New technologies applied to casino security analyzed at EY!11

The session counted with the participation of Nicolás Dienot (Clover Gaming - Director),
Elizabeth Romano (TCS - Business Development Manager Latin America), Marta Mateus (Copag - International Business Director) and Deron Hunsberger (ShuffleMaster - Vice President of Sales and Marketing).

“In Latin America there are very few security measures taken by operators”, assured Dienot, who listed different security measures at the beginning of the conference. “Basically, we have two types of security: visible and invisible. The ideal thing would be to combine both. The ideal is to enhance the complexity of the design and choose a chip with the greatest number of colors possible, which is more difficult to forge. Many manufacturers offer specific molds for casinos. With regards to the invisible part, the UV pigment is a good security measure, and it is very widespread. It reacts with the presence of a light and changes the tone of the chip to a green color”, he explained. Anyway, he affirmed that these measures can be forged.

Then he added that RFID is the most advanced technology nowadays to bring security to a chip. “It’s worth investing in these chips in order to protect the patrimony of a casino”, he affimed, and said that the post RFID is diometry, which is developing. “It is a technology practised on objects –a chip, a card, a dice- which could be saved in a data base, with an inviolable code. It would mean a unique patent of each casino product, someting which could be a thorny issue for  casinos”.

Besides, Marta Mateus commented that the great challenge nowadays for the market is to obtain new technologies and products which are commercial and necessary for customers. “Today we have cards with RFID, but it is not an economic product”, she affirmed. “That’s why we have to know the security problems and the cheats. The 10% of the chips are the most valuable ones, so it is necessary to invest in it”, she added.

Elizabeth Romano agreed with Mateus, saying that sometimes security measures are not used due to a lack of knowledge, time and training, and expressed that it is necessary to search for the councelling of professionals in order to get to know the current cheats. “It is important that products bring security in a Price according to the customer needs”. She put as an example a leveller system for roulettes, with a very simple system, with a base in which the Wheel can be levelled, as well as wheels that can be calibrated not only manually but also through computers.

She also remarked the role of new technologies applied to table games, which bring more speed and a maximization of profits, and indicated that the same thing happens with security. She remarked two products to enhance security: the Protect 21 system for blackjack and Atom Wheel, in roulette games.

Besides, Humsberger commented that in his company, Shuffle Master, initially products were developed for operators to maximize their profits, and commented that they introduced a random number generator to their shuffler which provides security for the operator and the player. The company also presented the Card Verificator, and he then talked about the improvements that were added, such as LCD technology for the shuffler, to verify which cards are missing. The i-Shue y el i-Table are other products presented. “We have to face the issues related to regulation to be able to incorporate the new technologies. We have to see which are the technologies available and analyze how can we integrate it for our customers”, he affirmed.

After that, Nicolás Dienot talked about the myths and realities of RFID technology, and then, each of the speakers presented devices from their respective firms, created with the aim to bring more security to casinos.

“Each customer should evaluate and choose what is best for them”, stressed Mateus, an issue in which all the spakers agreed.