American Table Games & Surveillance Conference | Let's save our Table Games Together!
The American Table Games and Surveillance program is designed to impart the best and latest information to the Table Games, Surveillance and Compliance sectors of the Gaming Industry so that they may perform at optimum levels moving forward. By combining the most integral elements of what we’ve learned and what we’re going to learn at this conference, all of our operational goals will be in reach. We will discuss much about new technologies gaining footholds in these three vital sectors, with heavy emphasis on Artificial Intelligence, Facial Recognition, IT, and all the new and developing technologies that will safeguard our casinos from criminal and dangerous activity, and also the dangers that these technologies can pose to ourselves.
David Vialpando: Collaborative Game Protection in a Sophisticated Gaming Environment. Keynote Presentation Dave will highlight the value of collaboration and coordination between casino management, security, surveillance, regulators and law enforcement in game and guest safety protection in today’s sophisticated gaming environment and its increasing reliance on technology. He will discuss the results of effective partnerships and not so successful relationships and offer suggested strategies to enhance vigilance, response, and ultimately prosecution of criminal offenders.
Presentation Elements:
Michael Chapman: A lot has been happening—and not happening—in the Table Games Sector. What’s up? What’s Down? Table Games are going through a lot of evolution these days, while some of that is contradictory. On one hand, we have talk about threats to their very existence due to the encroaching invasion of Electronic Table Games and AI, both of which are beginning to convince some operators that since standard Table Games cost more money to operate than automated alternatives, they should be done away with. On the other hand, we are experiencing a tremendous surge in the development of New Table Games that seems to be preparing us for nothing other than Table Games expansion. So, which is it? Are our precious Table Games on the way up? Or are they on the way down? What impact will AI have going forward and what impact should it have?
Well, Michael Chapman, often referred to as the “Casino Guru” due to his reverence for Table Games, has some very interesting thoughts on all that’s going on in the Table Games world. Let’s give him a good listen!
Wyly Wade: Real-Time Biometric Screening in Casino AML Compliance: A New Paradigm This very colorful CEO who can easily take up a whole day of this event with his very colorful stories about his diverse travels throughout the world (and we mean “diverse”) will land right here in Tulsa and talk about how the convergence of advanced biometric identification technology and stringent anti-money laundering (AML) requirements presents a transformative opportunity for casino compliance programs. With systems like Biometrica’s UMBRA platform now capable of providing real-time identification and criminal background screening through passive entrance sensors, casinos face a critical question: Does the availability of affordable, non-intrusive screening technology create a regulatory obligation to implement universal patron monitoring? This is a great question that you, as high-level casino operators, need to discuss in the furtherance of how you can use advanced biometric identification to control the criminal infiltration into your casinos by unwanted bad actors.
Dan Thwaites and 
Patrick Fagan: How to Apply Behavioral Science for More Appealing Casino Entertainment Experience Since the beginning of humanity, people have always demanded entertainment in one form or another, including gambling. However, back in the day, or better said-way back in the day, there wasn’t any documented behavioral science to tell us what kind of entertainment attracted cavemen. But today, that science exists in force and can answer questions such as: What drives how people think and feel about their entertainment experience? How do entertainment needs vary with different psychological traits? What appeals and reassures different segments of populations? What puts them off? Dan Thwaites has quite an interesting perspective on this topic and how it relates to casino behavior and entertainment.
Patrick Fagan will join forces with Dan and show you how to get inside your customers’ heads while optimizing your platform with behavioral science nudges. Just imagine REALLY being able to read your customers’ minds. How fast would that capacity evolve into increased revenues? We do not think you will be surprised, but you will leave this session with concrete, actionable ideas, ready to apply behavioral science to your challenges, foremost of which is obtaining peak revenues at your Table Games.
Chris Petko: Do you ever think internal violence is a threat in your Casino workplace? We are constantly on guard against a myriad of threats that already have and can occur in our casinos. In the past decade, we’ve had the active shooters, the bomb-scares, the fire-setters, the in-room murders, the trick-rolls and much more. But do we ever think about the kind of violence that occurs from the inside out?
Internal workplace violence in North America has been around forever. It first got real press in US Post Offices and fast food restaurants, and then, of course, our schools, which can be considered internal violence when students or ex-students are the perpetrators. But we don’t think too much about this in casinos. However, Chris Petko, whose job is protecting casinos from any and all threats, does. He asks you the following questions:
Do you ever consider the impact of common labor practices that negatively impact employees who turn to the courts and can receive judgments against your organization for six and seven-figure sums? And what might happen if a disgruntled casino employee who feels unfairly treated, loses a court case and turns to insider theft or, worse, calculated violence?
Does your company have ample policies and procedures to protect it from damage of both kinds?
Decision-makers at every organizational level should be asking themselves these questions! Workplace violence has become a pervasive hazard to the business community in the United States and is now considered to be a federal-level component of the Insider Threat equation. Gaming and Hospitality leaders are necessarily focused on guest-facing operations and may find themselves challenged to prevent and mitigate workplace violence incidents.
Using an interactive presentation and facilitated discussion model, Chris will take an in-depth look at the unique aspects of Gaming and Hospitality operations, identifying environmental conditions and management practices that can trigger workplace violence incidents. Significant attention will also be devoted to the solution process, including an overview of best practices and collaborative partnership techniques that leaders can employ to ensure the safety of their guests, employees, and vendors.
Gus Fritschie and 
David Elmore: GLI-GSF Surveillance Module: A Collaborative Design Workshop Player development (PD) has always been about relationships: The cool, suave, and outgoing PD Execs and Hosts engaging with present and potential clientele. But in today’s environment, these relationships need to be backed by real-time intelligence.
That’s why host teams are now embracing AI technology to identify opportunities faster, act with precision, and connect with players in meaningful ways. This is not to say that casinos no longer need that great cast of PD characters who charm and empathize with current and potential premium players. What it does say is that these key people need to have the AI stimulus to make their jobs easier and their production more efficient.
The idea is to make AI analytics part of the daily PD/Table Games dual operating system.
From tracking arrivals and pacing to identifying unhosted top players, AI can keep your team focused on what matters most: engaging the right guests at the right time. Doing this elevates player development by making every host smarter, every engagement more personal, and every decision backed by data, which all results in more premium players at your tables for a greater amount of time.
While existing regulations like MICS and TICS provide a baseline for surveillance, the gaming industry currently lacks a comprehensive security framework tailored to the complexities of modern surveillance operations. This gap exposes operators to evolving physical and cyber threats.
This interactive working session is your opportunity to close that gap. We invite you to lend your expertise to the design and development of the new Surveillance Module for the GLI Gaming Security Framework (GLI-GSF). After a brief introduction to the framework’s goals, attendees will divide into focused groups, each tasked with architecting controls for a different component of the module.
By contributing your hard-won experience and best practices, you will directly shape a new industry standard. Join your peers to build a comprehensive set of security guidelines that will protect our industry for years to come.
Key Takeaways:
Kelly Koffler: Why is Master Influencer “Casino Kelly” so important to you as Casino Operators? Well, that is simple. She communicates with thousands and thousands of Table Games and Slot players, via direct contact and her YouTube posts and reader comments. She knows which games players like, what kind of atmosphere they like to play in, and equally important, she knows what turns them off and what players fear, both of which keep them from playing. But her strength lies in the ability to resuscitate unhappy and fearful players and turn them into enthusiastic and loyal ones. She has a strong connection to Gen Z, and they like what she shows them. So, you can imagine how Casino Kelly’s influence can not only help boost your Table Games operation but also be influential in the perseverance of Table Games.
Earle G. Hall: Table Games at the Crossroads For an industry to thrive, it must recognize the underlying trends of emerging eras.
In 1985, personal PCs transformed productivity. In 1995, the internet connected the world. In 2005, e-commerce reshaped business. In 2015, the cloud drove real-time efficiency.
Now, 2025 marks the dawn of AI-driven organizations—combining every past pivot into one unlimited productivity tool: GPT.
Now at the crossroads, Table Games must make some crucial decisions that will have far-reaching consequences. In a casino world where profit per square foot defines success, this segment faces maturity pressures. Yet, AI presents a chance not just to survive, but to thrive. While other areas automate and optimize, Table Games can use AI to reignite excitement: personalized player journeys, predictive offers, smarter staffing, and enhanced protection. Far from a threat, AI is the spark that can make Table Games relevant and profitable again. And never again face the threat of being no more.
This is a call to leadership. The executives who embrace AI today won’t just preserve table games; they will redefine their future and restore them as the beating heart of the casino floor. Earle’s keynote will outline seven critical steps to implementing AI in table games—ensuring this segment evolves, grows, and thrives.
Fredrik Bjurle: The Cyborgs are Coming: Defend Your Casino from the Future of Cheating and Advantage Play! Cheating and advantage play have been part of gambling since the very beginning, but now the stakes are higher than ever. Online Live Dealer Casino games face the same relentless challenges as Brick & Mortar casinos, but with a high-tech twist. Sure, being online, we are keeping players at a distance. Online might eliminate some of the old-school risks, but it also opens the door to new, sophisticated threats. Imagine players rigging cameras, reading screens, and using powerful computers to transform a true count into a perfect count—all in real-time.
The future of advantage play is here, and it’s time to fight back. Join our session to discover how to protect your games from the latest threats and learn how online and land-based casinos can share tactics and stay one step ahead of the cheats. And, of course, can B&M casinos learn how to step up their protection from their online counterparts?
Taylor May Panelists: Chris Petko, 
David Vialpando, 
Joshua Anderson, 
Douglas Florence, 
Joe Doa , 
R. Jerry DeFatta Casinos face a broad spectrum of potential crises—ranging from cheating, fraud, theft, and cybersecurity breaches to natural disasters, regulatory issues, and public health emergencies. In such a high-stakes environment, the ability to manage crises effectively is essential to safeguarding people, assets, and reputations.
This panel brings together experts from both the surveillance and protection/security sides of casino operations to explore how these disciplines work in tandem during times of disruption. Surveillance plays a vital role in early detection, real-time monitoring, and gathering actionable intelligence, while protection teams are responsible for immediate physical response, crowd management, and coordination with law enforcement and emergency services.
Key themes of the discussion will include:
Malcolm Rutherford: Facial Recognition keeps on advancing exponentially. How far can it go? Facial Recognition and Intelligence is getting stronger every day. One of the leading companies in these domains is eConnect Global, which has been making all the right moves including integrating its facial recognition with Mirasys Video Management System to form a dual knockout punch in the casino Security and Surveillance worlds.
Malcolm Rutherford, eConnect Global’s Executive Vice President of Strategic Operations, is going to show us just how sharp and efficient Facial Recognition has become, and how much better it’s going to get.
Douglas Florence Panelists: 
Max Davis, Malcolm Rutherford, 
Gabe Sbarglia, Taylor May, 
John Underwood When you go to a conference such as this one, you are bound to be awed by all the incredible technology at the exposition, especially that pertaining to video surveillance. You’ve all already heard of the caveat, “at the end of the day, it’s the humans behind the software who really propel the drive to achieve the best possible results from AI solutions. Is that really so?
And, what about the cameras? Do you know how to optimize their positioning to achieve maximum coverage? Do you know how to reduce the chance of their failing? Do you have proper retention requirements and evidence maintenance procedures? What about the use of your cameras in the progressive response to emergencies?
The list goes on and on, and this Round Table will help get your Surveillance departments up to snuff with all the intricate workings combining man and ultra-man.
Sanjiv Goyal: The AI Arms Race inside the Casinos Will AI Rewrite the Soul of Play? Casinos spend billions studying players, building loyalty programs, and engineering experiences that only half succeed. Good dealers age out, and machines become the new face of the floor. The question is no longer whether AI will take over; it is whether it already has. It’s whether it will make the game soulless or sublime. Will this race create “The Last Dealer of Casinos”?
Futurist and entrepreneur Sanjiv Goyal explores the crossroad between technology and delight, efficiency and emotion. He asks if AI will replace staff or reinvent the experience? He wonders if players will get a fairer, richer, more personalized thrill or lose the magic that made land-based casinos matter?
Like “The Last Samurai,” this is not a story of resistance; it’s a call to preserve the art, and the connection matters.
Nasr Sattar: Casino Table Games Computer Vision at 20/20 It seems now, more than ever, that Computer Vision Technology is exploding through the roof. Every time you look, there’s another player coming out with the latest in Computer Vision, and one of those players always at the forefront is NRT Technology.
Its EVP of Business solutions, Nasr Sattar’s got some cool new stuff for you!
Joe Doa: The Risk of Poor Employee Retention and High Turnover We often talk about the greatest risks to our industry as physical and cyber security threats. There is no doubt those are always top of mind, and we need to do everything that we can to protect our employees and guests and mitigate the risk of mass casualty and reputational risk events. But there is another large-scale risk that is often not discussed. The risk of high turnover and poor retention concerning the casino workforce. This has been a prevalent risk for a number of years and presents a deep-rooted challenge that can have a detrimental impact on your business. The ramifications of poor recruitment, poor leadership and team culture, and high turnover can be the greatest threat to your company. This session will discuss the ramifications of this issue and highlight some of the best practices and success stories to turn around high turnover and improve employee retention. This facet is certainly part of protecting the health of our casino operations.
R. Jerry DeFatta: Adding Preventive Investigations to your Fraud Prevention Plan using Open- Source Intelligence tools and techniques During this session we will discuss the advantages of adding investigative shopping, surveillance audits, integrity testing, and other preventive investigative techniques to your current investigative plan. We will discuss common types of internal fraud that can be identified by integrity testing and other preventive investigations, including ones that are OSINT driven. We will discuss the different areas within a casino were this type of investigation is beneficial. Attendees will hear examples of successful preventive investigations and explore cases where internal thefts were quickly identified by using such investigative techniques.
Learning Objectives:
The session will also include an overview of OSINT techniques and tools which can assist investigators, surveillance professionals, and security managers in legally and ethically applying Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) to internal theft, fraud, and collusion cases. Whether it’s employees oversharing on social media, group chats that identify weaknesses, or mapping relationships, knowing where to find information can significantly improve your investigation and help you prevent losses.
Fredrik Bjurle: Your Strongest Hand: Data-driven Advantage Play Advantage players aren’t guessing—they’re calculating. In today’s casino landscape, the strongest weapon on the floor or online isn’t luck, it’s data. Advantage players are using math, memory, teamwork, and increasingly powerful tech to tilt the odds in their favor. From real-time analysis of shoe composition to data-harvesting tools that reveal patterns invisible to the naked eye, these players are turning every hand into an opportunity.
In a brick-and-mortar casino, you might catch a whiff of smoke or spot a fake moustache across the table. But online, the battleground looks very different. Here, you’re not facing a lone player or a small team—you’re up against armies of bots, seamlessly camouflaged among millions across thousands of tables. To stand a chance, casinos need more than vigilance; they need to match the armory and tactics of their opponents with equally advanced tools and strategies.
This session dives deep into how they do it—and how you can fight back. You’ll see real-world examples of data-driven advantage play in action, from card counting and hole-carding to the latest hybrid methods that blend traditional tricks with cutting-edge analytics. We’ll explore how mastermind online advantage players think, the systems they build, and the lengths they go to stay one step ahead of the house.
Most importantly, you’ll learn how casinos—both land-based and online—can turn the tables by using data themselves. We’ll discuss practical countermeasures, intelligent surveillance strategies, and the power of sharing insights across operators to build a stronger collective defense.
Earle G. Hall: Undetectable Google Eyewear powered by Gemini AI. How big…or should we say gigantic…is this threat to casinos? Several Gaming jurisdictions have either banned Google Glass (Google glasses) or politely or impolitely ask players at gaming tables to remove them. If you don’t know why, haven’t heard of them or don’t know exactly what they can do, know this:
Google Glass has giant potential when it comes to advantage play (AP) and cheating in casinos. Some AP/cheating assistance it provides via HD filming, photo-taking and surfing include divulging poker hands to colluding players, receiving information from external sources to be used to gain an advantage over the house by counting cards and giving betting instruction, recording game progression and dealer behavior that can be analyzed for patterns and potential vulnerabilities, and even yet unknown ways to compromise Game Protection and Security.
So, with all this in mind, the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which banned computers and recording devices decades ago, decided that Google Glass fell into this category and banned them as well.
But the big break for casino Game Protection has been that the glasses stick out like a sore thumb, much the way antiquated contact lenses with fake-looking colors used in seeing marks on cards did.
But that is changing. Google’s current focus in high-tech eyewear is the development of AI-powered augmented reality (AR) glasses without the unsightly giveaways. There are several such products in the works and the common denominator is scary as hell! You’ve heard of it. It’s called Gemini AI Integration, so instead of asking Gemini via cell phones, APers and cheats will have it directly in their “view.”
These AR discreet glasses are already on the market.
So, what do casinos do now? Check everyone’s eyeglasses at the door the way TSA checks your luggage? Ban glasses altogether, forcing players to either wear contacts or squint?
And what AP and cheating devices are coming next?
Taylor May Panelists: Douglas Florence, David Vialpando, Malcolm Rutherford, Wyly Wade, Joshua Anderson, John Underwood Developing technologies have been a huge thrust pushing forward the giant expansion and profitability of the worldwide casino industry. Each passing month, it seems, we get news of a brand-new multi-billion-dollar integrated casino resort in the works somewhere in the world. All this mega-movement opens up more and more windows for the exploitation of AI, bringing with it access to thresholds we had never dreamed of reaching. Be it this department or that; be it Table Games, Surveillance, Marketing or Player Development, the technology is there to replace every working system that had been there before, including, in many cases, human beings.
But what about the newest element of high-tech development that might have lots of us running for the cover of the “prehistoric” days. We are talking about “Weaponization.” The word has been slung around by a slingshot in the unfortunate political landscape of the United States. But what about the weaponization of technologies against casinos? Well, bad actors have begun to do just that, and in a very bad way. One chilling example of this is the use of “deepfakes” to manipulate video and audio. Probably born out of social-engineering, this type of weaponization is far worse than conning a casino cage employee into raiding the vault and dropping off the cash to someone in the parking lot they believe is their boss giving the order to do so. You can only imagine what can happen when people in sensitive positions inside the casino structure are brainwashed by things deep and fake.
Nick Ippolito Panelists: Michael Chapman, 
Paul Mollo, 
Ari Mizrachi, Douglas Florence, 
Donald Snyder It hit Table Games like a hard right hand. Of course, it was not a surprise but when it happened it was still a shock. In September, 2025, Las Vegas casino maverick Derek Stevens removed all the Golden Gate’s Table Games and replaced them with Interblock Electronic Table Games. It’s no secret that standard Table Games have been losing casino ground for some time now, especially since COVID. Not only in Las Vegas but in many Brick & Mortar jurisdictions across North America. But now it’s really out in the open and at the top of the industry discussion list. Reaction to Stevens’ action has run the gamut from “This is really the beginning of the end of Table Games and their extinction is near” to “It’s only a coupla dozen Table Games that won’t be missed, so what’s the big deal?”
So, what really is the deal? And how big of a deal is it? Are we at the crossroads for the end of an era, or are we just going over a big bump in the long and winding casino road?
Industry veteran Douglas Florence will lead this eclectic group of expert panelists from all corners of the casino industry who will impart their true beliefs, fears, inspirations and hopes, all in the name of saving our Table Games.
Richard Marcus: What exactly goes into and out of a modern major Baccarat Scam Six and seven-figure baccarat scams have been plaguing North American casinos for some three decades. The difference in the most recent of these has been a changeover from high-tech scams back to more human-powered scams. Yes, you heard that right. And with the decrease of technology being used in these scams, most are engineered by dealers bringing in their own player-agents.
The Mid-Atlantic Baccarat Gang is a highly organized collection of ex-baccarat dealers and their friends and families from the Northeast, and current baccarat dealers already in place waiting to scam their casinos across the US and Canada. Many got their cheat-training in Maryland casinos, where for years there was no official criminalization of cheating casinos. This gave enterprising cheats statewide candy stores in which to ply their craft without punishment when caught and no deterrent keeping them from recidivating.
Richard Marcus, a 25-year ex-professional casino cheat and now a 20-year game protection trainer and consultant, engineered a major false-shuffle baccarat scam fifty years ago as a dealer, perhaps the first to do so. He knows the ins and outs of baccarat scams like no other. He will take you through a modern baccarat scam at a major casino via real surveillance video, and then explain what you need to do to identify the cheats and their scams before they victimize you, how to enhance your protection procedures, and what to check each time players make a big score to make sure it was not a scam.
During a scrumptious meal, the winners of the “Best New Table Games Contest” will be announced and the champion will deliver a quick speech…Let the best new table game win! And then maybe we can get Paul Mollo and Nick Ippolito to do a little comedy routine!
Sanjiv Goyal Panelists: Earle G. Hall, Michael Chapman, Ari Mizrachi, Nasr Sattar, Malcolm Rutherford We’ve been told and shown how these devices can do anything and everything to enhance your Table Games operation while protecting it from Advantage Play and Cheating far better than any “naked” human Analytics and Game Protection staff employed to do the same. But is that entirely true?
Purveyors claim that AI-driven decision-making optimizes staffing and table games management by analyzing player traffic patterns and game popularity, thus creating the perfect Personalized Player Experience. They also claim that their products enhance predictive gaming-equipment maintenance that reduces downtime and ensures smooth and uninterrupted operation during peak hours.
On the Game Protection/Surveillance side, anomalies and suspicious behavior are detected in real time, allowing casinos to proactively identify potential threats such as cheating, fraud and theft before they escalate. And the AI-powered surveillance systems with facial recognition and RFID technology allow comprehensive monitoring of both the gaming floor and sensitive areas, giving staff the ability to spot suspicious characters and identify excluded persons, and the capacity to follow the movements of high-denomination chips used in money laundering and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to act upon the most serious compromise of a casino’s financial security, the threat from within.
Our panel of distinguished AI experts and Operations and Surveillance/Security experts will discuss how and why all this is so important and how at times it can be misleading and even cause serious problems.
Richard Marcus: Did we forget anything? Well, the biggest poker cheating scam in history pulled off by NBA players, coaches and the mafia using everything from X-ray poker tables, hacked shufflers, marked cards, rigged smartphones, daub-seeing contact lenses to tiny magnetized earpieces is even more Hollywood than the big ripoffs in the film Molly’s Game. But is this incredible scam any way credible in the real legitimate casino world?
Richard will also cover some things we forgot to cover!
Program subject to change
Contact to richard@globaltablegamesprotection.com
If you want the best in the business, the only GP trainer who really knows how high-level professional casino cheats operate because he was one for 25 years, call Richard Marcus.
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