Internal Theft

Internal theft and fraud is continuing to grow in our industry. I continue to come across or hear about new scams or old scams with a new twist. The economy has exposed numerous schemes that have existed for long periods of time but were hidden behind profits during the good times. It is becoming more and more apparent that companies have a significant employee theft problem and don’t know how to fight it.

Just think about recent headlines reporting employee theft incidents that have occurred in gaming in the last few years: slot employees in New Mexico stole $500,000 to $1 million through fraudulent jackpots; slot technicians at a property in Las Vegas stole over $1 million by setting up false jackpots; dealers across the country colluded with players using false shuffles to steal over $18 million! Times have changed!

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in their 2008 Report to the Nation states that organizations lose 7% of their annual revenue to fraud. Additionally, the report says the average fraud continues for two years before it is detected. As our gaming industry is somewhat unique as compared to other more “normal” businesses, we may lose even more that the average to internal theft and fraud

Just because we expect employee theft to occur doesn’t mean we have to sit back and take it. Using the right personnel, resources and programs we can detect it more often and decrease it significantly. Most gaming properties already have most of the resources needed; awareness, proper training and techniques can easily be added to the mix.

Gaming properties already have security, surveillance, loss prevention, risk management and audit departments in place. Traditionally these departments are focused on the gaming end of the business and should continue to do so. However, as internal theft and fraud continues to rise and its costs escalate, it is imperative we also focus on the other areas and departments within today’s gaming properties.

Along with Michael Joseph, International Gaming Specialist, we developed and will present Internal Theft Tour 2009. In this dynamic and hard hitting two day presentation we have put together the information, techniques and best practices you need to immediately attack internal theft and fraud where it exists on your property and implement techniques to detect new scams before they cost your company thousands!

Sign up today to reserve your seat for this event. You can’t afford to miss it!