Casino surveillance departments already collect enormous amounts of information. The greater challenge is connecting that information in a way that helps teams recognize risks earlier, investigate activity more efficiently and respond with greater confidence.
During the Tribal Gaming & Hospitality Magazine webinar “Beyond Surveillance: Unlocking More Value from Your Existing Systems,” sponsored by eConnect, Malcolm Rutherford, Executive Vice President of Strategic Operations at eConnect, explained how license plate recognition, facial recognition, real-time alerts and operational data can work together to create a more proactive surveillance operation.
Creating Strategic Depth
Rutherford illustrated the value of connected technology through a common scenario: a vehicle associated with a person of interest enters a casino parking area.
A license plate recognition system can alert surveillance before the person reaches the building. Facial recognition can then provide another layer of confirmation when the individual enters the property. Connecting those detections gives the surveillance team what Rutherford called “strategic depth,” providing additional time to review available information and prepare an appropriate response.
That response will depend on why the person was entered into the system. Security may need to intercept a barred individual before they enter the casino. Surveillance may instead monitor someone connected to suspected money laundering, cheating or advantage play. A law enforcement alert may require immediate coordination with local authorities, while the arrival of an unannounced VIP could trigger a notification to casino management or a host.
The technology is the same, but the proper response can be very different.
Turning Alerts Into Action
Technology alone does not determine what should happen after a detection. Rutherford stressed the importance of establishing policies and procedures before an incident occurs.
When employees understand who should be notified, what information should be reviewed and how the person should be approached, they can respond more consistently and avoid making important decisions under pressure.
This preparation is especially important for sensitive situations such as self-exclusion. A self-excluded guest returning to the property may not require an aggressive security response. Depending on the circumstances and the property’s procedures, a manager or host may be better positioned to approach the individual compassionately, remind them of their exclusion and connect them with available responsible gaming resources.
The same principle applies throughout the operation: The reason behind an alert should determine the response.
Keeping People in the Process
Automation can help surveillance teams identify activity that employees might otherwise miss, but Rutherford cautioned against treating an automated match as a final determination.
Facial recognition and license plate recognition alerts should be considered the beginning of an investigation, not the conclusion. Employees must verify the information, consider the surrounding circumstances and determine whether additional action is justified.
Maintaining human oversight is particularly important when image quality is poor or an alert may carry serious consequences. Automated systems can accelerate an investigation, but trained employees remain responsible for evaluating the evidence and making the final decision.
Technology Does Not Eliminate Staffing Challenges
Staff shortages emerged as the leading surveillance challenge among webinar participants, with more than half selecting it in an audience poll.
Although AI and automation can help teams accomplish more, Rutherford warned that new technology does not necessarily reduce staffing needs. More detections can produce more alerts, more monitoring and more data requiring investigation.
The opportunity is therefore not simply to replace manual work. It is to direct limited staff toward the activity most likely to require attention.
New tools may also change the skills surveillance departments need. Employees increasingly benefit from the ability to interpret data and ask useful investigative questions. However, Rutherford suggested that natural-language AI tools could make data more accessible without requiring every surveillance employee to become a database engineer.
For recruitment, he encouraged operators to consider curiosity, critical thinking and investigative ability alongside formal educational qualifications.
Moving Toward Data-Driven Surveillance
Rutherford identified facial recognition as one of the most consequential technologies available to modern surveillance departments because it allows properties to compare detections against far larger collections of individuals than employees could reasonably recognize on their own.
Its value increases when combined with information from other systems. Gaming activity, slot data, cash transactions, ticket-in-ticket-out activity and known associations can help investigators understand not only who is present, but also what that person may be doing and who may be working with them.
This connected approach represents a significant departure from the traditional practice of continuously watching the busiest gaming tables and hoping to observe something unusual.
Instead, data can direct attention toward people and activity operating outside expected patterns. Surveillance personnel can then investigate a specific concern rather than searching the gaming floor without a clear target.
Defining the Purpose Before Deployment
Properties considering facial recognition or other AI-supported surveillance tools should begin with a clear operational purpose.
That means determining what the system is expected to accomplish, which employees will have access to its information, how alerts will be investigated and how collected data will be retained or destroyed. These decisions are particularly important because biometric and AI regulations vary among states and jurisdictions.
Clear objectives make it easier to develop defensible policies, satisfy regulatory expectations and measure whether the technology is producing meaningful results.
The webinar’s central message was not that casinos need to replace everything they currently use. Instead, properties can generate more value by connecting their existing systems, establishing clear response procedures and using data to guide their limited resources.
When technology provides earlier warning and employees know how to act on it, surveillance can move beyond documenting events after they occur and become a more proactive source of intelligence for the entire operation.