Secret Crown casino security documents have revealed staff made thousands of mistakes affecting gamblers last financial year.
The Herald Sun has seen confidential Crown security logs detailing 3800 errors by gaming room staff, as well as hundreds of illegal acts and thousands of customers being ejected.
By Danny Buttler, Herald Sun
Secret Crown casino security documents have revealed staff made thousands of mistakes affecting gamblers last financial year.
The Herald Sun has seen confidential Crown security logs detailing 3800 errors by gaming room staff, as well as hundreds of illegal acts and thousands of customers being ejected.
Included in Crown’s surveillance summary report from July 2003 to mid-June 2004 were details of:
More than 480 thefts, attempted thefts or frauds.
More than 1000 suspected illegal acts on the gaming floor.
CASINO violence including 18 assaults and 27 brawls or fights.
Staff being monitored by security more than 900 times.
An average of 12 customers ejected each day from gaming rooms, with 361 physically thrown out during the year.
The records relate only to the gambling areas of the casino.
Crown has defended the figures revealed in the report, claiming they would be the envy of other casinos.
“In statistical terms they’re more than acceptable, they’re virtually insignificant,” spokesman Gary O’Neil said.
Security surveillance logged 3800 possible errors by gaming staff, with amounts varying from less than $100 to more than $10,000.
Twice during the year, possible staff errors of more than $10,000 were reviewed, with one correction being made.
Mr O’Neil said any mistakes were unacceptable, but the figures needed to be put into perspective.
“Not only do you have 7.5 million customers (a year), but each of those is involved in multiple numbers of cash transactions . . . you’d be talking in the dozens of millions,” Mr O’Neil said.
“If you put it into perspective where you’re talking about multiple dozens of millions of cash transactions every year, then 4000 is probably not a bad number.”
Mr O’Neil said security monitoring of staff was a routine and necessary part of casino operations.
Despite 18 assaults, 21 fights and six brawls on the premises, Mr O’Neil said the level of violence compared favourably with other large Melbourne venues.
“Eighteen is a pretty low number when you consider the number of visitors we have,” he said.
Crown said the six scams and 75 cases of cheating on tables uncovered during the year were an inevitable part of running a casino.
The casino would not comment on suggestions by the source of the document that for every incident reported, three went unnoticed.
“People who hide behind anonymity and make these claims about tip of the iceberg, unless they have the guts to identity themselves, I won’t waste much time on them,” Mr O’Neil said.
from CasinoCityTimes.com
LAS VEGAS — From far down Bellagio’s promenade in the luxurious new Spa Tower, a mesmerizing figure entices curious guests with visual splendor and aromatic wafts: jutting out into the main corridor like the prow of a ship is a glass-enclosed, floor-to-ceiling chocolate fountain emerging from Jean-Philippe Patisserie. Displaying a spectacular series of melted chocolate cascades, this first-of-its-kind spectacle is the tallest chocolate fountain in the world.
Designed by award-winning Executive Pastry Chef Jean-Philippe Maury and Norwood and Antonia Oliver Design Associates, Inc., the fountain took a year and a half in planning and design. The result is a genius work of kinetic sculpture and a daring feat of engineering. Standing 27-feet tall, the masterpiece circulates more than 2,100 pounds of melted dark, milk and white chocolate at a rate of 120 quarts per minute.
“I’ve been creating sculptures out of chocolate for years, but exploring the particular properties of melted chocolate has been fascinating,” said Executive Pastry Chef Jean-Philippe Maury. “Each of the three types of chocolate behave very differently, and we had to be aware of this in the design. It’s been a wonderful challenge!”
The visual impact of the fountain is as compelling as its chocolate is appetizing: six spouts in the ceiling initiate the lyrical descent of rich dark, velvety milk and glistening white chocolate streams through a maze of 25 suspended glass vessels. Cast in 1/2-inch thick, rough-hewn aqua glass and held in position by anchoring cables, each vessel was built to precise size, shape and design by Montreal artist Michel Mailhot. Some oblong, some rounded, each irregular, the vessels hover mobile-like to capture and coax the paths of free-falling liquid chocolate.
Three rivers of dark, two of milk and one of white twist and swirl from vessel to vessel, flood across then spill down to the next carefully positioned receptacle. The colored streams and vessels are staggered, creating a mosaic effect in earthy shades of cocoa, gleaming viscous surfaces and refracted light. Having finished their acrobatic tumble down the tiers of this colossal chandelier, each rivulet funnels into hidden melting tanks, recollects and begins the journey once more.
Surrounding all this glory is a protective, multi-faceted cloak of 300-pound glass panels that rise in a funnel shape as the fountain expands toward the ceiling.
“We’ve made glass a central design component of both the fountain and the Patisserie,” said Designer Norwood Oliver. “Glass maximizes the visibility of chocolate’s color and the multiple cascades as they flow from vessel to vessel. Glass also was an ideal medium to take the fountain’s physical presentation to another level — sculpture.”
Built under Oliver and Chef Maury’s guidance by Perfect Equipements of Montreal, the fountain’s power plant is an elaborate system of pipes, pumps and valves located beneath the floor of the Patisserie. There, three tanks of chocolate — dark, milk and white — melt all 2,100 pounds to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Six pumps join forces to transport the molten delight to the top of the fountain through two-inch diameter, stainless-steel pipes hidden within the walls of the shop. Surrounding each pipe is an additional three-inch pipe through which flows hot oil to keep the chocolate thinned as it journeys up the wall to make its entrance. More than 500 feet of these double pipes circulate chocolate 24 hours a day. From the tank room below to the pipes above, the fountain’s full height is 27-feet, yet only 14-feet is visible within the shop.
“The scope of this team’s vision and their expertise are nothing short of genius,” said Randy Morton, vice president of hotel operations at Bellagio. “Jean-Philippe Patisserie will become a sightseeing destination in itself and is a stellar addition to Bellagio’s collection of elegant amenities. This one-of-a-kind fountain, Chef Maury’s exquisite confections and the refined elegance of the decor and packaging all combine to make an experience our guests will never forget.”
How long will Americans keep on loosing huge money that ends up in places like Antigua and Barbuda?
The industry’s Canadian-based Interactive Gaming Council estimates that thousands of cyber casinos last year raked in around $7.5 billion - half of it, at least, from Americans.
I did not read the article but your point is a good one. Think of the economic developement this could bring if we only kept this money here in the US. I don’t really know how they come up with these figures but they say for every dollar you can expect it to have an impact multiplied by 7 times. 7.5 billion X 7 =52.5 billion.
China launched a campaign against gambling last week, targeting overseas gambling, online gambling and illegal lotteries.
AP
SHANGHAI, China. Authorities have arrested 597 people in connection with an underground Internet gambling network thought to involve funds totaling more than $60 million, state media reported Friday.
The reports come amid a nationwide crackdown on unauthorized gambling.
The Ministry of Security said the gambling network, spanning 22 provinces and major cities, was allegedly run by a Taiwan-based company in collaboration with criminal syndicates on the Chinese mainland, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Altogether, 395 people suspected of organizing the network and 202 suspected gamblers have been detained, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported.
In Shanghai, police detained 87 people suspected of involvement in the gambling ring, it said. In nearby Jiangsu province, 106 people were detained and $20 million in gambling money and suspected gambling proceeds were seized, the reports said.
China launched a campaign against gambling last week, targeting overseas gambling, online gambling and illegal lotteries.
State-authorized lotteries, widespread throughout China, apparently are not affected by the ban. Nor are private gambling activities in people’s homes, the China Daily said.
The popular custom of betting while playing cards or the traditional game of mahjong with friends and relatives is regarded as a form of entertainment and thus also not subject to the crackdown, the newspaper cited Tong Jianming, a police official, as saying.
Tong said the government planned to issue documents soon explaining which activities were allowed and which were illegal.
Keno is the oldest known game of chance in the world. This game was invented by a Chinese warlord Cheung Leung in approximately 200 B.C, during the crumble of Chou dynasty. Cheung Leung’s army was running low on supplies and armament and his city treasury was almost empty as a result of a lengthy war. The citizens weary of violent conflict that was lasting for many years vehemently refused to contribute any money to the war. To find a solution, Cheung Leung invented a game of chance that wherein participants could select Chinese characters and win
money if the character they selected was pulled at random. The game became so popular that the warlord was able to raise the necessary funds and save his city from a ruin.
The game first appeared in America when Chinese immigrants who helped to build railroads in the middle of XIX century brought the old game with them. At the time it was called “Chinese Lottery”. For many years, it was banned under U.S. gambling laws.
The game was mostly played in the Chinese-American community. In order to make the game more appealing, the Chinese characters were replaced by numbers, and the participants chose the numbers they thought would be pulled in drawings.
When Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, the lotteries were still banned under the law. In order to make this very popular game a time legal, the name of the game was changed to “horserace keno”. In the new game, the numbers appeared to represent horses, and gamblers bet on which horse would win the race. As the lottery games were legalized also, the name of the game was changed to “keno”.
As reported by the Pittsburgh Enquirer: ” The slot machine long ago shed its one-armed-bandit image. Soon, your thumbprint will be the only thing the device needs to tap all sorts of information about you. ”
“The casino of the future will know your favorite games and when you are most likely to play them. It will recall your favorite meals and what designer labels you prefer in casino clothing shops. And it will track the car you arrived in and whether you are staying overnight. ”
“Such technology isn’t too far away. A completely wired casino, where various computers talk to one another to monitor a customer’s every move, represents the next wave in the high-tech world of casino gambling. ”
“�There will soon come a day where player tracking cards - introduced more than 20 years ago to record every customer’s gaming habits and preferences - will become obsolete. ”
“The machine will recognize you by your thumbprint. Industry experts say the technology is available in other industries now and has the potential to be applied to the gaming industry within five years. ”
“�The $1.1 billion Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is at the forefront of this new frontier, as Atlantic City’s most technologically advanced casino. Its $50 million technology infrastructure has forced the other gambling houses in town to play catch-up. ”
“The casino is completely wired, integrating more than 120 software programs from more than 60 vendors to track everything from hotel occupancy to wardrobe inventory, using chips sewn into dealers’ uniforms�”
It sounds odd, but getting to a Montreal casino on a Satruday evening may not be such a brilliant idea, even for a hardcore gambler such as myself. I have nothing against the casino itself. It’s a gorgeous building, located on a man-made island Notre-Dame. It consists of several floors offering pretty much what any other casino in Vegas or Atlantic City has to offer, with a trifle of European charm to it. During my last visit to the casino, I felt like I went back in time, and was in the midst 70’s. The building itself is actually a French pavilion, which was part of the Expo 67 world fair. However, its location seems to be its biggest drawback. And here is why…
I was visiting Canada on a few day trip, and came to Montreal together with a couple from Kingston. It was late fall, and we just arrived in the city. Heavy clouds, gusty winds and yellow-red maple trees were pretty much the atmosphere of the season. Having nothing better to do on a gloomy day like that, we’ve decided to pay a visit to a local casino.
Since, this is the only official casino in the city, it’s advertised near every possible tourist attraction and you will see plenty of signs that will point you the right direction whether you are coming from the airport or downtown. The casino is located off the main island, but is only a mile away from the old port and downtown area. You can actually see it from there very well, and we thought getting there would be a matter of 15 minutes.
There was no traffic in downtown area at this time, and it took us less than 10 minutes to get to the small, narrow, two-lane bridge that connects the two islands and leads to the casino. As we were about to enter the island, right near the entrance to the bridge, we encountered a colossal traffic jam, with cars merging into the only available lane. (as the other is reserve red for shuttle buses and taxis) It seemed as if Montrealers suddenly switched their hobbies, and decided play with lady Fortune on Halloween.
So, it took us about 15 minutes to cross the bridge, which is really not that long and it would not take more than half a minute to cross it, if there was no traffic. Once we reached the end, and entered the island we saw a peculiar picture; Two parking attendants, running in frenzy were signaling everyone to turn around and go back. As we were getting closer to them, suddenly they opened a barricade and allowed two cars to go in, and then closed it again.
As our car finally reached the block post, I rolled out the window and asked what’s going on, why is everyone told to leave and only few V.I.P’s are allowed. Well, it turned out to be a rather simple situation. There was no space available in the parking of the casino, and the parking attendant was receiving orders to send everyone back, unless one or two spaces become available, and that’s when the lucky ones could get in.
Montreal casino is visited by a lot of people. It’s the only legalized casino (owned by the government) in the city. In fact, there are three major casinos in the province of Quebec: Casino de Montreal, Casino de Charlevoix and Casino de Lac-Leamy. The demand seems to outgrow the supply here. It takes about 15 minutes to get to any point in the Downtown area of Montreal. There are not many people on the streets in month of October, even on Saturdays (if you compare with cities like New York, Toronto or Las Vegas) but casino of Montreal is the exception. If you are lucky enough to get the parking space underground, or if you take the shuttle bus, you may still find yourself standing in line to play slots! If you don’t believe me try the 25c slot machines on Saturday evening.
After about one hour, we were back on the main island. As an alternative, we could leave our car and wait for the shuttle bus. At that moment, a drizzle turned to a pouring rain and a bunch of “hungry” gamblers waiting for the shuttle bus outside, ran to hide inside the bus stop booth. I don’t consider myself superstitious, but I decided to take it as a bad omen and we drove back to our hotel, from which we observed a magnificent view of an old town and a brightly lit Montreal casino.
Are hedges in craps as bad as the experts say?
Every gambling know-it-all knows that hedges in craps are sucker bets. But, legions of craps buffs swear by them anyway.
Perhaps the most common example involves “protecting” something like $10 on the Pass line with $1 on Any Craps during come-out rolls…
Full article :
http://www.casino-folk.com/archives/2005/01/01/casino-hedges-in-craps/
A couple of interesting things about Krigman’s article struck me.
The first one is trivial; he equates 100 passline decisions to about an hour’s play. Since the average number of rolls to a decision on the pass line is 3.375, that’s assuming 337 rolls/hour, an astonishing rate. WinCraps defaults to an assumption of 120 rolls/hour, which is 35-36 decisions/hour.
The second is more interesting. He compares an $11 pass bet to a $10 pass bet with a $1 Any Craps hedge. This keeps the bet handles the same, and makes the increase in expected loss very small, since you
$1 @1.414% for $1 @11.11%. This, however, is not how most player hedge, taking $1 off the pass bet and putting it on the Any Craps. In my view, the comparison should be between betting $10 on the line and $10 plus $1 Any Craps. Who makes an $11 pass bet? It seems to me the question is: “Should I ADD a hedge to my regular line bet.” That is certainly the way the casinos recommend it when they conduct those little “Introductory Craps” sessions. When I took the “Fun Train” to Reno a couple of years ago, I saw a dealer do one of those sessions, and that’s what he recommended. Of course, when you do this, you not only make a bet with a higher HA than the line bets, but you also increase the bet handle. This is why many people and craps
authors recommend against hedging. However, if we look at it Krigman’s way, we get another picture.
Let’s talk about the doey-don’t. If we compare a $5 bet on either side
with a $5 doey-don’t, $5 pass and $5 DP, naturally we are doubling the expected loss. But if a $10 bettor instead bets $5 and $5, then takes or lays odds on the points, the expected loss remains the same. I did a comparison between a $10 pass with $20 odds and a $5 pass, $5 DP, taking $20 odds (obviously, you need a 5X table for this). I set it up for 60 bets. The expected losses were almost exactly the same, of course, but the Standard Deviations were $221 vs. $155, since the
doey-don’t damps out the variation on the flat part. This would give one a lower risk of ruin on the doey-don’t, which is really what a hedge is for, isn’t it? Basically, if you have a positive session, anything better than -$8, you are better off without the hedge; otherwise, you are better off with the hedge.
So, when you think about hedging, in addition to thinking about making the hedge bet IN ADDITION to the “main” bet, think about MOVING part of the “main” bet to the hedge. Of course, if you are making a minimum bet to begin with, you can’t do that. The more money you are willing to risk, the more flexibility you have. A $10 bettor can instead bet $5 and take $5 odds, which does reduce the expected loss. A $25 bettor can, if the casinos allow it, bet $5 and take 5X odds, reducing the expected loss by 80% while increasing the variance by less than 20%.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
By Alan Krigman. For At The Shore
Every gambling know-it-all knows that hedges in craps are sucker bets. But, legions of craps buffs swear by them anyway.
Perhaps the most common example involves “protecting” something like $10 on the Pass line with $1 on Any Craps during come-out rolls. The idea is that if the dice show a two, three, or 12 on these throws, the main bets lose but the hedges win $7 — reducing the hurt from $10 to $3. The $1 loss on Any Craps when anything else appears? Well, hey, it’s chump change.
Or, is it?
If the Any Craps hedge seems sublime, others can be ridiculous. One in this category is equal bets on Pass and Don’t Pass. Supposedly, these offset each other so players who take or lay Odds give the house no edge.
What about losses on Pass not matched by wins on Don’t Pass when 12s pop during the come-out? The rationale is that 12s are rare enough to be ignored. This, of course, ignores the subtle fact that the one out of 36 chance of a 12 is equivalent to the edge on the sum of the two bets.
On paper and over the “long run,” the premium the casino squeezes from the edge on the hedge is money out of the player’s fanny pack. Still, these wagers seem brilliant when they work. And, as a result, many solid citizens not only mock the math but pooh-pooh the pundits who propound it.
The truth can’t be discovered by asking around. This, because folks who like hedges tend to claim they’re successful, while those who don’t say they’re not. And monitoring thousands of sessions to get enough data for a proper analysis is infeasible.
Fortunately, gamblers and other folks who make life’s important decisions have computers at their behest. And computers can be programmed to simulate the real world such that lots of events can be executed and documented automatically in a brief time.
Accordingly, as yet another in a long string of services to humanity, I wrote a program simulating two individuals playing identical games — one betting $11 flat on the Pass line and the other dropping $10 on Pass and $1 on Any Craps. Totals of $11 were put at risk in both modes. Simulated sessions were of moderate duration, and only the indicated wagers were made. Other hedges, differing amounts, or bells and whistles such as taking Odds would alter the details somewhat but not the general conclusions leaping out of the results.
One set of sessions was simulated for 10,000 games of 100 decisions each, about an hour at the rail. Data were gathered for only the wagers indicated — no Odds, no auxiliary bets, no pressing or regressing. In a typical series, both the straight $11 Pass bettors and the $10 Pass plus $1 Any Craps players finished even or ahead in 3,957 sessions and lost in 4,993; the no-hedge approach won and the hedging strategy lost in 918 while the converse held in the remaining 132. Perhaps more tellingly, the no-hedge players did better than their hedging counterparts in 6,277 sessions, worse in 3,477, and the same in the other 246.
Another simulation run extended the sessions to 200 decisions, roughly two hours. Here, both approaches left bettors even or ahead 3,604 times and behind 5,354; no-hedging won and hedging lost in 944 series, and conversely in 98. The straight Pass bettor beat the hedge player 6,754 times, the reverse was true 3,071, and the bottom line was the same in the remaining 175.
Repeating these simulations yields figures that differ, but not by much. Overall, players appear twice as likely to win less or lose more by hedging. However, the hedge helped often enough to reinforce the notion that it’s good insurance for those who want to believe it is. Can a simulation be written that offers clues to predict conditions under which hedging will succeed? Only if a prophet happens to hold a day job as a programmer. So, until such an oracle steps forward, we’ll just have to muddle through with this maxim by the immortal Sumner A Ingmark:
Gamblers whose fanny packs grow fatter,
Learned just what does and doesn’t matter.
——————————————————————————–
(Alan Krigman is an MIT graduate and gaming aficionado. He believes that informed players can optimize their choices in the casino to improve their chances of achieving their personal goals as recreational gamblers. However, Mr Krigman and At The Shore caution that gambling is inherently risky and assume no responsibility for losses incurred by applying the information presented.)
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