How Technology Can Prevent Casino Cheating

Cheating has been around as long as gambling itself, which is surely since the dawn on of time. Cheating in casinos, both land based and online, can prove a huge problem, not only for those playing against the cheater, but for the individual casino operators, as well as the industry in its entirety. Preventing cheating makes casino play fairer for all involved, both operators and their clients.

Fortunately, in today's day and age, we have excellent, highly developed technology that can assist casino operators in pinpointing, profiling and ultimately catching the cheaters amongst their clientele.

Obviously, the technological security measures used in land based casinos are different to those employed on a casino website.

Land based casinos use up-to-the-minute technology even before a potential player parks their car in the casino parking lot. License plate recognition technology photographs each car's license plate, and then optical character recognition software turns the numbers and letters on the plate in to text. This text is compared with data identifying the license plates of those whom the casino wishes to keep out, including those on record as having cheated at the casino on previous visits. If there is an issue, security services at the casino are notified and the person is denied entry. In order that they know exactly who is coming in and out of the casino, the casino operators use biometric facial recognition cameras to ascertain who is coming in their doors. These two methods of clarifying who is entering the casino mean that one who has cheated and been caught at a specific casino may not be able to enter the casino grounds, or building without a red alert being sounded with security.

Of course, security cameras cover all areas of a casino, with skilled professionals observing any suspicious behavior on a bank of computer screens behind the scenes. Casino clientele are observed from the first time they visit a land based casino and place a bet. Their personal details become part of the casino database, which is housed in a secure data-warehousing system.

There are some very discreet technological devices that are of great assistance to those wishing to assure their casino is cheating-free. Angel Eye is a technology whereby a bar code is written in invisible ink on cards at gaming tables, specifically Baccarat. A sensor in the dealing shoe records the bar code of each card as it is dealt. At the end of the game, the computer compares results with the cards on the table, making sure no one has switched cards in an attempt to cheat. Another product, TableEye21, is able to combine live video streaming of what is happening with information regarding the cards and chips being used.

Technology also helps casinos weed out teams of cheaters. Software named non-obvious relationship awareness (NORA) software is able to connect people and see if they have any kind of personal relationship, even as small as having made a phone call to each other in the past.

While some players may slip through all the cracks and think they can get away with cheating, new RFID (radio frequency id) chips may just stop them at the gates. Counterfeit playing chips do not emit the  correct frequency and will therefore not be cashed in. The person with the chips will find themselves in a lot of unexpected trouble.

The technology of online casinos themselves lend to limiting the abilities of players to cheat. There are no physical cards or chips that can be fiddled with, and collusion is harder when you are not face to face. That said, cheaters have still tried to buck the system, using bugs in programs, or accessing the random number generator. This is very difficult for your average player. In response to the rare possibility of cheating using the random number generator, online casinos tend not to operate it until after players place their bets. try your luck at casino.com secure online casino for fun or for real money.

Mobile casinos themselves, with casino apps, also add another layer of security, as adding bugs to an app is a much more difficult proposition than to an online computer program.

So it can be seen that in many ways, the casino industry is doing all it can to prevent cheating through new and up and coming technologies. That way, everything remains fair for everyone, so that everyone can gain enjoyment and maybe even some very big wins from both online and land based casinos.