Theft, cheating, self-exclusion violations, and countless other crimes happen in casinos each day, but they don’t have to. Live facial recognition technology is unlocking new potential for surveillance and security teams to not only catch bad actors quickly, but also implement infrastructure to deter them. Learn how facial recognition is transforming the gaming industry and how one Midwest resort deployed advanced technology to achieve astounding results. 

 

How Facial Recognition Helps Casino Security 

Live facial recognition technology is about mapping, analyzing, and identifying individual faces in photos and videos to create a facial fingerprint that can pinpoint one person out of potentially thousands. For casinos, it enables operations to tell the difference between VIPs and criminals and respond accordingly. 

So how does facial recognition work? The New York Times breaks the intricate technology into three pieces:

Detection

The first thing live facial recognition technology must do is find a face in an image. Detection doesn’t hone in on who’s in the image, just that there’s a person in it. Sometimes detection is paired with analysis in one step.

Analysis

With a viable image to work from, the system starts mapping faces. We’ve talked about mapping before. It’s a process that measures the distance between someone’s eyes or between their nose and mouth. Facial recognition distills this information down into points on the face to create a facial fingerprint. 

Recognition

“Who is in this picture?” The recognition process is the bread and butter of the technology. It verifies identities from a catalog of source materials—including photos and videos—so your surveillance activities remain proactive, highlighting problem behaviors, identifying VIPs, and pinpointing excluded players.

Successful facial recognition involves placing cameras at key chokepoints. With visibility into high-traffic areas, you can weed out known cheaters and violent offenders from valued patrons, just like the following Midwest resort.

 

Casino Case Study: How Live Facial Recognition Maintained the Income Stream

The COVID-19 pandemic hit several industries particularly hard. Casinos were no exception, as gaming revenue dropped more than 96 percent in 2020. One casino came to eConnect with a tall order to obtain valuable insights into the guests on the property so it could:

  • Identify patrons quickly
  • Streamline operations
  • Achieve ROI

We knew right away that facial recognition technology would provide the details the casino needed to succeed.

Solution

In facial recognition, it’s not the number of cameras that matters—it’s their placement. To solve the casino’s pain points, eConnect deployed its live facial recognition system in these strategic places:

  • Entrances and exits 
  • Redemption centers
  • High-limit tables

The results were almost instantaneous. eConnect quickly began minimizing risks and delivering big savings.

Results

eConnect’s live facial recognition technology delivered rapid ROI for the venue, stopping criminals in their tracks. Within 30 days of using the eConnect system, the casino successfully caught:

  • 6 advantage players
  • 2 thieves
  • 18 banned patrons
  • 4 self-excluded patrons

Crimes are costly for casinos and add up quickly without intervention. Stopping just 30 criminals prevented $113,450 in losses for the venue! Not convinced of the value? Consider that average monthly savings over one year:

$113,450 x 12 = $1,361,400 in annual savings

Captura de Pantalla 2022-06-20 a la(s) 15.22.38

On top of this, the casino successfully reduced its investigation time by 50 percent by deploying facial recognition. 

 

Set Up Live Facial Recognition in YOUR Casino

Facial recognition technology works hard to detect, analyze, and recognize faces so your team remains proactive in stopping unwanted behavior. Could it help your casino improve its security and surveillance? The eConnect platform is designed to function as an all-in-one solution or as part of smaller solution suites to match your needs. Choose from these options:

Want to learn more about how eConnect could improve your operations? Schedule a free consultation with our expert team and get ready to experience a new level of security.

Stay ahead of the game with compliance technology download our infographic now

About the Author

The eConnect Team