Casinos, through player loyalty programs, collect mountains of data on the gaming habits and entertainment preferences of their patrons.
With advancements in artificial intelligence and biometrics, questions are arising about how to utilize the collected information.
Meanwhile, many casino industry customers don’t realize that technology is being used at all.
“Nearly every aspect of your life is under surveillance,” Gaming Laboratories International General Counsel Keven Mullally pointed out Friday at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law during a day-long conference on the growing use of technology in the casino industry and how it impacts privacy protection, public policy and regulation.
Mullally, who moderated a panel with three gaming regulators, described in his opening remarks how technology today can track even the most intimate aspects of a person’s life.
Illinois Gaming Control Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter (l) and David Grothaus, executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission
That led Illinois Gaming Control Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter to remark that he wanted to gather his family and go hide in the woods, “but you would still find me because I would need Google Maps to get there.”
For casinos, the challenge is managing security surveillance and the expanding usage of facial recognition software in security measures. Casino operators want to know who is coming onto their properties.
Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairwoman Sandra Douglass Morgan said casino patrons know there are security cameras everywhere on a property, including the eye-in-the sky cameras above gaming areas. They also understand that personal information is given away when signing up for player loyalty cards.
“What level of privacy are they willing to forgo in letting the casino know how much they played to earn a free buffet or a free hotel room?” Morgan said.
She also pointed to Nevada statutes that require regulators to “protect the public” and also “preserve a competitive economy.”
“People walking into a casino understand they are under surveillance,” Morgan said. However, Nevada only allows the surveillance technology to be employed to “detect and identify known cheats and others who have committed gaming crimes or crimes on a casino property.”
Morgan added that a Las Vegas company, Biometrica, provides the technology for real time facial scans of any individual on a casino property against a law enforcement verified database of “criminals numbering in the millions.”
On a separate panel discussion, Nevada Gaming Control Board Member Terry Johnson said facial recognition technology could be used to enforced self-exclusion programs and to identify problem gamblers. However, he cited an ACLU study that utilized facial recognition from some 20,000 criminal records that matched the data with members of Congress, coming up with dozens of mistaken identities.
“This is a topic we need to work through,” Johnson said.
Nevada GCB member Terry Johnson (l) and gaming consultant Mark Lipparelli
Morgan said Nevada has policy considerations on the level of privacy a customer can expect when visiting a casino in the state. There are also policy considerations concerning a customer’s privacy when gambling on the state’s online poker sites and betting on sports through mobile wagering.
Frutcher said Illinois voters passed a Biometric Privacy Act in 2008, which was the first of its kind in the country. The technology is only used as a tool in human resources hiring practices.
“Regulators are at an extreme technological disadvantage,” Frutcher said.
In Missouri, voters enacted a biometric privacy ban to “help protect (casino) patrons from invasion of privacy and the possibility of identity theft.” However, David Grothaus, executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission, said it’s “advantageous” for regulators in the state to have use of these tools when overseeing the riverboat casino market.
“Our bottom line is we need to know who is on that boat,” Grothaus said. “Are they underage or a notorious person? Is it someone on a self-exclusion list?”
#exclusive – Regulators: ‘People walking into a casino understand they are under surveillance’. –@howardstutz, CDC Gaming. https://t.co/BNc2AIOweC @biometrica_inc #CDCgaming
— CDC Gaming (@CDCNewswire) January 20, 2020
Former Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli, now a consultant and a board member for the gaming and technology companies, said the industry has been dealing with technology issues for more than 25 years, led primarily by the various shifts in slot machine products and operating systems.
“This is territory we’ve all been through before,” Lipparelli said.
He added the gaming industry might need to band together to create its own set of best practices, “or else we’re going to encounter 230 jurisdictions and 230 versions.”
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
