SPECIAL REPORT : SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE
Violent crime prevention in casinos By Alan W . Zajic
No one wants a violent crime to occur on their property , yet they occasionally do based on many different factors . Casino properties by design have a layered security approach , or what is known as “ defense in depth .” This concept includes the independent surveillance functions , management oversight , and asset controls such as locks , access controls and alarm systems .
This design assists gaming properties in the crime prevention concept of “ deter , detect , and deny ” a criminal from committing a violent crime on your property . Most other business environments do not have this layered security approach . Casinos are still considered open or soft target environments with multiple entrances and exits .
As any security director or casino executive knows , when a violent crime occurs on your property , you can expect the incident to dominate employee conversations as well as customer perceptions of how safe your property is . Depending on the circumstances , press coverage and other factors , a single violent crime can have a long-lasting negative impact on operations . Those include from the victim ’ s own personal impact through the criminal process if the perpetrator was caught , and through the civil litigation that typically follows , alleging you allowed it to occur by some operational deficiency .
Although this article is geared towards U . S . -based casino properties , violent crime is a worldwide problem . The rise of shooting incidents in the U . S . creates a higher risk of gun violence if you live in the U . S . as compared to many other countries . As a result , the security posture of many U . S . gaming properties is also changing .
Violent crimes occur everywhere in the world , yet they are not as prevalent in gaming environments as the general public believes they are . When you consider the number of people in any given 24-hour period that visit or patronize a casino ( head counts ), and you compare that moving population to the number of violent crimes that occur , the chances or risk of being a victim of a violent crime at most casinos are very low .
You are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime in another business environment than in a casino overall . In fact , in cities and jurisdictions where gaming is legalized , that violent crime rate is typically
lower than those without casinos when measured by the FBI based on the crime rate per 100,000 residents .
The FBI defines violent crime as homicide , robbery , sexual assault ( rape ) and aggravated assault when serious injury occurs or a weapon is used . Domestic violence is classified separately , and typically involves interpersonal disputes between people . Domestic violence is difficult for security personnel to anticipate or prevent .
Nationally , violent crimes , especially homicide , appear to be on the decline , although the statistics are not complete for 2023 . Property crimes also appear to be down for 2023 . Property crimes typically outpace violent or nuisance crimes significantly year over year . Regardless , an ongoing assessment and documented reasonable attempts to reduce violent crime is a positive practice .
Civil Litigation
What does come with the rare violent crime occurrence in a casino is the increased risk of litigation . Plaintiffs can be not only the victim , they can be other bystanders , and even the participants or offenders , who often also sue the property where the violent crime occurred . It is not unusual to have several people sue a casino as the result of a single violent crime incident .
I can attest to the fact that there is a high demand for security experts to assist casino properties in inadequate-security lawsuits at a much higher rate than before Covid ( BC ). Lawsuits involving shooting incidents have also increased , as well as robbery events in casino environments , and in some instances when a customer is followed home and robbed after winning a large amount . Inadequate-security lawsuits are on the rise nationally .
With casino properties open to the public , there should be a periodic review of any historical violent crimes , and they should be tracked by the security director or others for any possible trends , temporal data examined , location and countermeasures deployed when they do occur . This assures that the property is making reasonable efforts to track , analyze and deter them from occurring through reasonable mitigation strategies . Documenting this review will be helpful at a civil trial to show the reasonableness of your security program .
26 Global Gaming Business FEBRUARY 2024