One of the first companies into global player tracking has filed for bankruptcy. Las Vegas company Griffin Investigations has over thirty years of experience in gathering information for the casino industry, publishing thousands of names and mug shots of potential cheaters, scam artists and card counters. Casino surveillance nowadays ranges from basic shared information with low-tech fax machines to the most sophisticated networked computers and hand-held digital assistants; player tracking and facial recognition programmes have become the norm.

Griffin first came to public notice in the card-counting drama that unfolded in Las Vegas in the ‘90s. An organized team of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won millions of dollars from casinos by playing blackjack at the weekends, using the card-counting technique. After months of surveillance Griffin Investigations identified the members of the MIT team and the players were banned from entering the casinos. Teams of card counters are known to still play the casinos, unwelcome guests who can be banned although the activity is not illegal because it is not cheating.

Griffin’s present difficulties stem from an April 2000 arrest of two men for cheating. Charges were dropped and a lawsuit was filed against Griffin for defamation, the men successfully claiming that the company had had false information and that they were unfairly targeted. Apparently Griffin is now in debt for over US$109,000 and consequently has filed for bankruptcy. (E-09.16.05)

© Copyright 2005 CasinoCompendium



>>> return to archives
>>> return to frontpage