TheCigSmokingMan
Rift Surfer
Las Vegas becoming a security lab
Privacy experts worry about data mining, high-tech surveillance
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21411857/
By Ellen Nakashima
Updated: 11:11 p.m. ET Oct 21, 2007
LAS VEGAS - This city, famous for being America's playground, has also become its security lab. Like nowhere else in the United States, Las Vegas has embraced the twin trends of data mining and high-tech surveillance, with arguably more cameras per square foot than any airport or sports arena in the country. Even the city's cabs and monorail have cameras. As the U.S. government ramps up its efforts to forestall terrorist attacks, some privacy advocates view the city as a harbinger of things to come.
In secret rooms in casinos across Las Vegas, surveillance specialists are busy analyzing information about players and employees. Relying on thousands of cameras in nearly every cranny of the casino, they evaluate suspicious behavior. They ping names against databases that share information with other casinos, sometimes using facial-recognition software to validate a match. And in the marketing suites, casino staffers track players' every wager, every win or loss, the better to target high-rollers for special treatment and low- and middle-rollers for promotions.
"You could almost look at Vegas as the incubator of a whole host of surveillance technologies," said James X. Dempsey, policy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology. Those technologies, he said, have already spread to other commercial venues: malls, stadiums, amusement parks. And although that is "problematic," he said, "the spread of the techniques to counterterrorism is doubly worrisome. Finding a terrorist is much harder than finding a card counter, and the consequences of being wrongly labeled a terrorist are much more severe than being excluded from a casino."
Eyes in the Sky
The casino industry, like the national security industry, is seeking information to answer a fundamental question: Who are you?
"It's, are you a good guy or a bad guy? A threat or a non-threat?" explained Derk Boss, the Stratosphere's vice president for surveillance, whose crew operates under what he calls the IOU system: Identify, Observe and Understand.
"There are going to be people that just want to come and gamble and enjoy your services," he said. "And there are going to be people that are going to come to take your money. Our job is to distinguish between those two groups."
In the surveillance room, 50 monitors are linked to 2,000 cameras, from the casino entrance to the tower observation deck. Two employees keep an eye on the monitors. Guests are on camera from the moment they enter -- except in their rooms and in bathrooms. An investigator tracking a suspect could go back and review old tape, assembling a mosaic of a visitor's moves for the past two weeks.
What happens in Vegas does indeed stay in Vegas -- for a lot longer than most patrons realize.
On a recent Friday night, the surveillance team at the Stratosphere hotel and casino is watching a casino host they suspect of handing out unwarranted "comps," or vouchers for free rooms and meals to guests. Might he be taking kickbacks?
Down on the floor, the pit boss is observing players, looking for "tells" -- behavioral signs of cheaters or other undesirables. The night before, investigators identified a blackjack player as a card counter. Casinos dislike card counters because they can determine when the cards are to their advantage and raise their bets accordingly. When the pit boss told the card counter he could bet only the minimum amount, he cashed in his chips and left.
Casinos have tried to use facial recognition software to identify known cheats in real time, but with little success. Casino lighting is often dim, and a player who wants to conceal his identity can hide behind a hat, sunglasses or a false beard.
But in a few years, some say, iris scan technology will be mature enough to use in gaming. Casinos might ask people to sit for a scan of the iris, which, like a fingerprint, has a unique pattern. That pattern would be transformed into a template to be matched against a database.
After Sept. 11, 2001, several airports tested facial recognition software, with little success. But the government is continuing to invest in biometric technologies, and the U.S. military already uses iris scans on suspects captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Sounds like 1984 in Vegas... But WORSE...
Maybe Americans should skip Vegas... Until you can go without your face and history being shared to every casino in town and maybe the world.
And Americans GAMBLE too much... If you spend more than 300 dollars a quarter, you might have a GAMBLING PROBLEM.
And it should be considered "entertainment", the fore knowledge that you are going to most likely LOSE at the tables or the slots should be common sense.
Do you really want to go a place that was "detailed" in the Movie "Casino" where all the hotel stafff and workers of Las Vegas are "mob informants"... "cop informants"... Not very bright to go there for "vacation"...
And who want to go to a place where "being buried in the desert" in most common threat.
Never mind being in a national security STATE of Las Vegas. The home of Aera 51 and S4 and god knows what else...
I think the beach would be much better vacation,
TheCigMan
Privacy experts worry about data mining, high-tech surveillance
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21411857/
By Ellen Nakashima
Updated: 11:11 p.m. ET Oct 21, 2007
LAS VEGAS - This city, famous for being America's playground, has also become its security lab. Like nowhere else in the United States, Las Vegas has embraced the twin trends of data mining and high-tech surveillance, with arguably more cameras per square foot than any airport or sports arena in the country. Even the city's cabs and monorail have cameras. As the U.S. government ramps up its efforts to forestall terrorist attacks, some privacy advocates view the city as a harbinger of things to come.
In secret rooms in casinos across Las Vegas, surveillance specialists are busy analyzing information about players and employees. Relying on thousands of cameras in nearly every cranny of the casino, they evaluate suspicious behavior. They ping names against databases that share information with other casinos, sometimes using facial-recognition software to validate a match. And in the marketing suites, casino staffers track players' every wager, every win or loss, the better to target high-rollers for special treatment and low- and middle-rollers for promotions.
"You could almost look at Vegas as the incubator of a whole host of surveillance technologies," said James X. Dempsey, policy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology. Those technologies, he said, have already spread to other commercial venues: malls, stadiums, amusement parks. And although that is "problematic," he said, "the spread of the techniques to counterterrorism is doubly worrisome. Finding a terrorist is much harder than finding a card counter, and the consequences of being wrongly labeled a terrorist are much more severe than being excluded from a casino."
Eyes in the Sky
The casino industry, like the national security industry, is seeking information to answer a fundamental question: Who are you?
"It's, are you a good guy or a bad guy? A threat or a non-threat?" explained Derk Boss, the Stratosphere's vice president for surveillance, whose crew operates under what he calls the IOU system: Identify, Observe and Understand.
"There are going to be people that just want to come and gamble and enjoy your services," he said. "And there are going to be people that are going to come to take your money. Our job is to distinguish between those two groups."
In the surveillance room, 50 monitors are linked to 2,000 cameras, from the casino entrance to the tower observation deck. Two employees keep an eye on the monitors. Guests are on camera from the moment they enter -- except in their rooms and in bathrooms. An investigator tracking a suspect could go back and review old tape, assembling a mosaic of a visitor's moves for the past two weeks.
What happens in Vegas does indeed stay in Vegas -- for a lot longer than most patrons realize.
On a recent Friday night, the surveillance team at the Stratosphere hotel and casino is watching a casino host they suspect of handing out unwarranted "comps," or vouchers for free rooms and meals to guests. Might he be taking kickbacks?
Down on the floor, the pit boss is observing players, looking for "tells" -- behavioral signs of cheaters or other undesirables. The night before, investigators identified a blackjack player as a card counter. Casinos dislike card counters because they can determine when the cards are to their advantage and raise their bets accordingly. When the pit boss told the card counter he could bet only the minimum amount, he cashed in his chips and left.
Casinos have tried to use facial recognition software to identify known cheats in real time, but with little success. Casino lighting is often dim, and a player who wants to conceal his identity can hide behind a hat, sunglasses or a false beard.
But in a few years, some say, iris scan technology will be mature enough to use in gaming. Casinos might ask people to sit for a scan of the iris, which, like a fingerprint, has a unique pattern. That pattern would be transformed into a template to be matched against a database.
After Sept. 11, 2001, several airports tested facial recognition software, with little success. But the government is continuing to invest in biometric technologies, and the U.S. military already uses iris scans on suspects captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sounds like 1984 in Vegas... But WORSE...
Maybe Americans should skip Vegas... Until you can go without your face and history being shared to every casino in town and maybe the world.
And Americans GAMBLE too much... If you spend more than 300 dollars a quarter, you might have a GAMBLING PROBLEM.
And it should be considered "entertainment", the fore knowledge that you are going to most likely LOSE at the tables or the slots should be common sense.
Do you really want to go a place that was "detailed" in the Movie "Casino" where all the hotel stafff and workers of Las Vegas are "mob informants"... "cop informants"... Not very bright to go there for "vacation"...
And who want to go to a place where "being buried in the desert" in most common threat.
Never mind being in a national security STATE of Las Vegas. The home of Aera 51 and S4 and god knows what else...
I think the beach would be much better vacation,
TheCigMan