How Our Facial Recognition App Enhances Casino Surveillance

Security in the front of the house, surveillance in the back. The traditional casino model is reactive instead of proactive, where data and alerts are analyzed in the surveillance room. Thanks to technology, this is changing for the better. 

Discover how eConnect is transforming surveillance with its innovative facial recognition app.

What Is the eConnect Facial Recognition App?

eConnect Alerts, available on both iOS and Google Play, is a comprehensive alerting platform for casinos just like yours. We’ve designed the app to be easy to use and fully integrated with the eConnect platform:

• Provides real-time operational alerts in a short, two-word description 
• Must be paired with eConnect’s facial recognition tool set

The bread and butter of eConnect alerts is how the app enables your operation to retrieve and share vital information.

Get timely and accurate alerts.

Surveillance and other departments traditionally operate in their own separate silos, but that’s not necessarily the right way to do things, and it hinders communication. eConnect Alerts breaks down barriers, providing a way for surveillance to loop other aspects of the business—primarily, security—into various activities. 

Our system goes to work identifying bad actors and generates alerts based on certain tags, either immediately or at a threshold of activity. Consider what this looks like in action: 

You’ve seen an individual in the employee elevator three times, and they're not supposed to be there. By using the facial recognition app, you can generate an alert for the person on the other end to take action on.

Lean into mobile technology.

Mobile flexibility is such a differentiator in the historically lagging casino security space. With it, users can run eConnect Alerts on any mobile device instead of being tethered to a desktop computer or surveillance room. 

Get on-the-go alerts and forward details to team members to take action. You can even set alerts to behave like Snapchat messages, disappearing after a certain period of time to maintain privacy and security. By doing so, you create a sense of urgency.

Chris forwarded an alert about a self-exclusion violation to Malcolm, which expires in an hour. Because of this, Malcolm recognizes that he must act on it and address the individual in a short period of time.

Of course, eConnect Alerts is more than a “set it and forget it” app. There are several nuances to how it works and how to get the most from the technology. 

How the App Works 

Who gets alerted? What information is delivered via alerts? Customize functionality to user and property needs. Our facial recognition app makes it easy for necessary parties to access event details.

Alerts depend on need and/or want to know.

When you respond to a mass email, you don’t need to hit “Reply All” and send notifications to a laundry list of recipients. The same is true of casino alerts. 

eConnect Alerts is configured to allow you to specify recipients based on job function or expressed interest in various matters. As a result, you can filter who gets what types of alerts:

• Security receives alerts when a person who has trespassed tries to reenter. 
• VIP hosts get alerts when their most valuable customers come to the property. 
• Compliance is sent alerts related to money laundering.

Take compliance, for instance:

Let’s say a patron engages in bill stuffing in order to commit money laundering at a casino. In doing so, they go to slot machines and put money into the TITO machine and get a ticket to cash out at the cage to wash the money and get rid of tracked serial numbers. Once the casino recognizes the scam, it sends alerts to compliance officers to act on.

How do alerts come across on devices? 

Detailed alerts sound useful, but how do they actually work? Everything from eConnect Alerts comes across as a push notification you can open on your mobile device. Alerts contain high-level details about the person in question, such as:

• Person is wanted because of retail theft back in June.
• Person was kicked out of the property for stealing a ticket. 

eConnect Alerts is highly specific to your casino. The app leverages the knowledge found within the property’s eConnect platform records, drawing from its calls to law enforcement and criminal charges filed by the property. 

How eConnect Alerts Integrates with Casino Systems

The eConnect Alerts facial recognition app is available to every customer. Regardless of your operation size, it’s designed to serve as many people as you need, allowing casinos to distribute the tool and alerts to unlimited users.

Coordinate with other systems.

Although users must also have the eConnect platform in place, the app collaborates with various other technologies as well. eConnect Alerts forwards alerts into your existing system because it’s an open standard alerting technology. As a result, you reduce infrastructure costs—all you need is a tablet, mobile phone, or PC! 

Input VIP information. 

Out with the bad, in with the good. The majority of alerts center around security and ejecting bad actors, but you need eyes on another group: VIPs. As a major capability of eConnect Alerts, VIP management delivers core details to the VIP host management system. Use this feature to learn more about your biggest players, including:

• Details about their assigned host 
• Player level
• Average money spent

It all starts when VIP players scan their player cards, letting you know they’re on the property. Even if you have uncarded players who are unknown to the casino, the system can see how much they are spending at TITO machines or at the cage window, recording this data to match it to their faces during future visits. Combine these capabilities with facial recognition at entrances and exits, and you get more visibility of VIPs and high-value players than ever. 

Extended Capabilities

Some new developments are too exciting to keep quiet about. eConnect is actively working on new features for both the platform and facial recognition app, including one we’re sure you’ll love.  

Here come the benefits of selfie onboarding.

Our latest initiative aims to allow employees or members of loyalty programs to pre-enroll using a combination of selfie onboarding and two-factor authentication. While we continue to refine this feature, here’s a glimpse into how it should work:

• The player or employee visits a webpage.
• They input their loyalty number and ID.
• Finally, they take a picture. 

Selfie onboarding will make life easier for players and team members alike. Instead of carrying a player's card, patrons could be recognized by their faces by loading their selfies on their phones. Similarly, employees can use facial recognition instead of clocking in and out. We can’t wait for you to see it.

Dig Deeper into Facial Recognition Technology

Human capacity is limited, and your team can only do so much on its own to ensure your casino’s security and surveillance. So what if you add timely alerting and mobile technology to the mix? eConnect Alerts shares vital information across your operation, from threats to VIP intelligence.

Our facial recognition app is constantly being updated, and new features are being added every day. It was designed with surveillance in mind, but eConnect Alerts is opening doors to share information—acting as a bridge to other departments to ensure everyone can benefit from facial recognition technology. 

Learn more about how facial recognition and advanced applications are changing the industry—sign up for a lunch and learn event near you.