What Does the Casino Do with Your Cards While You’re Away?
All right, you just had a decent streak at the Blackjack table, and you’re about to play your next game. Unfortunately, nature calls, and you have to leave the table for the restroom.
What’s going to happen to the cards and chips you left behind? What if the other players going to snatch your chips for themselves? Most new customers at casinos tend to be very protective of their cards or chips, and no one wants their perfect set of cards or stack of chips stolen. But is it necessary to have your chips within arm’s reach at all times? No, it’s not, and we’ll be showing you how casinos handle security and what happens when you take your eyes off your chips.
Brick-and-Mortar Casino Runs a Tight Ship
Casinos take security very seriously and will go to extreme lengths to ensure everything on their premises is safe and secure. It may not be obvious, but they are one of the most heavily guarded and monitored places that players can access. At times, they’re even more heavily guarded than police stations, and it’s even hard to notice that at first glance.
The average casino can have almost 1,500 surveillance cameras installed. High-tech cameras like the Angel Playing Cards are capable of tracking what cards are in the hands of any given player. Almost every inch of the building is in full view of at least one camera, which members of a surveillance team are keeping their eyes on. These individuals watch, record, and log everything in the casino 24/7.
At every table or game area, at least one security team member is present that is carefully watching all players. There could be anywhere from 50 to 100 guards, who are usually highly trained ex-military personnel that have seen their fair share of hostile situations. If anyone at the table is planning on doing anything sketchy or shady, they’ll either be spotted by the surveillance system or the guards right then and there.
Speaking of tables, it may be obscure, but the dealer at your table is also an added security measure put in place by the casino management. Each dealer is highly trained and is expected to be able to monitor closely and, if necessary, report unsportsmanlike activity at their respective post.
From the advanced tech to your friendly dealer, casinos spare no expense when it comes to guaranteeing player safety and comfort.
What Happens After You Leave the Table?
If you leave your chips, cards, or money at the table for any reason, whether it’s to use the facilities or attend to something else, you can rest assured that your valuables will be looked after.
Usually, all you have to do is tell the dealer to save a spot for you, and he’ll help you protect your cards and chips. The dealer can place a miniature figure, like a chess piece, on top of your cards to prevent tampering. In cases where there are many chips on the table, he’ll put them in a special glass box. Sometimes you’ll see them using a towel, but that’s not a common practice nowadays.
The chips at your table have security features like RFID and barcodes built in to prevent counterfeiting and theft. However, casinos want to keep the chips visible to the cameras and security at all times. The guards and cameras monitoring your table also provide an added layer of security. You can rest assured that your winning poker hand is safe even if you step away from the table.
The question that naturally begs itself after exploring this segment – should you expect the same level of security when dealing with an online casino?
Online Casino Security
If you prefer playing poker from the comfort of your home but are concerned about the level of security that online casinos provide, you can do that with virtually, pun-intended, the same level of security compared to brick-and-mortar places.
Each online casino has a combination of hardware and software firewalls in place that protects its servers from malicious software or cyber-attacks. This ensures that hackers don’t steal both your and the casino’s information. The whole setup gets, so to speak, upgraded in scenarios where we’re talking about an online casino bitcoin brand, as just by using cryptocurrency, or even their own fun tokens in some cases, the complexity and level of security inherently rise because of everything being based on the blockchain technology. In this case, playing live table roulette games is as safe as making a bet in person on your nights out with guys.
Moving on to security put in place for the comfort and safety of the user, biometric authentication and military-grade encryption technology make it impossible for anyone to hack into your account or impersonate you. This also makes sure your banking details are well protected, something you’ve probably already dealt with before.
According to the American Gaming Association, casinos spend an average of $8 million per year on security measures like these. By the looks of it, this can only go up as more new investors are looking to get into this space.