(September 30, 2008 9:03 AM) -
Formally known as the state's List of Excluded Persons by the Gaming Control Board but better known as the black book by the general public, the infamous list of those banned from casinos grew by one last week to 36 after William Cushing was added to it for being a slot cheat.
Cushing was indicted in September of 2007 for using a cheating device on slot machines at Boulder Station and Fiesta Rancho casinos. According to the indictment, Cushing inserted a device into a slot machine's bill validator in which it would register a wager of $100 when just $1 had been inserted into the machine. Cushing would then immediately cash the credits out.
At the Nevada State Gaming Commission's meeting in Las Vegas on Sept.18, it took less than 15 minutes for the GCB - the enforcement arm of the state's commission - to confirm the recommendation that Cushing be added to the list.
Cushing, who wasn't present at the meeting according to an Associated Press story, was also found guilty in 1985 by the US District Court in Reno of transporting stolen property and defrauding the IRS after cheating several Las Vegas Strip casinos out of thousands of dollars in fraudulent slot machine jackpots. He was sentenced to between five to seven years in prison.
Two of Cushing's associates convicted with him back in 1985 - John and Sandra Vaccaro - are also members of the state's black book. Cushing will go on trial for these latest charges on Nov. 17.
The legendary black book, which includes some recognizable characters like Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal (as glamorized in the movie "Casino") and Richard "The Fixer" Perry (UNLV basketball point-shaving scandal) was created in 1960 and had just 11 names on its original list. Its members were so defined as "notorious and unsavory reputation which would adversely affect public confidence and trust that the gaming industry is free from criminal or corruptive elements."
But what is a casino to do should one of these members of the black list try and enter one of its oh-so many doors? The NGC's website explains it in big words in section 2 of the Nevada Revised Statute "28.090, Duty of licensee (casino) to exclude:"
2. Whenever an excluded person enters or attempts to enter or is upon the premises of a licensed gaming establishment that conducts pari-mutuel wagering or operates any horse race book, sports pool or games, other than slot machines only, and is recognized by the licensee, its agents or employees, then the licensee and its agents or employees must do the following:
(a) Immediately notify the board of the presence of the excluded person in any area of the gaming establishment;
(b) Request such excluded person to not enter or if on the premises to immediately leave;
(c) Notify the appropriate local law enforcement agency and the board if such excluded person fails to comply with the request of the licensee, its agents or employees.
The next section theoretically tells the casinos what could happen to them should they knowingly let the person enter or if they have to bounce them from the property:
3. Failure to request such excluded person to leave or to prohibit entry of such person upon its premises in a timely fashion or failure to properly notify the board of the presence of such excluded person is an unsuitable method of operation.
So how does the average casino with all its security and cadre of cameras go about trying to prevent the most unscrupulous of the unscrupulous from even entering?
What about identifying those people once they are actually in the casino? And is it anything like the cool stuff they used in the hit TV show "Las Vegas?"
"We do have a facial recognition technology that we use," said Yvette Monet, Manager of Public Affairs for MGM MIRAGE, who told as much as she could about how they handle it at their group of properties. "Everyone has a unique distance between their eyes."
Monet also said the casinos' version of the Black Book - which is actually silver - the Griffin Book, published by Griffin Investigations (instrumental in ending the famous MIT Blackjack Team's winning streak) and its software is a big tool in the gaming industry but revealed that the MGM MIRAGE also uses stuff from data mining guru Jeff Jonas like NORA (Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness) as well as Biometrika, the study of biometrics - the statistical analysis of hereditary phenomena which was established way back in 1901.
Monet said the MGM MIRAGE "has a significant financial investment" in all of their security tools and said that it's not really that close to the portrayal of casino security seen in NBC's recently ended (Feb.) show "Las Vegas."
"We don't have access to state DMV," she said. "We can't run driver's license pictures. And what they always did on there ("Las Vegas") was run driver's license pictures. But we do have our own database of photos. They leave it up to us to come up with the photos. There's no one at the DMV helping us. So that was an exaggeration ... that they could just snap this picture up automatically and have the guy's home address.
"The other thing they never took into account was the transient nature of Las Vegas. They'd always go to the person's house to catch the bad guy. And he'd be right there at home eating breakfast."
Another great resource to finding the Black Listers according to Monet are the employees who work on the casino floor and see thousands of people daily.
"The people on the floor are better at recognizing faces than people in most professions just because they do spend a lot of time on the floor and do see a lot of people," she said.
And asked when the last time one of these ne'er do wells was found on one of the companies' properties, Monet said, "I am not allowed to share guest information."
Knowing what she knows about what goes on behind the scenes at their casinos, Monet issued a fair warning to anyone aiming to count cards, toy with a slot machine or do anything else aimed at cheating the casino: "If you are in one of our casinos and don't belong there we have technology on our side and chances are very good that you will be caught. We take the Black List very seriously as we do all gaming rules and regulations."<-->
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