Carina Leagues Club needed a better system for identifying individuals who had chosen to exclude themselves from licenced gaming venues to curb their gambling behaviours. They turned to systems integrator, Boss Surveillance Systems, a Milestone Platinum partner based in Queensland, to provide a sustainable solution.
Carina Leagues Club is a unique environment, with bistro, gaming, function, food and kitchen areas. With a busy space open up to 22 hours per day and a lot of commercial activity, the Carina Leagues Club board required comprehensive CCTV coverage.
According to general manager Doug Wakefield, a big reason for the deployment is the fact that staff need to be protected from legislation which requires them to recognise individuals who place themselves on the self-exclusion list for gambling. The Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing in Queensland holds licenced clubs officially responsible for upholding the rules of the self-exclusion list, which in turn places the responsibility back on front-desk staff to recognise individuals as they enter the premises.
Self-exclusion is a voluntary program designed to curb damaging behaviours in individuals who have trouble with excessive gambling, and to promote responsible gaming. It applies to online gambling sites and gaming venues, and offers a means for individuals to make sure they do not place themselves in situations where they are likely to lapse by overspending on gaming machines or sports gambling.
As part of the free program, individuals can also choose which venues, casinos or websites to be excluded from, then sign a deed listing the venues they agree not to enter for a minimum period. If venue staff see them in the gaming area of the venue, they will report the individual to the program and ask them to leave. At the end of the agreed period of the deed, the individual can choose to self-exclude for another period, or apply to re-enter the gaming area of a venue.
Clubs are therefore held responsible for ensuring that individuals on the list adhere to the rules. They are required to recognise listed individuals as they enter the venue and ensure they do not breach the guidelines they have set for themselves. In some cases, an individual might be on the list for up to five years, which makes policing of these rules difficult for staff.
“We need to protect our staff, as well as the best interests of these individuals, and we decided that the best way to go about that was using facial recognition at the front door,” said Doug Wakefield.
The Carina Leagues Club Solution
Carina Leagues Club had previously chosen to work with Boss Surveillance Systems, after mixed experiences with other service providers. They chose Boss due to the integrator’s willingness to go the extra step, and present solutions that were possible, rather than stopping at standard security installations and trying to count every cent. Boss Surveillance Systems was also chosen as the integration partner for this project due to its specialisation and wide-ranging experience in large-scale video deployments.
Boss had been working with Milestone’s XProtect solution having recognised that the open platform allowed for greater scope and flexibility with deployments, and allowed successful integration of a greater number of solutions for Boss customers. Meanwhile, Imagus software was chosen as the facial recognition platform for the deployment, mainly due to the solution’s ability to pick up on lower quality images such as when a patron is moving towards a doorway outside the club, and in low-light areas.
The Imagus software platform, owned by Vix Vizion, also has a deep integration with the Milestone platform, and an extensive portfolio of successful co-deployments. In this instance, the ability to recognise an individual the moment they enter the premises is critical to giving staff an instant warning and allowing them to uphold the rules at the front desk.
The solution also required high-quality cameras to render the best possible images for the virtual environment. As Milestone is an open platform, Boss Surveillance was able to select the best partner for this project and chose to use Axis Communications cameras, due to the superior image quality they are able to provide in challenging light.
“Features of the Imagus solution that really sold it to us at Boss Surveillance included the ability of the end user to enrol somebody on their own, which is a really key point, as it allows the customer to go through the data and enrol someone on the system relatively quickly and easily,” explains Tony Levitt of Boss Surveillance Systems.
“The second key feature were the integrated alerts through the Milestone mobile client. This is hands-down the richest feature we have, as there are a lot of managers who need to know when certain individuals have arrived at the club.”
The Imagus solution automatically identifies listed individuals as they enter Carina Leagues Club, sending an alert to staff via the Milestone Mobile Client, which allows them to discreetly interact with the individual to make sure they follow the rules they have set for themselves.
“The integration between Imagus software and the Milestone Systems VMS is integral to the success of the deployment,” said Tony Levitt. “In particular, the way the rules engine and the notifications work. We need instantaneous alerts – staff cannot be left waiting for 5 or more seconds to know that somebody has entered, because by then they will already be in the club. The entire solution hangs on the ability of the Imagus software to talk to the Milestone platform and provide instant feedback.”
Following the deployment of Imagus Facial Recognition software on the Milestone Xprotect platform coupled with high-resolution Axis Communications video cameras, Carina Leagues Club has a state-of-the-art system capable of protecting staff, helping individuals stay on their self-imposed gambling exclusion programs and generally improving the wellbeing of club patrons.
“The strong level of detail that Boss Surveillance brings to any deployment is something we admire and look forward to with each and every project on which we collaborate,” said Brett Hansen, Country Manager South Pacific at Milestone Systems. “This particular deployment exemplifies the wide-ranging potential for integrating high-level software with the open Milestone platform and creating cutting-edge solutions that improve safeguards for society.”
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