Face Recognition at Online Casinos: Is it a step forward?

David Banks
Authored by David Banks
Posted Monday, December 9, 2019 - 8:05am

As a security measure, facial recognition is definitely one of the recent developments made by casinos to curb insecurity related activities. Historically, facial recognition software was mainly based on 2D images which grew with some challenges that included constraints on the image and the amount of light available when at the time the picture is taken. Due to the rapid growth in technology, the 3D system was developed with more sophisticated features that make it simpler to identify a person.

Gambling industries is one of the grounds where a lot of money is exchanged between gamblers and the ‘house’. In this case, face recognition could have an influence on the gambling niche because safety and security becomes very fundamental to clients and customers in the entire gambling industry. Great thanks to The Imagis Technology Inc. who developed a sophisticated facial tracking system called CASINO-ID with a biometric Facial Recognition Software. 

The software uses biometric technology to capture images using a property’s existing CCTVs which then creates database and compares images based on facial features only. The system has helped most casinos to easily identify the barred players as soon as they enter the casino. Both the online and on-land gambling companies need to embrace this system so as they protect their customers from the malicious behaviors and other criminal behaviors.

Security and KYC simplification

The Facial Recognition software is a great step towards security and makes the KYC policy simpler to use and understand. The Know Your Customer policies which are usually initiated at the time punters get to registers in different gambling sites. The policies require that players confirm their identity, age and address. Face recognition shall help in this way, the customers can upload a photo of an ID document and take a selfie right inside the app thereby expediting the registration process.

Facial recognition has also contributed to positive security measures as the live stream of a player can easily be analyzed to determine whether there are any unusual changes in the identity movement or behavior. Despite the presence of fact that British customers needed online casino without verification details to stay anonymous while gambling this technology will be used by most operators in order to protect underage gamblers. 

This essentially helps to identify that the person playing the game is the person who actually logged in. There is also a safer environment provided for the VIP or high-rollers for instance are offered with luxury casino experience which allows for customization and management of the whole customer journey. This high roller are also provided with an extra layer of exclusivity with multifactor account verification.

How does it work?

The facial recognition system uses its video surveillance systems to capture images of casino players. It then breaks the image up into different code sections and runs a search to find a match and identify the player. This match is arrived after the software has compared the image to the database or stored faces, the software then keenly measures various attributes of the face to generate the match. 

It is possible to measure the attributes on the face as everyone has got a unique characteristic that the software identifies as the nodal point. This nodal point or the unique characteristic could be the distance between the eyes, the width of the nose, depth of the eye socket, the shape of the cheekbones and the length of the jaw among many others. 

These nodal points are then converted into the 0's and 1’s and stored in the database and may latter be used to match an image for comparison.

Conclusion

Since there has been so many benefits for both consumers and businesses, most casinos and betting companies have responded positively towards the facial biometrics. These benefits need to be measured against other potential impacts of face recognition. 

Most people prefer to play on-line for this one simple reason that online casinos use this software and surveillance technique as compared to the land based. This sounds like a safer ground to play from due to the safety it provides, making it more attractive to players of different nature.


 

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