While artificial intelligence-empowered surveillance of table games, dealers, and players can save money, operators must keep it from impinging on the guest experience.
“We need to find out how can we integrate this to where the guests aren’t feeling it,” said Josh Bodell, director of table games for MGM Resorts International. “Figure out how to make that technology that much more efficient, so it’s seamless in gameplay and helps operators make decisions in a split-second vs. having to take the time it does now.”
Zachary Koep, executive director of surveillance at Resorts World Las Vegas, sees strides toward that goal, with a system that aligns card recognition by surveillance cameras with individual bets based on the use of RFID chips. The casino has used the chips since it opened in 2021.
The Resorts World surveillance platform notifies staff immediately of overpays or repeated cases of players deviating from basic strategies in games such as Three Card Poker. At roulette, cameras can send an alert when the ball falls into one section of the wheel more often than it should statistically.
Bodell and Koep participated in a Global Gaming Expo discussion titled “How AI and Technology Are Turning Surveillance into a Strategic Asset.” Trevor Outman, founder and CEO of EagleSight.ai, also was on the panel. Gaming Hall of Fame member Debi Nutton, former executive at Wynn Resorts and MGM, moderated the discussion.
Outman, whose platform deploys intelligent AI agents that continuously watch every table game using a property’s existing camera setup, predicted that within five years, multiple suppliers will offer AI-powered surveillance of the entire gaming floor, giving operators a variety of options. He said EagleSight is building AI agents with different levels of responsibility.
A low-cost “junior” AI could gather metrics such as games and rounds per hour and side bet usage. A higher-powered “senior” AI agent could detect dealer payoff errors. Beyond that, an “orchestrator” AI agent would analyze data from the junior AI fleet and make recommendations such as moving a surveillance staffer from a slow table to a busy one.
All three panelists agreed that operators should practice due diligence before deciding on a provider. “Operating in a casino environment is incredibly difficult, more difficult than any other industry,” Outman acknowledged.
Bodell advised operators to stay current on casino technology and gather a variety of perspectives before deciding what to do. “Look back five years, and what did that technology look like? A lot of the things that we have now weren’t even on the roadmaps.”
EagleSight estimates that casino lose between 1% and 2.5% of table game revenue every year because of undetected dealer errors and cheating.
Outman said operators should consider a camera system covering all table games because human eyes can’t be everywhere at once.
“It’s really hard to slip something by well-trained operators,” he said. “It’s a scale and ratio problem. The challenge is they can’t watch every table game.”
Noting that operators still would decide what, if any, action to take in response to suspicious activity reported.
“We’re transitioning the role from the old perception of surveillance as a cost center to potentially a profit center, increasing the recovery rate,” Outman said.
In response to an audience question, Outman said EagleSight’s accuracy rate is close to 88% and he expects that to improve as the AI learns from its false positives. Koep said false positives in the Resort Worlds system “aren’t a big deal” because a human surveillance operator can access the video and make a determination in less than 10 seconds.
He pointed out another side benefit from AI-enabled surveillance. When the general manager wants to know why a table posted a loss last night, simply typing “What happened at BJ6” will generate the answer.
