Not Just a Game
Video analytics turns the casino intelligent
- By Bob Cutting
- Feb 29, 2008
It must be the “Hollywood effect”—
whenever a casino’s looking at video
analytics, the discussion often leads
down the path of far-fetched concepts
and applications for catching and tracking
cheats. Due largely to its depiction on TV
and in movies, the reality of casino surveillance
is commonly misperceived. While
security and surveillance directors should
continue to push the envelope and encourage
the industry to develop innovative new
technologies to solve constant challenges,
it is important that customers have an accurate
understanding of what can and can’t be
done right now with intelligent video.
Today’s state-of-the-art video analytics
technology has many practical applications,
but it simply cannot monitor all player
movements and detect all behaviors that
surveillance directors may want, especially
considering the typically crowded environment
around a table. For example, what’s
the likelihood that the hand motions of
every player will be unobscured? Or, how
can the analytics software know when no
more bets are to be placed in order to separate
the normal betting motion from illegal
behavior, such as past-posting of bets?
Conceivably, high-definition monitoring of
individual player betting areas could detect
suspicious chip movement, but this
requires expensive and potentially infeasible
video coverage for a single-purpose
piece of software.
However, the advances being made by
video analytics that detect more specific
behaviors are significant, and there are
many applications within a casino where
video analytics is being used to deliver
immediate value and more return on the
investment made in video infrastructure.
Real Results
While many gaming table surveillance
applications for video analytics remain a
part of Hollywood fiction, more casinos
are recognizing the true capabilities of
this technology and making a strategic
investment in video analytics. Deploying
analytics for multiple purposes within an
organization, ranging from security to
surveillance to marketing, can reap positive
results.
On the casino floor, existing video cameras
are being augmented with accurate people-
counting software to yield business
intelligence on traffic flow, gaming usage
and promotional effectiveness. Off the casino
floor, there are many high-value uses for
video analytics to monitor retail, entertainment
and backroom operations for additional
business intelligence and improved customer
service. And, of course, video analytics
for physical security is being applied at
many points around and within a
casino/resort’s physical environment.
Untapped Intelligence
Casinos have invested millions of dollars
into extensive video coverage throughout
their casinos and resort properties, with
high-density coverage on the gaming floor.
These video systems are primarily used for
both proactive and reactive surveillance.
Each camera represents an ongoing stream
of information that is generally untapped
without analytics.
Consequently, people-counting and traffic
pattern analysis is the hottest topic today
for casinos evaluating video analytics.
Existing cameras providing general area
surveillance on the gaming floor represent
significant sources of invaluable data on
how patrons move in and through a casino.
Using little effort and leveraging existing
camera feeds, casinos have already started
to use video analytics for these types of
business intelligence applications and are
producing actionable results.
One such casino, Chumash Casino near
Santa Barbara, Calif., accurately monitors
all entry and exit points to the casino floor
and aggregates that data to reliably output
the occupancy level within the casino at any
given time. That occupancy data is compared
in real time to game and slot usage
and to verify if staffing levels are appropriate
for the current casino patron population.
This same occupancy information is used by
Chumash to evaluate the effectiveness of
entertainers and performances to attract customers
to the casino and then to measure if
those customers remain in the casino once
the performance has concluded.
On the casino floor, people-counting
technology also can be used to measure
traffic flow at any place in the casino.
Casino floors represent a series of traffic
paths that can be segmented and individually
monitored for people flow. One example
for the use of video analytics is slots
traffic for high-jackpot slots or for
machines that have just been placed on the
floor. Casinos already know how often
each machine is used and how long players
may stay at the same machine. Intelligent
video provides added value by reporting on
how many people walk by specific
machines, how many people loiter in front
of machines but don’t play, and more. By
collecting and reporting this data over the
long term, the casino can better assess the
total traffic and conversion of that traffic to
actual slot play, thereby determining the
true effectiveness of the machine relative to
its corresponding floor placement.
Maximizing Business Within Business
Most casinos are self-contained mini cities,
providing food, retail and other services to
keep guests happy, comfortable and in the
casino. Having better insight into the
patronage of those operations enables the
casino to gain accurate knowledge of customer
behavior and service that enables
them to constantly improve those operations.
Once again, video analytics can be
used to continuously stream data related to
ongoing activity within individual operations.
Foot traffic for each retail store can
be captured to either generate threshold
alerts when occupancy reaches a specific
level or assess data over time to interpret
trends. Within each store, analytics can
detect unsafe or suspicious crowding that
requires response.
For any casino, maximizing business
often means maximizing customer service.
Poor customer response caused by extensive
wait times must be monitored and corrected
in real time. And, one thing a casino
has plenty of are customer queues.
Customers wait in line for check-in, taxis,
ATMs, stores, show tickets, guest services
and, of course, the buffet. Video analytics
can monitor queues in real time to determine
the number of people in line. Then,
an alert can be generated when a certain
occupancy is exceeded so appropriate
action can be taken. Queue length or occupancy
rules in place on video cameras
throughout a casino provide a proactive
and centralized method to resolve customer
service issues before they escalate.
It All Starts With Security
Inside any casino, there are numerous
restricted areas being monitored by passive
video systems that can immediately benefit
from intelligent video capabilities. Security
personnel can spend more time on known
high-risk areas while analytics picks up the
continuous monitoring of all other areas,
such as stairwells, fire exits, loading docks
and perimeter access points. Analytics also
can accurately monitor access to and from
controlled areas and compare those events
in real time with access control events to
deliver a solution for tailgating and other
relevant behaviors.
It’s easy to see how the proper application
of video analytics starts with security,
but forward-thinking gaming operations—
like Chumash Casino Resort—are demonstrating
that intelligent video also can be
used to optimize customers’ experience and
maximize their stay. From a business point
of view, customer service and hospitality
are the name of the game, and casinos can
gain a competitive edge by using video analytics
to take their business to an entirely
new level of operational
effectiveness.