Casino Threats: The Balance Between Perception and Reality
By Sal Lifrieri
When we think of casinos, our minds wander to a world of perception — James Bond’s luck at the tables, enjoyable times with friends and family. But what happens when reality strikes and we hear of threats against these most-prized adult playgrounds?
Since Sept. 11, the public has developed an insatiable appetite for intrigue and security, especially when it comes to safety. Everyone has become some sort of self-recognized security expert. They ask questions, they demand answers and (in some situations) they take action — actions that include not patronizing an industry that they think could make them become victims of a terrorist attack, even if the threat is unfounded — or worse, a perception based in unfounded reality. People will sometimes even reject an expert’s perception and substitute their own. So how can casino management handle the intricacies of providing effective security without alerting the world to potential risks that may not actually exist? By finding the elusive balance of perception vs. reality.
Negative perceptions can be deadly for the casino industry. An organization tries to create positive perceptions for the public, as negative perceptions almost always require a reactionary response. In matters of security and personal safety, management becomes hamstrung when it obviously cannot divulge its security plans, reactions or intelligence.
People with an insatiable appetite for security information will not believe you when you tell them that they are safe if you are perceived as having a vested interest in the matter. Your ethics and standards will come under intense scrutiny, not to mention potential liability and lawsuits.
The casino industry as a whole wants to ensure its guests that safety and security are covered, but it refuses to openly discuss its security response to threats — regardless of whether they are perceived or actual — in part because security plans lose their effect when put out in the open. Knowing an adversary’s plan often reveals its strengths and weaknesses, which is a monumental benefit for organized groups, including terrorist organizations, that spend considerable time conducting surveillance on future attack sites. More problematic is that the acknowledgment of a specific identified risk in a security plan is perceived as an indication that it might occur. The public’s theory is that if the organization thinks a risk exists, there may be a problem, and that people should therefore stay away from that organization. Hence, the communication of an effective security posture can be a perceived threat by the visiting public. Perception becomes reality, visitors and guests do not come, and the casino economy is impacted, all because of the discussion of a security plan.
Some might argue that in the post-Sept. 11 era, consumers want to see, or at least get an acknowledgment of, an effective security posture. While this may be true, most casino management groups are unwilling to take that bet.
But what about the reality of the situation? What are casinos faced with threats that are reality based and do have the potential to create devastating, lasting effects doing today? These threats take on many forms — workplace violence, domestic violence, robbery, burglary, etc. — but the net effect is the same. In reality, terrorism probably ranks ninth or 10th on the list of crimes against a casino. After all, security personnel contend with thefts from guests’ cars or pick-pocketing more frequently than terrorism. How, then, can you determine your casino’s risks that are based on definable, credible and accurate data? What must you recognize and understand to determine which commensurate countermeasures you will implement to effectively deal with the threats?
Regardless of your position, you need to create usable and effective intelligence internally. You should not be dependant on the government to provide intelligence information, particularly with respect to terrorism. Getting six-month-old threat information is not conducive to establishing proper security countermeasures. Consider, too, the broader issue of unreported threats: A threat is no less viable if, without warning, someone blows up your casino or takes your life. The lack of actionable intelligence specific to a threat does not negate the threat.
Cumulative Compounding Sources and Effects
Casinos today are also faced with the complex issue of processing intelligence information into useable, actionable data. Issues are derived from three main sources: global, domestic and city/local. Each source has its own set of factors which, when compiled with the next, compounds the effects. Understand and recognize that global events do have an effect on you, even if no discernable, direct correlation is obvious. All too often, global issues are overlooked for the more central issues. The global issues are additives to domestic issues, which in turn add exponentially to city and local issues. When taking the global issue impact, which can be exhaustive in resources, and adding it to the domestic issues, the strain on the system becomes noticeable. Couple that with the day-to-day operational strain on an organization, and you have an end product that is incredibly complex — the size and proportion may not even be manageable. Today’s casino properties have grown to multibillion dollar complexes, many of which are the size of a small city. Issues such as crime, traffic and critical infrastructure protection are contended with daily. Couple this with the cumulative compounding effects from geopolitical and domestic issues, and the daily issues are contentious. What you need is a solution that addresses a broad base of threats, both large and small.
Creating a Viable Solution
While no one solution is the “silver bullet,” it is feasible to anticipate potential criminal actions and identify associative behaviors that manifest in the person.
An effective risk assessment will demonstrate many issues facing properties today. A risk assessment is meant to identify risks and to give you the opportunity to mitigate them, but in actuality, its only advantage is that it allows you to identify risks. It is the next step, the mitigation process, which needs to be altered.
For example, let’s use thefts from vehicles in self-park lots, which most casinos have identified as a risk. The mitigation strategy might be to determine the times and dates of the crime’s highest frequency, and then deploy resources in an attempt to apprehend offenders, which in turn stops the events from occurring. This has been the traditional method implemented by law enforcement for many years and is relative to catching lightening in a bottle. What you really need to achieve your goal is a mitigation strategy that prevents the attacks from occurring in the first place. If by the end of the day there is nothing to report of a criminal nature, you have achieved your goal.
How can you take a more proactive approach without attempting to catch lightning in a bottle? Look at the behaviors associated with the individual criminal acts you are trying to mitigate. At Protective Countermeasures and Consulting Inc., we developed a training program called Recognition of Observable Behavior (ROB). The ROB technique reviews criminal acts from the perspective that the occurrence of a crime is the end point. Working backward from the time of a crime, you can highlight significant pre-incident indicators that, coupled with behavior recognition techniques, give you a methodology to preclude the crime from being committed in the first place.
The casino industry has a major advantage when it comes to integrating the ROB technique into current safety and security plans. They have already created an atmosphere that focuses on top-end customer service and positive guest experiences, which are vital to entice guests to return again and again. This embedded, positive guest experience allows casino management to take actions that are unavailable to law enforcement personnel, as the interaction between the public and law enforcement is for the most part negative in nature. Law enforcement cannot approach a person on the street and question them, or even engage them in conversation, without some semblance of distrust or defense. Casino staff, on the other hand, can engage a suspicious guest in conversation and make it a congenial experience. Appearing to be helpful, they can gain the necessary intelligence needed to determine if any pre-incident indicators are present.
Empowering your staff through security awareness education and by developing a reporting mechanism creates a force multiplier. If your entire staff supports and supplements a security operation, it allows for greater flexibility and the appropriate use of limited resources for security teams.
The security issues facing the casino industry today are daunting. It is important to go “outside the box” to create strategies that are not only consistent with the threats, but also effective in their mitigation of outcomes. New techniques, coupled with the intelligence data already created at casinos, can become the next generation of onsite criminalistics. In doing so, casinos can strengthen their guests’ positive perception of safety while allowing them to concentrate on what they came for: the entertainment factor of gaming.