Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2016 48 Tech Talk Casino card security is a constant struggle between men who design secure systems and cheats who try to outwit them By Steven Ribet S cammers who compromise casino card security can, and have, made millions. Casinos are loath to admit when they have been had. So the true number of successful scams is probably several times the number reported. The history of card security can be seen as an arms race between two warring kingdoms. On one side there are casinos and their suppliers, developing new technologies or procedures to block a particular trick. Pitted against them are the con artists who think up ways to get around the new measures, or instead invent whole new ways of cheating. Card security specialists look at the issue another way. They break the lifecycle of a casino playing card down into a chain of events, and analyze the hazards at each stage. Most threats, unsurprisingly, come from humans. “The problem comes when you have lots of hands,” Of Tables and Tricksters