Gaming and Casino Management - Research Paper Example

 Gaming and Casino Management Introduction Gaming in casinos is one of the most popular activities in the cities in developed countries. Gaming popularity can be traced down to the late 19th century when industrialization was at its peak in the world. Gambling was popularized by the increase in earnings in the cities where most men had settled in search of employment. In the initial days of the game, the players would engage in the activity in pubs, hotels and any other social meeting places. As time went by, the gambling activity became a norm and the early entrepreneurs opened gambling parlors in the big hotels, pubs and night clubs. Over time, most authorities banned gambling in their states since it was spurring more crime in the cities as the young men and women started living for the activity. Increased theft and drug use led to the erosion of viable minds among the people and the authorities decided to ban the activity. The owners of the casinos had to be innovative and they introduced other forms of games other than direct gambling whereby the interested parties had to play a legal game and the winner would get a price in the form of cash. In today’s world, gaming in the casinos is legal in different states and there are many gaming machines that have been invented. Running a casino is a very demanding task since there are high chances of theft and other forms of crimes associated with the activity. In this paper, I will look into gaming and casino management, placing emphasis on theft in the area. Casino Gaming Management Theft in casinos Managing a casino entails more than just ensuring that the customers are satisfied and having a good time while they are gaming in the casino. Good casino managers should focus on capturing more customers and ensuring that the new members are willing to spend even more while in the casino. In order for this to happen, the casino must create a very good impression on its target customers so that they can be enticed to join and place their money on the betting tables. This can be done through various ways like giving very good deals when the players are betting against the house and ensuring that the gaming process is transparent for the customers to trust the casino. There have been many cases whereby the casino management has been accused of theft in the gaming process. Such cases involve the management tipping their dealers and croupiers to play tricks on the customers to lose their bets. When such an incident occurs, the casino may end up losing most of its customers due to lack of trust. Other theft cases that have been reported around the world are when there are many players betting against each other and the dealers choose sides. Dealers may be corrupt, favoring their favorite gamers to win the bets. It is the duty of the manager in the casino to look into such issues to ensure that the players and the dealers are following the rules of the casino at all times (Kale, 2012). Gambling in the licensed casinos is one of the most thrilling games. Gambling is normally done on table games. Depending on the jurisdiction that the casino is entitled to, there are different table games that are allowed by the authorities. In most casinos, Blackjack is the most popular gambling games. In these games, the casino has the opportunity to gain a long term advantage while the players have a short term advantage to win a hefty amount of money. There are incidences in which greed overtakes reasoning and the casino may opt to take advantage of the random choices that the players have to make. Theft in the casino is done in a very tricky way such that the player will not notice. When the gamers are engaged in gambling in the Blackjack table for instance, the dealer may have tactfully hidden cards that eliminate all the chances of the players to win. It is also common for some players to attempt sneaking in their own cards to steal from the house. There is always a possibility of tricky theft in the games in casinos (Reece, 2010). The slot machines in the casinos also play as theft spots in casinos where the management is led by greed. This is done by using high tech technology to ensure that the slot machines do not let the players win for more than several times in a given period of time. While the players think that the games are just purely based on luck, the machines are doctored to only allow several wins in a given period of time so that the management can gain more cash from the innocent players. During the gaming process, the regular customers may form relationships with the dealers and together they may organize thefts on the house. This is one of the most common theft phenomena in the casinos and it is still happening despite the increased vigilance in the casinos using CCTV cameras and sound monitors. The employees and the players collaborate to cheat the system. Some players steal from the casinos by forging chips worth high amounts and using them to bet against their fellow players and the house. Others may attempt to steal the expensive chips from the casino to be used elsewhere. The management in a casino is under constant risk of such thefts (Wheeler, Round & Wilson, 2011). Casinos deal with hefty amounts of money on a daily basis and they require money transportation to and from the banks. There are many transportation agencies that have been linked to casino thefts. Thefts conducted by the transportation agencies are often linked to an inside job between the casino employees or management and the transporting agency or one of the two parties. This kind of theft has a traditional procedure whereby the money is put in the transporting vehicle and somewhere on the way the transporters are attacked by armed thieves and they let them have the money. There are cases win which the thefts are genuine under very sophisticated theft plans. In Las Vegas for instance, money transporting tracks are hijacked and the transporters killed while the thieves disappear with the money (King, 2010). While it is impossible to completely eliminate the chances of such kinds of thefts in the casino, the management of a casino can effectively reduce theft chances to a minimum by using different agencies and constantly changing the transportation programs. Wherever a casino is situated, there is always a likelihood of an armed robbery occurring. Thieves may force their way into the casino’s vault and take off with a large amount of money. This usually happens in casinos that are located in hotels or in nightclubs. In 2007 for instance, the Soboba Casino in California was robbed of $1.58 million by Rolando Luda Ramos. Ramos made his way into the casino after attacking the casino guards and he kidnapped one of the guards, forcing his way into the casino vault (King, 2010). Such thefts have been conducted by thieves in larger groups and there is always a chance that they could happen any time of the day. Having tight security minimizes these chances in casinos. In the 90s, there was a trend of casino managements stealing from their customers when they won in their bets. The casinos would employ people to follow the winners as they left the casinos and stealing the money. Technology has eliminated that by introducing money wiring whereby the winners do not have to leave with cash; however, there are growing habits of casinos failing to meet their end of the bargain when the customers demand for their money to be sent to their accounts. Among the top theft risks in a casino, the employees are the leading lot in the list. Employees may coordinate to make away with large amounts of money on a long term basis. Detecting thefts by the employees may be difficult for the management since most employees do not steal large amounts at once. They usually steal little amounts on a regular basis and in the long run thy take off with very large amounts of money. Though not common in the recent past, these forms of thefts in the casinos are viable threats to the management. Such a case occurred in 2008 in Arizona. A Desert Diamond Casino’s slot floor employees confessed to stealing $650 thousand in a time span of two years while he was working in the casino. The employee had secured the password that is needed to process the jackpot tickets and he stole the money in small quantities over the two years without the management finding out (King, 2010). Employees may also steal expensive chips from the casinos, which they later sell to the customers in the black market. There have also been security guards that have been charged with stealing from their workplace in organized robberies. Many other cases have been reported and the risk of employee theft in casinos is yet to be completely eliminated. The location of a casino may be a predisposing factor to theft. A casino located in a busy hotel has a higher chance of theft by outsiders than a casino that is strategically located in its own setting. This is because the more the people that frequent the environs of a casino, the higher the risk of theft. Hotel casinos have a very large number of customers since it is a thrilling experience that many people would not want to miss when they check into a prestigious hotel. There are always chances that some of the people who check into the hotels have ill motives to steal from the casinos. Thieves check into the hotels and they frequent the casinos, trying to find out the security organization of the casino. Once they have a clear picture of the security system, they come up with a robbery plan that seldom fails. Many hotel Casinos are robbed by their customers. Managing these casinos in a secure way entails using technological security systems that are burglar proof and mounting a tight security system in the hotel (Reece, 2010). Conclusion Vigilance in the management is very important in a casino. There should be a transparent role to play in the gaming activities whereby the customers make independent decisions and the management should ensure that they are honest with their customers. The different games in the casino should be handled by dealers who are honest and loyal to their employers such that the chances of winning or losing for all the involved parties in gaming are set at equilibrium. The management in a casino should also ensure that there is ample security since the hefty amounts of money that they deal with attracts criminals. Money is a big temptation to all humans and the employees in casinos are no exceptions. Most of the annual casino thefts are linked to one or more of the employees in the casino. Greed in the management has also been attributed to some of the controversial casino’s thefts that have taken place in the recent past. References Kale, S.H. (2012). Optimally Managing the Casino High-End Market. Urbino.net. Retrieved from: http://www.urbino.net/bright.cfm?specificBright=Optimally%20Managing%20the%2 0Casino%20High-End%20Market King, D. (2010). Casino Heists: Criminals are flush with Creative ideas. Daily Finance. Retrieved from: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/12/19/casino-heists-criminals-are- flush-with-creative-ideas/ Reece, W. (2010). Casinos, Hotels, and Crime. Contemporary Economic Policy, 28(2), 145- 161. Wheeler, S., Round, D. & Wilson, J. (2011). The Relationship between Crime and Electronic Gaming Expenditure: Evidence from Victoria, Australia. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 27(3), 315-338. Read More