Casino’s have always been targeted by conmen who are looking to make a fast buck and criminals who plan more elaborate schemes involving racketing, money laundering, loan sharking and card counting.
Casino management are aware that they need to be vigilant at all times to not only stop crimes but to detect them even before they occur.
Casinos invest heavily into security procedures and training of their employees to ensure that they are well prepared to deal with such instances. Even though a lot of importance is placed on security and training, there are crimes committed frequently at these casinos. The Horseshoe Cincinnati Casino recently reported that it was unable to account for $8,000 in chips and believed that someone has stolen the chips. The incident came to light on the 12th of October after 6 pm and was immediately raised to senior casino officials who have decided to conduct an internal investigation.
Casinos spend huge sums of money to buy the latest chips in the market that come equipped with radio frequency identification that allows the chips to send a signal directly to the casino table to confirm originality and validity. If the casino decides to disable the transmitted embedded in these chips, then the signal stops transmitting and the table will consider those chips to have no value. The Horseshoe Cincinnati Casino has this technology embedded in their chips and will use the technology to ensure that they are not cashed.
Jessica Franks of the Ohio Casino Control Commission stated that stealing casino chips in Ohio is not a common occurrence before of the chip technology that the casinos use. In a statement,
The commission does maintain a law enforcement presence at all four of Ohio’s casinos, and those agents do work cooperatively with both casino personnel and local law enforcement.
The casino is yet to release any information into the investigation and have reportedly filed a case with local law enforcement. However the police deny receiving any such complaint from the casino which could probably mean that the casino prefers to handle it at an internal level because the chip technology will safeguard the casino from being $8,000 out of pocket.
The commission had earlier fined the Horseshoe Cincinnati Casino in May 2015 after it found that the casino’s security and surveillance cameras were not functioning for a number of months and hence the casino was forced to pay a fine of $125,000. If the cameras are now working, then the casino will have to play back the footage to find out who stole the $8,000 in chips.