Saturday, June 08, 2013

Casinos worldwide rushing to ban Google Glass for fear of its use as casino-cheating device.

Casinos in the United States are forbidding gamblers from wearing Google Glass, the tiny spectacles-mounted device capable of shooting photos, filming video and surfing the internet. Regulators say the gadgets could be used to cheat at card games.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement issued a directive on Monday ordering Atlantic City's 12 casinos to bar casino patrons from using the device. Similar bans are already in place at casinos in Las Vegas and Ohio, among other places.

"If these eyeglasses were worn during a poker game, they could be used to broadcast a patron's hand to a confederate or otherwise be used in a collusive manner," David Rebuck, the division's director wrote in a memo to the casinos. That type of use would constitute a crime in New Jersey. But it would be difficult to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the glasses were actually being used to cheat, Rebuck wrote. For that and other reasons, he decided to ban the glasses on the casino floor and anywhere else gambling is taking place.

"Even if the glasses had not been used for cheating ... their presence at a gaming table would lead to the perception that something untoward could be occurring, thereby undermining public confidence in the integrity of gaming," Rebuck wrote in the directive.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Google said: "We are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues."
In Las Vegas, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts have directed security workers to ask patrons to remove the devices before beginning to gamble.

My take: Well, casinos could just watch the behavior of people wearing the Google Glass instead of forcing them to remove them, but I guess just banning them makes it a whole lot easier for them.