Awareness of casino security knows no bounds

Off the main floor at Rivers Casino is a plain door that opens onto a decidedly plain office. Utilitarian desks and chairs occupy the main space. The room has no windows.

Like the casino, it's staffed around the clock.

It's the home of a state Gaming Control Board crew that handles players' inquiries or complaints about casino procedures and makes sure the casino complies with the myriad of state gambling laws.

The board's "casino compliance representatives" make up one of the three prongs of security on duty at each of Pennsylvania's 10 casinos.

A casino has its own security and surveillance staff to monitor customers and employees alike. In addition, state police troopers are on duty at each casino to handle criminal complaints, the most common being patrons intentionally or unintentionally taking other players' slot machine vouchers or credits.

A gaming board CCR -- who shares the acronym with legendary rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival -- is responsible for watching the casino and its employees to make sure the games and procedures are on the up-and-up.

The agents literally follow the money, a big job in casinos that routinely handle millions a day in cash.

Compliance representatives monitor the "count room," where piles of money are tabulated daily on see-through tables that keep bills from being hidden underneath. They track the "drop," when guards collect those seemingly impossible-to-fill metal boxes holding the cash that table game players have exchanged for chips.

The agents investigate customer complaints such as the October incident in which a computer error was blamed for crediting, and then removing, $1,000 worth of free play from an unspecified number of slot machine users at Rivers. The board's Office of Enforcement Counsel still has that case.

Compliance representatives also watch for suspicious moves that could indicate cheating or collusion by dealers or players.

"In table games and slot machines, there's a whole counter-culture that does nothing but cheat," said Gerald E. Stoll, the board's director of casino compliance. "There are people who are making their living by cheating."

Stoll said Pennsylvania has experienced far fewer incidents of cheating than expected for a state that opened table games less than a year ago.

"Normally when you're most vulnerable is when you have relatively inexperienced dealers," he said. "Whether it was the economy or whatever reason, we kind of recruited a lot of experienced personnel here."

Julia Foster-Franklin, supervisor of the 10-person compliance crew at Rivers, said agents also watch for underage gamblers or compulsive gamblers who have put themselves on the "self-exclusion" list; approve and monitor movement of slot machines; and handle complaints ranging from slot malfunctions to people lighting up in the no-smoking area.

Compliance representatives often walk the floor to keep an eye on the games and make their presence known to players. Agents report suspected violations of law to state police on duty at the casinos.

In the search for possible cheating, "I'll look at the dealers. I'll look at patrons. I'll look at someone who's looking at me," said Stoll, a former New Jersey state trooper and gaming enforcement officer whose linebacker bulk and shaved head are tough to ignore.

"Normally, the focus when you're playing a table game is on the table. I'm looking for deviations. I'm looking for other-than-normal behavior."

"I look for a sloppy (blackjack) dealer, somebody who's showing their hole card. Or somebody at third base who's leaning back, trying to catch a lazy dealer (flashing the hole card)."

Stoll said casino compliance representatives are responsible to patrons, the state and the property.

Players have the right to expect gaming is safe and fair; the state needs to make sure it gets its proper share of gambling revenue; and the casino has a right to protect itself from cheats.

"I like to think we're impartial," Stoll said. "We don't have a dog in the fight. If the customer's right, that's fine. If the dealer's right, that's fine, too."

Money trail: table games

Pennsylvania's 10 casinos set a record for table game revenue last month, the Gaming Control Board said this week. Total table game revenue was $54.6 million, the most since table games started in July and $10 million more than the previous high of $44 million, set in December.

State and local governments get 16 percent of the table game revenue. Figures for Western Pennsylvania casinos:

• Rivers: $5.55 million gross on 104 games, up about $8,000 from February. The 30-table poker room accounted for $627,170.
• The Meadows: $4.48 million gross on 70 games, more than four times the February total. The 20-table poker room accounted for $354,353.
• Presque Isle in Erie: $1.8 million gross on 48 games, up about $312,000 from February. Presque Isle doesn't have poker tables.

Slot payouts

Statewide slot payout rate since the fiscal year started in July: 90.27 percent. For every $100 bet, machines returned an average of $90.27.

• Rivers' slot payout rate since July: 90.11 percent.
• The Meadows' slot payout rate since July: 90.17 percent
• Presque Isle's slot payout rate since July: 90.33 percent.

Figures are through April 10.

Question of the week

How much money do people typically budget for a day of casino gambling?

The American Gaming Association says 48 percent of casino visitors budgeted less than $100 per day in 2009, the latest year for which figures are available. Other answers: $100-$199, 21 percent; $200-$299, 13 percent; $300 or more, 14 percent; no answer, 4 percent.