With St. Patrick’s Day soon approaching, you may be feeling the luck o’ the Irish and decide to try your luck out at a casino.While you or I may be willing to gamble with our money, make no mistake about it, casinos do not gamble when it comes to securing their livelihood.

Physical Security

While blockbuster movies like Oceans 11 and its many sequels, portray elaborate heists where they successfully rob casinos for millions of dollars, this is not very realistic.  Security in casinos is a top priority, therefore, they have an overwhelming amount of measures in place to ensure their assets remain safe.  Casinos typically have a security force similar to a small police department with dispatchers, officers, a Sergeant and a Lieutenant.  Las Vegas strip casinos average 10-15 security officers on staff at any given time.  There are cameras everywhere to keep eyes on the entire casino floor, as well as, facial recognition and digital radio bands.  With these advanced technologies they can watch for people trying to cheat, bribe people, assault others or any other suspicious behavior.

Cash Security

Whether playing the slot machines or table games, at some point you must put actual cash money either directly into a machine or to the dealer to get into the game.  This cash is then converted to either chips, that are treated as cash, or an electronic voucher that can be turned in for cash.  With so much money physically in one place, there are tight cash handling security measures that are implemented to keep the cash safely in the hands of the casino and out of the hands of would be thieves.  Due to the large amounts of currency changing hands throughout the day at casinos, it is very important to use tamper evident or tamper resistant casino bags to help insure you have a well-documented chain of custody.  These cash bags are clear, thus the contents can easily be seen within the bag, to immediately set off red flags if something in the bags looks off.  The use of these casino specific bags allows all cash to be properly documented, stored and transferred while reducing in house errors or threats of theft.

Property Security

While cash security is incredibly important in a casino, it is not the only asset that needs securing.  Chips, which are treated like cash at a casino, need to be secured and have a proper chain of custody also.  Cards and dice both require proper securing, to make sure that they are not tampered with.  There are specific tamper resistant bags made just for cards and dice that can be utilized to ensure nobody that was not supposed to be in contact with these items came in contact with them.

Luck plays a large factor in all types of gambling, but no casino relies on luck to keep their business running safely, efficiently and profitably.  Security is the name of the game when it comes to casinos.