Casino Surveillance Training

Every casino has different needs. What a small, slots-only casino needs is far different from the needs of a large casino with many table games, slots, poker room and possibly even keno, bingo and sports wagering. This is again different from what is needed by a mid-sized casino with slots, blackjack and maybe a couple of carnival games, or one or two craps or roulette games.

Therefore the training packages are custom made for each casino. Following are the rough categories, including the parts which are included in all packages.

Each class is a Power Point presentation including text and audio narration exactly as it would be presented in a training seminar. Each class incorporates video or photo materials as appropriate, exercises, drills and  tests on the materials so that supervisors and Human Resources can determine that the person actually paid attention to the class and understands and can apply the materials. Trainees can thus be sent to restudy specific portions, specific materials, to ensure full understanding and application.

Note: no packages are sold without the Basics package, for several reasons: Normal personnel turnover ensures that this will be the most-needed and most used portion of any package. From many years of experience, as an operator/investigator, supervisor and trainer, this most basic level is what is most needed in every casino. Without the training and knowledge contained in the Basics package, a surveillance operator or supervisor is in fact a liability to the casino, because he may take, encourage or endorse actions which would be far more expensive to the casino in terms of civil liability than any activities that he could detect and/or prevent.

Surveillance Operator Level I:

Level I , Section 0. Trainee package:

Information: drills and instructions to ensure that the most basic information is understood by all new trainees. This material is so basic that parts of it are often assumed or overlooked, which actually cripples a new trainee in his beginning days, making further training very difficult and far less effective.

As the specifics change from casino to casino and cannot in fact be written by an outsider, but the basic needs are the same, this package is included at no charge with the purchase of any training package. It includes drills, exercises and tests to be administered by a supervisor or experienced surveillance operator on the buddy system.

What does the newest trainee need to know, even before he begins to train on casino basics, games, procedures, internal theft and external scams? Most casinos have some form of this in place: this section is designed to put all of the most basic information together for all new trainees. It is designed to ensure you have no major omissions in new employee orientation.

Some parts of this material may be required by law for all new employees, depending on your location.

After the first sections, when a trainee has learned to operate the system, he can complete the final parts of this while beginning training on Section I.

A. Casino Layout: Know the floor plan, in detail, on foot

B. Emergency drills: know where to go and what is expected of an operator in case of a casino emergency, or local emergency in the area of the surveillance room or other part of the casino. Who is to be notified at what level of emergency, and are there any particular things that must be done if there is time before evacuation? What to do in case of fire or HAZMAT, storm or earthquake (depending on your casino location)? These are basic employee drills, NOT Surveillance drills. Surveillance emergency drills and contingency plans come later.

C. Learn how to operate the surveillance system

D. Other surveillance room equipment: phones, special recorders, etc.

E. Daily Surveillance Reports and other reports required in your department (This is covered in more depth in a later section but the new trainee should at least become acquainted with the basic requirements at this stage.)

F. Forbidden Surveillance activities: These are activities which are forbidden to surveillance operators and departments, either by law or as the result of court decisions

G. learn to identify and communicate locations from camera numbers and appearance of the area on screen. Learn camera numbers for every area and be able to call them at need, from a description of the area. Learn the names of the areas as they are known to Surveillance, Security and other areas of the casino. Learn for every location other associated cameras that may be of use for multiple viewpoints, as well as the main cameras normally used. Learn how to return a camera to a parked location where it is normally expected to be, the importance of returning such cameras to parked locations, and what viewpoint is expected of cameras that do not have associated keyboard shortcuts.

Level I , Section 1. Basic Principles Training Package for all Casino Surveillance Departments.

Information: This section is a part of every package for casino surveillance and security. More advanced material will not be sold piecemeal without it.

There are several reasons for this: Most important, it ensures uniformity of training for all personnel. Much of the later material in the gaming and internal theft sections depends on the basic principles taught in this first section for effective training and operation. It ensures that all staff are working on the same page and can operate together as a team. This basic training is due diligence for any surveillance department: without it, the operator is not up to the standards required by law and by industry standards.

Completion of the training included in this section should be required of all new operators prior to promotion from original probation period. This is a recommendation. The training in the Section 0 above, plus this package, can be completed in one hour per working day within the standard 90-day probation period.

Coaching from a buddy or supervisor is encouraged. It is recommended that if a person does not pass the test on a particular class, he review the materials and re-take the test.

If a person cannot pass the test with three tries, he may not be suitable for a Surveillance operator/investigator position. If a person is unable to comprehend the materials in this section, it should be looked at whether they are in fact qualified to work in Surveillance, or should be moved to another area.

Of course, once the package is sold, it is totally up to your policy-makers whether to train your people in these materials. However, I have never seen a casino that had ALL of these materials effectively in use without specific training in them. In the two casinos where I worked where training programs were in place that incorporated these or similar materials, the Surveillance departments were extremely effective at both prevention and detection of theft, cheating and other crooked activity. In casinos where I have worked or trained where a similar program was not in place, more advanced training did not “take” and was ineffective.

A. Definitions: vocabulary and basic concepts for gaming surveillance and security

gaming definitions at basic level

cheating definitions

B. Purpose of a Surveillance department

C. the need for training

barriers to training

D. Chain of Command

E. JDLR: Identifying Suspicious Activity

F. Internal Theft basic principles

G. Observation, memory and communication skills

H. Corporate Politics

I. Teamwork

J. Protecting Casino Patrons

K. Consistent Surveillance Results: Focusing Observations

L Casino Internal Controls and Procedures: How this is used by Surveillance

M. Evidence Basics

What is Evidence

Gathering evidence: video evidence

Criminal evidence

Civil liability evidence

N. Reports

What is a report

How to write a report

presenting evidence

Level I , Section 2.  Slots-only Casino: Basics Package, Cage Package, Slots Package

Information: For smaller casinos which do not operate table games, but are still big enough to have a manned Surveillance department, this option is the best. It allows the training of surveillance personnel to recognize and handle, and especially to help prevent (with the cooperation of management) theft in the cage, count rooms and other money handling areas. presentations include photographic and video material of actual theft as well as written materials designed to enable surveillance to see theft when it is occurring as well as gather the necessary evidence for either prosecution or other final handling of internal or external theft and cheating.

I. Cage operations: Internal theft in cage, count rooms and change operations: Information: the greatest threat to any casino cage bottom line is when Finance personnel are themselves involved in theft from the casino. This can happen at any level from basic cashier to the head of the Finance department, and can be perpetrated in many ways.

A. Stealing from an Imprest Bank

B. Prevention: the Security point of view

C. Count Room Theft

D. Procedures Compliance as theft prevention

E. Evidence gathering in cage and count room theft

II. Slots Operations: Cheating and Internal Theft

A. Any slot machine can be cheated

coin-only slots cheating and theft (history, but it makes a point)

counterfeit coin and token

counterfeit money

B. Slots: current external cheating methods

C. Slots: Internal Theft

Level I , Section 3: Slots Casino with a few Table Games

Information: This section is designed to train Surveillance operators in detection of external cheating, dealer-agent collusion and internal theft on Blackjack and “Carnival Games.” Any casino which is running traditional table games has Blackjack, and most have one or more of what is traditionally called “carnival games” such as Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride, Three Card Poker or Ultimate Texas Hold’Em.

It includes basic materials on the games for new trainees as well as the advanced material which makes it possible for an operator/investigator to detect cheating and theft, and more importantly, to prevent theft and cheating by being able to spot the indicators of potential cheating and theft.

In addition to Cage and Count Room and Slots, this package includes:

I. Blackjack

A. How the game is played: optional, but all operators should pass the test

1. Blackjack Basic Strategy: Key to Detection of Cheating and Advantage Play

B. Game protection procedures common to most casinos

C. Methods of cheating at Blackjack

D. Gathering evidence for cheating

E. Internal Theft at Blackjack

F. Advantage Play

a. Card counting

b. Shuffle tracking

c. Key Card location

II. Carnival Games

A. What do we mean by “Carnival Games”?

B. Basics: hand rankings, payout principles

C. Methods of Cheating and Advantage Play

Individual Add-ons available:

Pai Gow Poker

Baccarat

Poker

Internal Theft in the Gaming Areas

Internal Theft Beyond Gaming:

Level I,  Section 4: Full Casino with All Traditional Table Games

Information: This section is for a larger casino which includes the traditional games of Craps (dice), Roulette and Poker as well as Blackjack and Carnival Games. Add-ons are available for Baccarat (including Mini-Baccarat and Midi-Baccarat), and for Marker Scams Internal and External, as an option offered to those casinos which are allowed credit play in the casino.

This Section includes, in addition to all of the material in Sections 0-3,

I. Roulette:

A. The game itself, rules, payouts, and how it is played

B. Methods of External Cheating, Dealer-agent Collusion and Internal Theft

II. Craps (Dice)

A. The game itself, rules, payouts, and how it is played

B. Methods of External Cheating, Dealer-agent Collusion and Internal Theft

III. Poker

A. Basics of the game: rules for common games

B. Methods of External Cheating, Dealer-agent Collusion and Internal Theft

C. Tournament Play: external and internal cheating

1. Internal Theft on Poker Tournament Play

Add-ons available:

Baccarat

Marker Scams Internal and External

Keno and Bingo

Sports Book

Level I , Section 5: Internal Theft Beyond Gaming

I. Internal Theft Basics: Review of principles

II. Indicators of Internal Theft in Retail and Food & Beverage

III. Internal Theft In Security: Prevention and Detection

IV. Other Internal Theft, Including Theft from Guests

Level I, Section 6: Cardrooms without Slots:

Information: Custom-Built package for the individual casino needs. This would include the Basics Section I, and would also include the Cage Section from Section 2, Poker and Table Games as needed.

When the above training has been completed on the materials needed by and purchased by your casino, the operator/investigator has achieved Level I for your casino. He is  full-fledged investigator–he can fly on his own–and is fully qualified to help others to learn the material. He or she is in fact a candidate for Supervisor level, once tests on all the materials have been passed.

A full pass on this Level should be completed within one year of starting as an operator. People should be coached intensively through this section by a “buddy” or Supervisor, as without knowledge of these materials the new operator is missing things he should see and may be taking actions that could put the casino at risk.  I recommend that as an incentive to learn and apply all of these materials, a pay raise is given at the time that an operator passes the final test on all sections of Level I.

Now the staff member is ready to move on to Investigator Level II, which he must pass prior to receiving full pay as a Supervisor. It is recommended that every person who has passed Level I continue on immediately to Level II. This creates a pool of personnel who can cover for Supervisors on vacation or sick days or who move on to other jobs or casinos, and creates a pool of people in your own Surveillance Room who are ready to be promoted.

Regardless, this level of training increases the competence of your entire Surveillance staff. This section must be passed before a person is ready to be promoted to Surveillance Manager. Level III, following, is the Director’s Course, which must be passed in order for a person to receive full pay and remain in the position of Surveillance Manager or Director.

Surveillance Operator/Investigator Level II

Level II: Surveillance Supervisor

Information: This is the material necessary for a person to operate in a decision making capacity in Casino Surveillance. It is also necessary for a person to be able to supervise others, evaluate priorities, and be the liaison point for interaction with Operations department managers (Cage, Slots, Table Games, Poker) and Security.

I. Review Basic Evidence Handling

A. Preserving Evidence

1. Video Evidence

2. Physical Evidence

3. Surveillance Reports

II. Presenting Evidence: Reports

III. Management Use of Surveillance Reports

IV. Training Others in Useful Reporting

IV. Evidence Specifics: Slots Evidence

A. Slots Devices

V. Evidence in Non-criminal investigations

A. Accidents and Injuries

B. Property Damage

C. Advantage Player Handling

D. Protecting Casino Patrons

VI. Supervisor Skills: Handling Employees

A. High standards of achievement and work ethics

B. Disciplinary Actions

C. Training, testing and re-training

VII. Complacency in the Surveillance Room

Available Add-ons:

Detecting, Identifying and Analyzing Marked Cards, Preserving the Evidence

Dice, Roulette and other Games: Preserving Evidence

Surveillance Manager, Level III

Level III: The Director’s Course

Information: This is the material necessary for a person to succeed as the Manager or Director in a casino Surveillance Room. His job entails ensuring that his people work effectively and that assets are protected, while continuing to maintain attention on potential liabilities for the protection of the casino, its guests and its honest employees. Much of this is devoted to focusing the activities of the entire surveillance staff, ensuring that needed investigations get done without distractions and without neglect of necessary but routine activities.

0. Being a Manager: Supervisor and Manager Concepts

I. Casino Statistical Reports

A. Definitions: Hold, Handle, Par Value, Variance

II. Management Use of Reports, Advanced

III. Politics in the Casino Environment

IV. Internal Theft, Advanced Course

A. Classifications

1. Asset misappropriation: Methods of Theft

2. Corruption

3. Falsified Statements

V. Sources of Information

A. Table Games Analysis (should be skipped if there are no Table Games)

1. Poker statistics

B. Slots Analysis

C. Cage and Cashier Shortages

D. Employee and Guest Tips

E. IOU Patrols as a Source of Information

F. Manager Requests

G. Common Factors in Surveillance and other Reports

VI. Evaluating Information

VII. Evaluating Priorities

VII. Common Errors by Managers