Monday, July 29, 2013

Will Hacking Casino Security Cameras Become the New Casino-Cheat Fad?

You have all heard by now how the Crown casino in Australia was beat a few months back for some $33 Million by a crafty cheat who partnered up with someone who gained unauthorized access to the casino's surveillance system and used it to pass on information concerning the order of the cards being dealt from the card shoe.

This event has certainly shaken up the casino industry worldwide and injected a fair share of paranoia into casino company`s heads that another remake of the "Oceans" films is going to be shot for real in their casinos. It happened because an unauthorised person was given remote access to the casino's surveillance systems and was able to relay information about the cards in play to the gambler.

But how real is this threat?

Well, despite the fact that it is relatively easy to intercept sensitive CCTV signals from casinos that don't adhere to strict precautions, I do not believe that this will become a trend like other high-tech cheating methods in the past using microcameras and minicomputers. To my knowledge, a scam quite like this one has not occurred before, and the chances of it occurring again are small, unless, of course, another casino somewhere allows security practices to be breached.

In the end, it's all about safeguards to protect your systems. The problem is that human error safeguarding equipment can not be saved by the equipment itself. By having your casino follow simple procedures such as separate videocamera and workstation networks, secured clients, and patchable Internet access, you should be able to avoid becoming the next movie set for all the high-tech casino cheats who want to become the glitter capital's new stars.