Big Casinos in China Now Use ‘Artificial Intelligence’ to Spot Who is Going to Lose

Some of the world’s biggest casino operators in Macau, which is regarded as the epicenter of the global gaming industry have started to deploy digitally enabled poker chips, baccarat tables, hidden cameras and facial recognition technology to track which among their million customers are likely to lose the most money.

The new technology uses the algorithms, which processes according to the behavior of each customer at the betting table to determine their appetite for risk. In general, the higher the risk appetite, the more a gambler stands to lose and the more profit a casino is going to generate, which sometimes goes up to 10 times more.

The recent trend to embrace this high tech surveillance comes at a time when casino operators are jostling for growth in a slowing industry, which is under global pressure from economic headwinds and regulatory scrutiny. 

In Macau, two casino operators the Macau units of Las Vegas Sands Corp and MGM Resorts International have already deployed some of these technologies on hundreds of its betting tables. Las Vegas Sands Corp is planning to expand with additional 1,000 tables.

Sands China, the Macau arm of the world’s largest casino company, has recently received approval from the gaming regulator of the territory to deploy the technologies. 

Every month, more than 3 million people visit Macau, from wealthy and focused bettors to families and tourists, as Macau is the only place in Greater China, where gambling is legal. Now, with the installation of surveillance technologies in the casinos, the operators can easily find out who is going to be a serious gambler and who is there, just for having a fun weekend.

It is not new for casinos to have surveillance cameras for security and for detection of theft and cheating. But the new technologies go a step further in tracking and rating every customer, building up a treasure trove of data.

The technology can also help the operator to detect any dealer and player collusion thereby preventing fraud and it can also track the speed and accuracy of dealers, doubling as a performance management tool.

Casino operators can also rate each and every player with a combination of metrics such as the total time a player has spent in casinos, their betting volume, win and loss ratio, risk appetite, past dishonest behavior and net worth.

Though everything is not good for casino operators. As they themselves are wrestling with the implications of this advanced surveillance technology. They were also concerned about the government and law enforcement authorities, who may want the access of the data that is collected.

On the other hand, the growing trend for technology implementation in Macau-based casinos speaks of greater ease with data collection and sharing among Chinese consumers. In comparison to Europe or the U.S, Chinese tech companies are at the global forefront in using consumer data for everything from designing new products to expanding health insurance. The government in China also has a nationwide network of surveillance cameras that utilize facial recognition.