Money Wired

The next generation of surveillance technology will be more automated. Under development is a camera with facial recognition software built in. "It works unattended," says Schmitt. Likely positioning: at the top or bottom of escalators, where people are generally looking straight ahead. The SIN database is also being expanded to include full-motion video.

Meanwhile, almost every game in Net Vegas is hurrying to catch up to the slots. Bingo's version of networked slots, for instance, can be found at the Station casinos—a group of 10 modest gambling halls popular with local players. Most of the Station's bingo rooms have PC-like terminals that let people play many games simultaneously, without ever physically touching an old-fashioned printed Bingo card. But the real excitement comes from the Jumbo games, which allow all players at Station properties to participate in remote, virtual Bingo action that is broadcast onto computer monitors. A huge pot is spread across multiple locations, Bingo's version of a progressive payoff, with a top win of more than $100,000.




In a sharp break with the past, casinos are even making plans to digitize traditional table games like 21. The Ohkay Casino, in San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, is testing Digital 21 and SlotJack units that eliminate cards entirely. A live "dealer" hits a button, and cards appear on individual monitors—one for each player—and on an overhead screen. Larry Martin, vice president of Digideal in Spokane, Washington, the company that invented the cardless gaming system, plans to have a licensed Nevada distributor by the end of this year.

Casinos like these games because they cut down on math errors and cheating. Marking, memorizing deck locations, and dealer-player collusion still dog the casinos even with today's mechanical card sorters, but it's much harder to hide a virtual card up your sleeve.




Could the human dealer get the heave-ho? Not likely: Table gamblers want the human interaction, just as slot players like the illusion of the mechanical reel. Bill O'Hara, a former senior vice president for sales at PDS Gaming, a previous distributor of Digideal's cardless systems, envisions a future card host who acts more like a bartender: "He doesn't have to add, shuffle, or know the rules. He can't cheat or make mistakes. All he has to do is engage with the customers." The dealer becomes a Vanna White while the action—the winning and losing—is in the circuitry. Why on earth would card players go for this bloodless digital scenario? The same reason slot gamblers like networked play: Cardless systems, like networked slots, can layer on additional action, like supplemental bets, bonus prizes, and, of course, progressive jackpots. Play at the electronic 21 tables is amazingly fast; some casinos report increases in the number of hands per hour of as much as 75 percent.