Second of two parts.
LAS VEGAS -- The surveillance cameras pick up Andy Andersen the instant he steps into the vast casino at Caesars Palace.
He strolls through banks of slot machines and over to the blackjack tables to chat with a pit boss he knows. By that time, a security agent is on the phone to the pit, demanding to know why Andersen's there. There can be only one reason: trouble.
Andersen is famous in Las Vegas security circles as a top-notch private investigator, a pioneer who uses cutting-edge technology to catch card counters, slot scammers, and all manner of casino cheats.
He is best known for his remote-monitoring system. Using a laptop and a cell phone-modem, Andersen can link into a client casino's surveillance system from anywhere, check a suspected grifter's face against his private database, and tell surveillance whether to evict him.
Tonight, however, Andersen, his white hair gelled back and a pair of tiny gold handcuffs on a chain around his neck, is just checking on the progress of a new system he plans to take online in 1999. It will move casino surveillance technology to a new level: a digital casino network that incorporates biometric facial recognition technology.
"We've got to get into high technology," said Andersen, "because the cheaters have."
Most casino security systems are surprisingly behind the technological times, thanks to the complacency of their old-school owners and the vast profits they rake in despite the cheaters. But as the gambling companies grow ever larger and more sophisticated, the casinos are beginning to realize how tech-savvy cheaters are ripping them off. And they're moving to catch up.
"The technology we have now is ancient," said Frank Luizzo, a former Nevada state trooper who now oversees security for Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. "The industry didn't realize how much it was losing, so it didn't want to invest more in security. But that's changing now."
The surveillance room of the Tropicana, a Strip landmark, is typical: In a windowless room suffused with a deep cathode glow and the low thrumming of machinery, two officers sit hunched over keypads, scanning a wall of 52 mostly low-resolution, black-and-white monitors. When someone on the casino floor catches the watchers' interest, they use a joystick to zoom in, rotating or tilting the cameras as needed.
Meanwhile, the images on the other monitors change every few seconds, cycling through the views from each of hundreds of ceiling-mounted cameras. Against a wall, 220 VCRs ceaselessly record everything the cameras see.
