Do Casinos Have Facial Recognition
Did you know that many casinos use facial recognition? Find out more about the reasons behind doing this here in this article.
At least three casinos are reportedly testing facial recognition systems inside their premises, according to Macau’s gaming regulator. “Currently, two or three casinos are testing. During their operations, they have to strictly obey the personal data protection law,” said Paulo Martins Chan, the director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ). Biometric Face Recognition Your face is scanned by cameras the minute you enter the door. Most casinos rely on security personnel manning high-megapixel digital cameras to identify unwanted guests, but a new technology is beginning to make the rounds at. Meanwhile, casinos in Macau have been using facial recognition technology for security purposes for several years. Paired with advanced artificial intelligence that tracks customer behaviour, Macau casinos are known for their detailed customer profiling, as well. Facial recognition from FindFace for gambling industry recognize VIP guests or unwanted visitor in the casino. Best-in-class face recognition solution. To make it the best user experience for you to work with the website, select your language. Now, casinos all across the globe — from New Zealand to Japan — are starting to use facial recognition systems to improve their ability to keep self-identified problem gamblers away.
14:21 13 January 2020
Casinos are an extremely secure place where there are cameras everywhere watching peoples every move. There have been some massive scandals in terms of casino payouts, and it is important that the casinos make every effort to make sure that they are protected from any scams. This is not easy to do as they are usually busy establishments and can have hundreds (or even thousands) of customers gambling at any one time. As technology moves on, face recognition is one step in the right direction and is used in casinos across the globe. Here are some of the things that face recognition can be used for and other things that casinos are doing in terms of security (detection and prevention).
VIP Treatment
The high rollers in casinos are people who potentially spend (or turnover) significant amounts of cash playing games. This could be table games or even slots. These are the types of people that a casino wants in their establishment as the potential for them to lose a significant amount of money is big. If these people are in their casino, an easy way for them to know is via face recognition. Some casinos have a reception desk where players are expected to sign in (or swipe in) on their arrival. However, not all have this, and, in some casinos, people are able to just stroll on in and start playing.
There is also not a requirement for players to declare who they are when playing the tables (although the dealer will normally ask them for their players card – the player can refuse). If a player has therefore spent a lot of money, the cameras can pick up the players image and when the player returns the next time, the cameras will inform the casino on the arrival. This will allow the casino to then roll out the red carpets and try and make the VIP player feel extremely comfortable as to retain them in their establishment. There are dedicated VIP hosts in all casinos, and they will generally align to specific players and try and spark up a relationship with them. Players can receive all sort of perks starting from constant free food and drink but could also include premium hotel accommodation, trips to sporting events courtesy of the casino or even private jet flights to fly them to their casino.
Security
Unfortunately, there are people that go to casinos to try and scam the establishment. When playing on any casino game, the odds are always in the favour of the casino, however, depending on how you play it, it can be affected in your favour. An example of this is Blackjack. There is a book issued on a statistical basis to inform players what to do for every card combination. This does not move the favour of winning to the player but merely makes them less chance of losing (if they follow these statistics). However, there are players who will aim to card count. This can be done if there are decks of cards being used from a manual point of view (no machine shuffling) and players can could the amount of high and low cards issued. By doing this, they have a better understanding when it gets to the end of the deck what is left to come out and therefore can try and predict the outcomes.
Card counting is barred in all casinos and if they catch any customer doing this, they will be asked to leave the establishment and probably will be barred. The security cameras will play an important part in this and will help in identifying this if it is going on. To then ensure that the player can not return to the establishment and do it again, this is where face recognition will come in. f the player was to return and he is barred for not playing by the casino rules, then the alarms on the security system will activate and the security team informed. In addition to this, casinos will talk to each other (even if they are not part of the same primary company) and share this sort of information between them to ensure that none of them are being scammed by this sort of people.
Reward Points
Casinos will generally offer players a reward card and every time that they are gambling, the presentation of the reward card will be encouraged. They will tell you that this is so they can reward their loyal players (and part of that is true) but the real reason they want this is to monitor a player play. It is like a store card in supermarkets. They are very keen to know what the shopping habits are of individuals and as a result, the store card is an awesome way for them to get this important information.
Reward cards will give players the chance to earn some perks, but they really need to be spending a lot of cash in order to receive anything half decent. The casino will be able to know exactly what the player is spending on slots or at a table, what their average bet is and potential betting patterns just by having these sorts of cards. It all relies though on the ability to influence the player to join the rewards program and present the card, but you will notice that it is usually the first thing that is asked for as soon as you approach a table to gamble. This supports the security prevention strategy of a casino as they have more control and visibility of players.
Summary
With technology continuously changing, face recognition is proving to be extremely valuable for casinos and their security challenges that they have. More casinos are beginning to adopt this, and we see this as part of the norm very soon in every casino. If you are a good player who is not intending to break any rules then this sort of thing should not phase you as you are not the sort of person the casino is targeting (unless you are a VIP) through this initiative.
Introduction
We’ve been seeing it in movies like Mission Impossible, Blade Runner, and Alien for decades! And it really is a real thing too! Biometric authentication is a futuristic concept that has been made very real in today’s world, and is used in many different industries across the globe. But what we’re really talking about when we mention this fancy term, is facial recognition software. A security feature which scans the human face using metrics and measurements to accurately identify and match it with credentials in a system; usually of which allows that person access to something or somewhere.
Other forms of biometric identifiers, include fingerprint recognition (something which Disney Land introduced in the last few years, to ensure tickets were being used by the same person from day to day) iris recognition (scanning the eyes), DNA, hand geometry, as well as ‘token-based’ recognition which you generally tend to see when displaying your passport or ID card at places like airports and border control.
These days, it is detrimental to the operations of many businesses and public sectors, including government, military, security and banking. With facial recognition coming out at a 99% accuracy rate, it also serves as a more concrete method of authorization over standard password or keypad encryption – which can easily be exploited by hackers. It’s near enough impossible to replicate the human face with every microscopic pattern, texture, and detail without having access to that kind of technology yourself. This is why it serves as such a full-proof, viable method of identification in today’s modern world.
A brief history
Facial recognition software was the pioneering invention of Woody Bledsoe, with the help of his friends Helen Chan Wolf and Charles Bisson back in in the mid-1960s. Even though it was them who worked together to come up with the original concept, the project itself was privately funded by an innominate intelligence agency. This meant that much of the trios work was not published, and anything that was, gained very little traction or publicity.
Do Casinos Have Facial Recognition
According to historic references, the original technology would scan various landmarks of a person’s face i.e. eye centers, mouth, shape of cheekbones, jawline lengths etc. which were “mathematically rotated” by a computer to cover a variety of different poses, as well as the distance between the landmarks/features to help calculate and determine a subject’s identity. They tested the practicality of this approach using a large database of facial images.
A year later, Bledsoe’s work was carried on by the Stanford Research Institute who continuously challenged the technology, with it outperforming humans nearly every time. Fast-forward to 1997 – the system was further developed at a university in Germany, as well as a university in Southern California. It was here that the software was eventually sold as the ‘ZN-Face’ and brands such as Deutsche Bank and airport operators were some of the first to adopt this new and extremely “robust” technology, after seeing how it was even able to differentiate identities based on mustaches, beards, hair styles and even sunglasses. By 2006, the recognition algorithms were 100 times more accurate compared to the ones in 1995, and were even able to distinguish between twins.
The transition into 3D
When 3D really hit the market, technicians applied these techniques into facial recognition software to help it capture and determine more information, such as the shape of a person’s face, the contour of their eye sockets, nose and chin, as well as the overall surface area. The main advantage of incorporating 3D techniques, was the fact that its performance was not affected by changes in lighting, unlike other recognition systems. It was also able to determine different angles of the face to give a solid, profile view using sensors and tracking cameras.
Facial Recognition in the modern world
As innovative and genius the technology was when it first came about, these days facial recognition is seen in many normal day to day operations and scenarios. Many mobile applications (particularly banks) favor fingerprint and facial recognition technology over passwords, and it’s not just due to the accuracy either. Every business strives to make the customer journey more fluid and effective, and because access is instant for the authorized user on FR apps, it saves that person time and convenience as well.
Even third-party social media apps are heavily involved with the technology. A Facebook research group introduced something known as DeepFace back in 2007, and was trained on over 4 million different digital images, producing 97% accuracy (higher than the FBI’s Next Generation Identification System). Often, people are using similar applications and websites for entertainment purposes, including being able to see what you would look like if you were old, fat, bald, the opposite sex, and even a cartoon!
How casinos utilize Facial Recognition
First of all, why would casinos even need to use facial recognition? As far as gambling goes, casinos have one of the biggest ‘open doors’ policy because they want to attract as many visitors to spend as much money inside their establishments as possible. So why an earth would such a thing be necessary?
When it comes to the back rooms in casinos where all the cash is stored, as well as the surveillance rooms – naturally these kinds of places need to be heavily guarded and kept secure. According to the Nevada Gaming Association, a casino can store up to $70 million in cash on an average week day, and close to $100 million on a weekend.
Another reason casinos are beginning to adopt FR, is to prevent underage gamblers entering the premises, as well as to stop those who have been previously blacklisted or banned from simply waltzing through the doors. But, the most prominent advantage this kind of technology gives casinos, is the ability to spot fraudsters, and people attempting to cheat the house in real-time. A biometric-powered technology called CASINO-ID is a commonly used one, which captures images of every person that enters the casino through their own CCTV systems. This information is then fed into a database which compares facial features, and allows the casino to accurately pin-point the hopeful hustlers, and thus have the individual(s) removed from the building. Whilst these kind of security measures can be extremely costly to the establishment, in the long-run it is far more worthwhile having these things in place, as opposed to giving scammers the ability to take from the casino.
Public concerns
As beneficial this all is for the casino, not everybody who walks in is particularly happy about the idea of this Big Brother-like crackdown. Most people see cameras in a casino as an added means of security, which is understandable. But, when people find out they are being more than just watched, and actually having their faces scanned – it can put them on edge and naturally make them feel uncomfortable. It’s the same psychological effect of that feeling before you go to a medical exam; you know you’re perfectly healthy, but you are still anxious at the idea of being analyzed. Another example are the nerves you can feel when a police officer is near. You know you’ve not done anything wrong, but because you know for a second that you are being assessed, it can put you on edge for no real reason.
Some industry experts would even go as far as saying that Facial Recognition in casinos could be considered an infringement on customer privacy. Technically this is not the case, as the CCTV systems that are capturing the information work in a similar way to the cameras present in public places, like most shops, clubs, hotels and even streets.
Other technologies casinos use
Aside from facial recognition, there are other means of security measures that some casinos take, which you may or may not even be aware of!
License plate readers – Before you’ve even stepped foot into the casino, the chances are that the vehicle you arrived in has already been registered onto the establishment’s database. Using cameras to take a picture of the license plate, and by using something called “optical character recognition” software, which converts the numbers and letters into text. This data is then compared against the registration plates of well-known problem gamblers, or players who have caused some kind of disturbance to the casino in the past. If your license plate flags on their systems, a security guard will usher you off the premises before you’ve even had a chance to say blackjack.
Angel Eye – Most people are fully aware that they are being watched on camera when they’re inside a casino. But the Angel Eye is little bit more sophisticated than your standard CCTV surveillance, and it is mainly used to closely monitor the cards in games like baccarat. The system relies on unique bar codes placed on each of the cards with invisible ink. As the dealer hands out the cards, a sensor in the dealing shoe keeps track of the cards being dealt and transfers this info back to a computer. After all the cards are handed out, the dealer pressers the button on the shoe which verifies the results. If they don’t match those of what it is on the computer, you can expect a firm hand on your shoulder pretty soon.
RFID Chips – Stands for ‘Radio Frequency Identification’ and is something very commonly used in casino chips these days. The chips contain unique serial identifiers which emit a signal using radio frequencies, these frequencies are then fed back to the chip cashing booth, which can verify any counterfeit ones in the mix. It also allows the casino to keep track of any chips leant out to players, as well as deactivate any that may be stolen from the establishment. One man did attempt to do exactly that at the Bellagio casino, when he tried to walk out with almost $1.5 million in chips last year. Obviously the casino found out and simply turned off the chips transmitters, making them instantly worthless.
TableEye21 – Similar to the Angel Eye, the TableEye21 also operates through a camera to keep track of all activity carried out on the floor. By using a mixture of RFID Chips and video analysis; real-time information of the chips being used and the cards which are dealt are analyzed and conveyed, whilst TableEye21’s software keeps track of all the stats and data produced on each game. Casinos are able to quickly identify anyone seen to be counting cards or rogue dealers going against the grain to help people cheat.
NORA – This piece of technology acts as a screening measure for new casino recruits, and it can also identify notorious scammers and hustlers who have been previously convicted of criminal activity inside casinos. It can also find correlations between multiple people as well, so that if 2 players belonged to the same crime ring back in the 90s for example – NORA can alert security immediately. The software is currently used all over the world, and even helped to identify links between potential terrorists during the 9/11 attacks.
Conclusion
It’s quite understandable that casinos and establishments homing so much cash, would need to introduce such measures in order to protect their assets, staff and the players. As technology and the world’s digital footprint advances, so do the tactics and hacking methods of conmen and casino cheats! So who knows what will be used to counteract illegal activity inside casinos in another 10 years’ time? Maybe all of the dealers and security staff will be replaced with AI who will perform X-ray scans on players as the walk in. And maybe hackers will develop a kind of “chip” that they can inconspicuously attach to an AI to make its circuitry malfunction, to the point where it overlooks all cheating attempts or makes them a default winner every time? It’s very fascinating to think where both sides will end up eventually. But until then, the future remains mysteriously uncertain!