NORA's Not The Only Agent Fighting Casino Crime

"In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all."

Few people have put it better than Ace Rothstein, the curmudgeonly protagonist of Martin Scorsese's classic film "Casino". While we may have become accustomed to taking most Hollywood blockbusters (especially ones starring Robert de Niro, bless him) with a pinch of salt, this particular quote comes with a grain of truth to it too.

Casinos and crime, crime and casinos – the two are hard to separate, they seem to come as a pair – and not the kind of pair you'd want to find in your poker hand. Wherever you find vast sums of money changing hands faster than you can shout Pontoon!, you are going to find people trying to poop the party. Under the table, under the radar, and often under the influence, casinos can seem like a criminal's paradise – their dream ticket – so spare a thought for the real people working to keep our asses – and our assets – covered.

How do they do it? Let us count the ways; there's the good old fashioned Ocean's Eleven style heist – complicated, risky, and outrageous – but it does happen from time to time. On a more basic level you have your common or garden "stick 'em up punk" gun toting thugs, your super-smart table tricksters, your cyber security thwarters – and your inside-jobs. Bad guys just never seem to learn that crime doesn't pay.

So what can casinos and casino owners do to create better security? Well, it involves more than using a hammer as a deterrent for starters, but it does start with security guards, any casinos first, and usually best line of defence. Many will be armed, and that often does the trick - criminals are naturally cowardly – more William H Macy in Fargo than George Clooney in Ocean's, and the thought of a shootout spooks them. Phew.

Good security guards are literally worth their weight in gold – but they can't be absolutely everywhere at once, so cameras are installed that monitor everything that moves – as well as everything that doesn't (like late night bachelor party victims who've had one too many Martini's and passed out). Facial recognition, software that can read number plates and databases of suspicious persons or repeat offenders come as standard these days, but even so, like De Niro says, somebody has to monitor the cameras, and also the technology can fail or be prone to reliability issues.

Then there's the insiders – casino staff - who, it's estimated, may be responsible for half of all casino crime. Exhaustive background checks and careful monitoring are the best remedies, but the enemy within can be hard to spot – nobody wants to believe the guy they trust like their own mother would do the dirty on them – and casino owners are just the same – plus it calls their judgment into question.

Finally, there's the patrons. It's easy for them to be tempted to do something crazy in the heat of the moment. So meet NORA – NORA stands for Non-Obvious Relationship Analysis and as well as identifying previously unseen interactions between known criminals and potential accomplices, NORA can perform criminal record checks in the blink of an eye.

RFID is another game-changing tech development helping the cops catch the robbers – chips are inserted into higher stake gaming chips, and carefully scanned before winnings are handed over.

The reason why I know all this is because – spoiler alert – many online casinos are launching their own blogs, with posts like this one, all about crime prevention and cyber security. It makes for pretty fascinating reading, and acts as another handy deterrent too – I challenge anyone to read these guides and still fancy their chances of getting one over on security. There are case studies galore showing how casinos are learning about criminal behaviour – and increasingly using tech to combat the latest tricks.

In reality most of us punters hit the card tables for a good time, a bit of a thrill, and to inject a bit of Hollywood into our occasionally mundane lives – but crime capers are best left to the silver screen. A quick trawl through the history of casino security is a bit like reading the security cards on planes – you'll probably never have to use the instructions you read, but hey – better to be on the safe side, right?

Some people never learn – but for the rest of us, it's good to know that Joe Pesci got a makeover - security got an upgrade – and the stories about people like Darvon Hibbler and Corey Wright, and Anthony Carleo – who tried to sell his stolen chips to undercover police, are entertaining – best leave it to the actors, 'eh fellas?