Latest developments in casino game security

Think back to the last movie you watched that featured a casino or casino games.

Was it Ocean's Eleven, the casino heist movie? It might have been Casino, the 1995 De Niro film that highlighted a casino's day to day running and its shady characters.

Even Casino Royale has a super criminal playing the tables. Casinos are linked with dubious characters and intentions in pop culture, which does little for the real-life industry.

That depiction is part fact, part fiction, but casino operators are working hard to eliminate those elements. In the modern world, a casino operator isn't just overseeing a physical location or managing a virtual location online, with a fresh set of challenges and obstacles to overcome.

Online gaming has become big business, perhaps even more so than physical casinos, not least because of the recent pandemic. Many providers saw significant increases, as reported by iGaming Business, as players had to remain at home.

However, necessity hasn't been the only reason; providers have developed better offerings including branded games, capitalising on their new customer base. For instance, Gala Casino features branded games such as Game of Thrones Power Stacks and Jurassic Park Online Slot, which take popular films and shows and deliver an iGaming experience around their imagery.

That appeals to a different type of player than a physical casino, helping the business to boom. However, where there's a boom, predators are lurking, looking to make a quick buck.

So how are casino operators, online or otherwise, leveraging technical innovation to stop those hoping to exploit them and you?

Facial recognition

Currently, this is an innovation being used in physical locations to ensure security. Danny Ocean wouldn't have been able to pull off his heist in Ocean's Eleven had the Bellagio had facial recognition software on their doors; his gang couldn't have cased the joint with such ease.

It isn't just facial recognition either, as some will use number plate recognition in their car park to spot former offenders before they even set foot inside. Online providers could also use the technology for logging in and out of accounts, although it isn't mainstream at the moment.

Many modern tablets, phones, and PCs already have facial recognition in place, which will surely become more widespread over time.

Payment services

The biggest threat for online casino users comes around the transactions, both deposits and withdrawals. Online providers use different payment methods, and although standard transactions directly to your bank are the norm, they're becoming increasingly less popular.

Many casinos are looking to bolster their payment methods to ensure absolute security, and one way they are doing this is cryptocurrency.

Crypto is much safer than using a portal directly to your bank and even safer than something like PayPal. It is anonymous, very tough for a hacker to break into and is a developing technology more people are using than ever before.

RFID technology

In 2010, an audacious, real life Danny Ocean stole a lot of chips from the Bellagio. Anthony Carleo took $1.5 million worth of chips from the casino, hoping to return and cash them in later. He couldn't because the casino was using rudimentary RFID technology at the time.

They simply deactivated the chips, meaning they were worthless to the crook. RFID technology ensured that the casino was protected, and the customers, too – nobody could steal the chips from them and get away with it either.

Modern chips are now trackable, so the casino can find out where they are with GPS tracking. It allows them to monitor customers' gaming patterns and traffic but ultimately means no more budding Anthony Carleo figures will ever get away with their crimes.

Featured