Casino robberies.
April 23, 2010
It leaves me dumb struck that the companies cannot combat the armed robbers that move from industry to industry and have basically formed effective terrorist units. Various "suppose to be corrections of the past" actually benefit these thugs such as affirmative action for one. In the Casino and some other industries Executive managers and CEO's first replaced white security specialists with people of colour thats skills could not match the guard that worked for the industry a few years ago. Why ?
AA TARGETS ARE STILL BASED ON COLOUR FOR A SECURITY POSITION.
You cannot play with colour where a position exists solely to prevent loss, injury and death. It must be based on skill!!! This is a potential for civil liability. If guests get injured or die and the positions responsible for the prevention were appointed not on experience and skill there a good chance of a massive claim. Ala Mumbai.
Senior executives are to blame. To score some benefits in the BEE they compromised the position they thought and still think requires the least amount of mental capacity/skills. In the process lives are put at risk and various other serious problems have been created in the work situation. Take the casino industry. Sol Kerzner hand picked his security members from the elite of the South African special forces and other forces. Compare what he had to what the industry sits with today.!! (Overall) Off course there are highly experienced Security managers left in the odd Casino. We Then held annual and bi annual inter-unit competitions in fire teams, evacuation drills, explosive dog units, narcotic dog units, Health and Safety competitions and much more.
We had a group practical shooting competition where we practiced every second day for the duration of the year. We held competitions against the elite of the SA Police force every month...and we always beat them. We built practical courses mimicking casinos and reconstructed hostage situations.
We had our own ambulances, fire brigades with full time employees and could search our own casinos for explosives. Every half an hour a bomb search was done in every casino in the group . Dummy explosives were hidden and if an employee did not discover it on his patrols he could be terminated.
We brought in more VIP's than any other tourist facility would in the next decade ...and we personally protected them. Many Profile celebrities like Dolly Parton, Rod Steward,etc etc relied on us and some even invited some of security members back to their countries.
We ran hotels while every other businesses were burning around us...... profitably I might ad..!!In a time of war. We were on the Hit lists (targets)of many Terrorist groups and they never succeeded.
Today theres a gaming board that regulates every movement of the industry and audits every action of the Surveillance departments. We had hundred fold less scams and losses than today. We could on "body language" detect scams without being locked up in surveillance rooms with 3000 % less cameras.
Despite controlling the casino industry the "Gaming Boards" have done little to curb the spate of robberies that have been crunching the casinos and scams have definitely not decreased. Despite this, robberies continue because it is waiting for skilled security staff , and effective countermeasures. Unless the gaming boards addresses this crime and dictate standards, the casinos will not spend money as with all the other useless countermeasures proposed by them that are geared only to maximize the governments revenue irregardless the safety of the people..
Nor Provincial gaming boards auditors nor internal auditors are skilled to address this problem.let alone that they never audit these crucial plans.
Armed response company's with a c,b grades only are contracted to respond to armed robberies or emergencies without having a clue of the emergency procedures of the casinos let alone having the slightest knowledge of the business processes.etc etc etc.
In extreme emergencies we evacuated our hotels including General managers and ran them profitably with only security and skeleton staff for up to a week such as the Bisho massacre, Bop over throw, Many military coups in the Ciskei and Transkei etc.
Only a few skilled security members remain on the top level in casinos (larger ones)
Bring back the skill.
A company like Sun International does not even have a security professional on a group level like any other company of its size in the world to dictate and Monitor security standards.
Talk About.. Governance.!!
I was the last one on group level in Head Office and gave my position up for an AA person that was terminated before he could fill the position.?? While they don't have such an important position vacant (or filled with experience) in such a violent society is negligent to say the least. The importance is just not understood. Scams occur continually as has happened over the past few weeks where Security / surveillance departments of one unit did not communicate the modus operandi to others in the group, similar incidents reoccurred. Event management at a top level is thus non existent.
Because of all the attention and money spend on surveillance departments, the security departments have been left in the dark..literally!
AA TARGETS ARE STILL BASED ON COLOUR FOR A SECURITY POSITION.
You cannot play with colour where a position exists solely to prevent loss, injury and death. It must be based on skill!!! This is a potential for civil liability. If guests get injured or die and the positions responsible for the prevention were appointed not on experience and skill there a good chance of a massive claim. Ala Mumbai.
Senior executives are to blame. To score some benefits in the BEE they compromised the position they thought and still think requires the least amount of mental capacity/skills. In the process lives are put at risk and various other serious problems have been created in the work situation. Take the casino industry. Sol Kerzner hand picked his security members from the elite of the South African special forces and other forces. Compare what he had to what the industry sits with today.!! (Overall) Off course there are highly experienced Security managers left in the odd Casino. We Then held annual and bi annual inter-unit competitions in fire teams, evacuation drills, explosive dog units, narcotic dog units, Health and Safety competitions and much more.
We had a group practical shooting competition where we practiced every second day for the duration of the year. We held competitions against the elite of the SA Police force every month...and we always beat them. We built practical courses mimicking casinos and reconstructed hostage situations.
We had our own ambulances, fire brigades with full time employees and could search our own casinos for explosives. Every half an hour a bomb search was done in every casino in the group . Dummy explosives were hidden and if an employee did not discover it on his patrols he could be terminated.
We brought in more VIP's than any other tourist facility would in the next decade ...and we personally protected them. Many Profile celebrities like Dolly Parton, Rod Steward,etc etc relied on us and some even invited some of security members back to their countries.
We ran hotels while every other businesses were burning around us...... profitably I might ad..!!In a time of war. We were on the Hit lists (targets)of many Terrorist groups and they never succeeded.
Today theres a gaming board that regulates every movement of the industry and audits every action of the Surveillance departments. We had hundred fold less scams and losses than today. We could on "body language" detect scams without being locked up in surveillance rooms with 3000 % less cameras.
Despite controlling the casino industry the "Gaming Boards" have done little to curb the spate of robberies that have been crunching the casinos and scams have definitely not decreased. Despite this, robberies continue because it is waiting for skilled security staff , and effective countermeasures. Unless the gaming boards addresses this crime and dictate standards, the casinos will not spend money as with all the other useless countermeasures proposed by them that are geared only to maximize the governments revenue irregardless the safety of the people..
Nor Provincial gaming boards auditors nor internal auditors are skilled to address this problem.let alone that they never audit these crucial plans.
Armed response company's with a c,b grades only are contracted to respond to armed robberies or emergencies without having a clue of the emergency procedures of the casinos let alone having the slightest knowledge of the business processes.etc etc etc.
In extreme emergencies we evacuated our hotels including General managers and ran them profitably with only security and skeleton staff for up to a week such as the Bisho massacre, Bop over throw, Many military coups in the Ciskei and Transkei etc.
Only a few skilled security members remain on the top level in casinos (larger ones)
Bring back the skill.
A company like Sun International does not even have a security professional on a group level like any other company of its size in the world to dictate and Monitor security standards.
Talk About.. Governance.!!
I was the last one on group level in Head Office and gave my position up for an AA person that was terminated before he could fill the position.?? While they don't have such an important position vacant (or filled with experience) in such a violent society is negligent to say the least. The importance is just not understood. Scams occur continually as has happened over the past few weeks where Security / surveillance departments of one unit did not communicate the modus operandi to others in the group, similar incidents reoccurred. Event management at a top level is thus non existent.
Because of all the attention and money spend on surveillance departments, the security departments have been left in the dark..literally!
Posted by Joe Lategan. Posted In : Casino security
