They’re not mandated to do that, if that’s what you’re asking (so we hope that this is for fictional authenticity and not because you're secretly planning a heist!). Nevada gaming regulations only require surveillance of the gambling areas themselves. As for hotel hallways and elevators, "That is more the liability of the property," says Nevada Gaming Control Board Deputy Chief of Enforcement James Taylor, who adds that the casinos would also want video surveillance of any pathway with which money is transported into and out of the casino.
Despite casino stonewalling on the topic, a 2013 Associated Press exposé revealed that only four out of 27 Strip casinos had hallway cameras and ones monitoring elevator landings. The four exceptions were MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, and the Tropicana. (The Stratosphere, while technically not on the Strip, also monitors non-gaming areas.) Popular Mechanics reported in 2010 that The Mirage monitors its stairwells, a favored spot for untoward activity – including couples indulging in a quickie -- a fact we can verify thanks to the results of a past Reader Poll concerning the naughtiest things you've ever done in Vegas, some of which were very naughty! At least one former nightclub, in Bally’s, had closed-circuit TV monitoring, which captured an enraged patron shooting two men and killing a third – all over a $30 cover charge.
Hence, it’s not an idle concern. In 2008, a guest at The Orleans found that someone with a duplicate key card had accessed her room no fewer than three times, eventually stealing her wallet and smart phone. That same year two Golden Nugget guests had their hotel room burglarized while they slept. Their wallets, casino chips, and slot tickets were taken, though fortunately no one was harmed. The Nugget characterized the robbery as "an isolated incident" and congratulated itself on having taken "the proper procedures." However, there were no signs of a forced entry and the room had a broken deadbolt lock. (In 2012, the property contracted one of the industry leaders, Surveillance Systems Integration, to undertake a complete overhaul and upgrade of its surveillance system; Treasure Island used the same company in the same capacity that year and while none of the literature that we could find specified this, the implication was that at least some non-casino guest areas were integrated into the general "eye in the sky" coverage.) We even learned from a former head of surveillance at a property we won't name that what turned out to be an ongoing racket involving hotel security and certain prostitutes was only busted when a guest happened to return to his room unexpectedly during the day to be greeted by two complete strangers in flagrante delicto in his bed!
Security consultant Fred Del Marva told the AP, "People have a false sense of safety when they go to a casino. You think, `I’m going to Bellagio, they have 2,000 surveillance cameras, so I’m going to be safe.’ And you’re wrong. The level of security at the hotel level is zero." The reason may be cost: It would take an estimated $2 million to install all those additional cameras and it would raise an operator’s monitoring costs at least $100,000 a year, Del Marva speculated. That seems like a conservative estimate since, in terms of crime-prevention, the surveillance system is only effective if you have enough employees watching the monitors around the clock, and in order to have useful evidence if and when something untoward does occur, you need to record and save all that footage, which means expensive server space (since most systems now work with digital technology as opposed to video tape).
Popular Mechanics was allowed into the Mirage’s surveillance nerve center awhile back and got to see the "eye in the sky" perform, including how casino staff zeroed in on and caught a baccarat cheater in action. On the other hand, an LVA staffer recalls filming in the surveillance room of an off-Strip casino during a busy holiday weekend, and it was a member of the film crew who pointed out that someone had been stabbed on the dancefloor of the nightclub – the incident occurred just after dinner arrived and the surveillance operatives were busy focusing on their burgers and fries at the time, as opposed to watching the bank of screens in front of them.
"As a hotel operator, I think what you really need is cameras in the foyer and in the elevator," said Caesars Palace President Gary Selesner, "That said, we are putting cameras in as we complete renovations [of the Julius Tower] because of door-push concerns," referring to the types of burglary where the thief goes from room to room, feeling for ones that are unlocked.
Las Vegas Chief Deputy District Attorney James Sweetin was less forgiving, speculating that greater surveillance might have prevented an unconscious woman from being assaulted in a Cosmopolitan stairwell (Sweetin said the assailant took to the stairs, knowing they were uncovered) or a 13-year-old boy from being raped in a Circus Circus hotel room. Ditto a 2011 rape of a maid at Bally’s Las Vegas, another case in which the attacker used the stairs to enter and exit the building in order to avoid detection.
The Cosmopolitan, by the way, declined to discuss the surveillance issue with LVA. Las Vegas Sands also said "we don’t disclose" such matters, which we can understand. All other casino companies contacted by LVA simply didn’t reply. Surveillance of non-casino areas obviously remains a touchy topic in the industry, or at least one regarding which hotels don't want to disclose too much information, for fear that it might work to the advantage of the bad guys.
Blogger Chellie Cervone leapt to the casinos’ defense two years ago in the wake of the AP story, saying that mechanical surveillance was being supplemented by the human element. "Hotel hallways, parking garages. elevator landing areas, stairwells and the perimeter of properties are just some of the areas that are patrolled by foot, bicycle and even golf carts," she wrote. Indeed, the list of job requirements for a casino-security position at the Golden Nugget that we found posted online included patrolling the back of the house, the pool area, and riding "a bicycle through levels of the self-park garage in extreme temperatures."
At the Silverton, "Principle [sic] responsibilities and duties" for another security position include patrolling lobbies, corridors, and public areas "to detect infringements and investigate disturbances, complaints, thefts, vandalisms, and accidents." However, the bill of particulars is so long and includes so many casino-floor duties (same as at the Golden Nugget) that you have to wonder how much time any single guard could devote to guest safety.
But surveillance of non-gaming areas is not only in the interests of guests: The same LVA staffer who was present to witness that nightclub stabbing has also been shown surveillance footage that clearly showed a member of the public "practicing" over and over for what’s known in the business as a "slip and fall" – an "accident" that occurred in the corridor leading from the parking garage into the hotel and for which the casino could have been deemed liable for damages, had they not had evidence that it took a half-dozen attempts on the part of the perp to fall just right and so that some kind of credible injury was sustained.
Part of the problem, according to security expert Alan W. Zajic, has been a "constant bombardment of technology demonstrated in television programs and movies [that] depict sophisticated monitoring and equipment that a large portion of the traveling public truly believes exists in every environment." This, in turn, gave rise to soul-searching in the hospitality industry over where to draw the line between protecting the hotel guest and infringing on their privacy. Also, as referenced above, the more cameras that are installed, the more employees have to be dedicated to monitoring them.
Even casino-floor surveillance and in-person security can be easily foiled, as when a gunman was able to conduct a brazen robbery of Bellagio’s casino floor, in large part because he was wearing a motorcycle helmet (which, evidently, nobody around at the time demanded that he remove), foiling every security camera in the house. The same thing happened back in the day at the Stardust’s race and sports book, we seem to recall, a facility that was located right by an easy getaway exit straight out to the parking lot.
MGM spokeswoman Yvette Monet rationalized the absence of omnipresent surveillance to the R-J as follows: "These are luxury resorts. We don’t want people to feel like they’re being tracked and cataloged." By the same token, back in 2013 when it was announced that Metro was installing 37 new high-powered surveillance cameras on the Las Vegas Strip, questions were raised about guest privacy. But to quote a previous QoD on the subject, "One thing they won’t be used for is any Peeping Tomfoolery. When the initial cameras were installed, in September 2013, it was disclosed that they not only had full pan-tilt-zoom capabilities, but were powerful enough to see into certain Strip hotel rooms. Capt. Robert Duvall, however, announced a zero-tolerance policy for that manner of surveillance. ‘That will lead to discipline for the officers. Now, you’ve got some major incident at a hotel where a guy is sitting on a ledge and threatening to jump, obviously that’s a different story,’ Duvall explained at the time."
The balance between creating a safe environment and respecting privacy is proving to be a difficult one for Las Vegas to strike.
