and rave reviews. Penn from Penn & Teller said, “Richard fooled us with every single move he did,” and Teller said, DEALT knocked me dead….A great documentary!”

Speakers:

Richard Turner

The Expo Happy Hour is the traditional end of the first day of the exhibition. Your opportunity to check out the booths, network and connect while unwinding over a refreshing beverage. The 2022 Expo Happy Hour is sponsored by NAV and Dallmeier. 

In a 2019 Business Insider article the headline read “Facial recognition is almost perfectly accurate.” Unlike many years before it seems the technology is starting to live up to the hype. A recent market research report estimated the global facial recognition market size is expected to grow from USD 3.8 billion in 2020 to USD 8.5 billion by 2025. Manufacturers are rushing to capitalize on the demand and are filling potential buyers' email inboxes with marketing blurbs for cool-named products powered by lots of abbreviations. To help you decide, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Face Recognition Vendor Testing Program (FRVT) was established in 2000 to provide independent evaluations of both prototype and commercially available facial recognition algorithms.

In this talk Patrick Grother, NIST Scientist, will explain how they evaluate algorithms. He will also give the findings or research they have conducted on the effectiveness of the technology when people wear face masks, demographics, and methods people use to trick algorithms. Patrick will end his talk with an update on recent developments in facial recognition. Doors open at 7:40 am.

Speakers:

Patrick Grother

Casinos in the US spend millions of dollars on high-tech video surveillance systems to record table games but they don’t record sound. Despite the interactive nature of gambling, call bets, player disputes, occasional abuse of staff, attempts of social engineering and the constant threat of collusion between players and dealers, casinos rely on pictures to tell the whole story. Not content with having high-tech multi-million dollar surveillance systems with the sound turned off, there are a number of innovative casino organizations around the world that refuse to stay in the silent movie age and are utilizing technology to full capacity by turning up the volume. In this talk, the Director of Corporate Assurance and Regulatory Affairs for Genting UK, Jon Duffy (oversees 44 casinos in the UK) explains the benefits of recording sound. He will give some real life case studies where being able to listen and record conversations at the gaming tables has enabled his organization to combat threats and provide crucial evidence in resolving claims and disputes. Jon says “I don’t understand; if you can - why wouldn’t you?”

Speakers:

Jon Duffy

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Covid shut us down and forced us to rethink how we do things on the casino floor and in Surveillance. New policies and practices were introduced, some like banning smoking on the casino floor have become a watershed moment in casino history. In this general session, Michael Hochman hosts an interactive 100 minute "huddle" where the audience is surveyed (using audience participation technology) on various questions about casino policies and practices. The session will explore casino floor/surveillance practices that have been around for years or have just been introduced in response to Covid and then ask the group - thumbs up or thumbs down. Old school or the way forward? Should they stay or go? We want to hear what you have to say.

Speakers:

Michael Hochman

Each year the World Game Protection Conference awards the WGPC Lifetime Achievement Award to someone who has made a valuable contribution to casino game protection, particularly in the area of sharing information and helping others. This year’s winner is Dr. Eliot Jacobson

When it comes to protection Evy Poumpouras knows the topic well. She is a former US Secret Service Special Agent who has served in the protective details responsible for protecting four US presidents. During her service she conducted hundreds of interviews and mastered the skills of human behavior, body language, and the psychology of interviewing. After leaving the Secret Service she become a journalist, author and co-host of Bravo TV’s competition series Spy Games. Her best-selling book released in 2020 Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, Live Fearlessly has a 5-star rating on Amazon with over 2,400 reviews. In this talk Evy shares lessons learned from protecting presidents as well as insights and skills from the oldest and most elite security force in the world. She talks about becoming mentally bulletproof by developing mental armor and resilience to prepare for stressful situations and the unexpected. Become bulletproof and live fearlessly.

Speakers:

Evy Poumpouras