Casino Surveillance Pro

I went to a sales seminar recently, in conjunction with one of the jobs that I have. it wasn't a bad seminar, but it wasn't great one either. It got me thinking that I could probably do just as good a job. So I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Here is my thesis:  Everything in life is advertising or marking. Let me tell you what I mean. From the very first time a pre-teen or teenager discovers that they get more attention from the opposite sex by looking pretty or muscular, or batting their eyes at the right time, or being on the football team, they become an expert marketeer. Later in life it will become virtue signaling when, at a job or a bar or in graduate school or at an interview wherever, they will discover the day can attract potential mates and or friends or an employer, simply by espousing the right causes, the right beliefs or the right motives. Whether it be a Super Bowl ad or a job interview almost every thing in life is marking. Wether  you're ma...

I just watched a really good video from Colin  at Blackjack Apprenticeship on YouTube. It's about card counting teams and five lessons he learned when he first got started with a high-stakes team. Check out the video here . In the video he makes some great points. Team play he is very high risk and high reward. We never paid much attention to it in the surveillance department, because nowadays most pits have a rule that easily defeats it. It's called "No mid shoe entry*, and it can also be used for single deck or double deck games also. Basically the dealers are trained to not allow anyone to enter play in the middle of the shoe or deck. They'll politely push back the players money and explain to them that they can't place a bet until the next shoe or top of deck. They will especially do this if the player places a bet that is anywhere close to the table max. So just by using this one simple rule, and enforcing it properly, the house negates any advantage that t...

Okay so you may have heard recently that the Supreme Court decided to let individual states determine whether or not they wanted to allow legalized, regulated sports betting, weather in a casino or some other retail establishment. I've been asked recently a how I think this will affect the Nevada bookmakers. Here is my analysis. I don't think it's going to have much of an effect Nevada books. The only people that it will have a real effect on, in my opinion, are illegal Sports books and bookies, which are most prevalent on the East Coast. I think it will affect them a great deal, but most of their customers we're not flying to Nevada to make Sports bets already, so instead they'll just stop using me legal bookies and go to the new legalized Sports books. Another thing to consider is that most casinos in Nevada, both big and small ones, have stopped operating Sports books already and if just leased the space out to a company called William Hill. William Hill is a ...

Hi there. I figured that some of you might be interested in knowing what a typical surveillance Observer is like.  Almost all gamblers that I know are curious about surveillance in the people who work in it. So here's a little primer on what I've learned in the last 25 years in the business Now I'm going to make some broad, sweeping generalizations here, that are sure to piss off some people in the industry. But let's face it, stereotypes become stereotypes for a reason.The fact of the matter is that many surveillance people are just know-it-alls and blow hearts. What that means is they think they know everything and don't mind telling you all about it and why you're wrong and why they're right and why their opinion matters. I worked with an observer once who would listen to you talk, about whatever, anything from a surveillance topic to pop culture, to music, to, well whatever, and then he would always say the word, *actually", and then proceeded to ...

I had another great question submit it to me by email. This reader wanted to know what, if anything, I knew about loss prevention. I assume that he meant at local retail stores, although most large hotel casinos will have gift shops and other retail or point-of-sale locations, where surveillance may perform loss prevention duties in conjunction with security. It turns out I know quite a bit about the loss prevention landscape out there, having work for a large retailer doing loss prevention in the 90s. I won't say the exact name of this retailer, but their name rhymes with small heart. You figure it out. What I learned from them, and what I have learned subsequently to that, is that while surveillance and loss prevention may be necessary to the operation of a large retail store, just as they are in a casino, they are not something that management or ownership wants to spend any money on. All gaming jurisdictions require casinos to have a certain level of surveillance, by law. Th...

Welcome to my blog, all about how the "eye in the sky" does its thing. Sponsored by Zoom Benefits. They really offer some great discounts,  Click  here  to learn more. I had a great question submitted by a reader recently. He was interested in knowing what the percentage is of time spent by surveillance Observers watching the public, versus watching employees. Well things are quite different than they were back in the good old days of the 80s and 90s. Today almost every point-of-sale terminal or cashier station has a camera over it and a link to a computer interface that shows exactly what the cashier has one up on the register, or what ticket they have just scanned and are about to pay. We didn't have those things in the good old days, in fact you were lucky to get a detail tape if you wanted to look at what the cashier had been doing. So now we have all those tools, so it's really easy to go through an audit a cashier, especially if they're over or short, and...

Okay, here's where we get down to the nitty-gritty and what I assume you all really want to know about employee theft. Which is, what does the eye in the sky have to do with all this?What are the techniques that's surveillance uses to detect and deter employee theft in the casino? Well obviously they have cameras. Duh. In the last 10 to 15 years however, new software has emerged that allows those cameras to be synced up with the point-of-sale terminals at all of the cashier stations in the casino. The software has gotten less expensive over time, as software tends to do. The result is a pretty sophisticated way of looking at what each cashier does on their shift. For example, most of these software solutions allow you to go and pull up each individual transaction, along with the video on it. And they can be sorted by difference payment methods. You can view all of the transactions that only involve cash, or you can do every time the cashier it no sale to open their drawer. Th...

I woke this morning to the news that Anthony Bourdain was found dead in France overnight at the age of 61. Very, very sad news. Although I disagreed with him politically, on almost every issue imaginable, I enjoyed watching you show and reading his words. I love stories about people who find success, fame and wealth later in life. Especially when they were leading what could be called a marginal life beforehand, as Bourdain had admitted to. No one I can think of had a better rags-to-riches story than Anthony Bourdain. He found celebrity and fortune all after the age of 40, having been a drug addict and self confessed "loser" beforehand. I can relate. His story gives me hope, that I may someday make a little something out of my life. Maybe it can start by writing this blog about the work that I am passionate about........

I remember the first time I was ever exposed to employee theft. I was a teenager in high school, and working during the summer at an amusement park. My first day there I was partnered up with another kid, about my age, and we worked an ice cream cart together selling ice cream sandwiches, popsicles and that kind of stuff. The problem was inventory control and I realized it right away. When we left the walk-in freezer to go out and sell, nobody verified how much product we had in the ice cream cart. And no one verified what we came back with, either. The kid I was working with had some kind of a cash bank, but that wasn't counted in or out either . And it was a general rule that by the time you got done with an hour or two of selling ice cream in the hot sun some of it would be melted at the bottom of the container. Nobody kept track of that either. So basically this kid was going out there, making all cash sales with zero inventory controls or monetary controls. If he came back ...

Check out our new sponsor, Zoom benefits. Click here to learn more. In case you didn't know, my main job is as a uber and Lyft driver in the City of Reno Nevada. It's kind of out of necessity, not choice, that I do this thing. I would still be working in Casino surveillance if I hadn't got leukemia last year, but we can talk about that later. Anyway, I was driving two people in my car this evening and they were discussing their jobs and what they were going to do and where they were going to go on their upcoming vacation. From the things that he said, I could tell one of the two persons was a bartender at a casino. I even figured out which casino it was, but I'm not going to mention it here. I don't want to get anyone in trouble. At one point this bartender stated To His companion that he never made less than $100 a shift "extra".  And I could tell by the way he said it and the context in which it was said that he wasn't referring to his tips. Th...

Hieverybody, I've been making some changes to my living conditions, and no longer live in the city of Reno. I've moved down to Yerington Nevada, which is about 90 miles to the south of Reno. It's a fun little town about 3,000 people, kind of in the middle of nowhere. Anyway I'll be posting new content very soon. In the meantime I am happy to announce that we have our first sponsorship deal. It is a benefits and frequent buyer program called Zoombenefits. They offer discounts on cell phone service and other stuff too. And you stuff is being added all the time. To check out the sponsorship deal text my code, CAR6673, to 385-213-3225. At least give it a look, you will be helping to support the content that is provided on this channel. Thanks everybody, more posting about casino gambling real soon.