As the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma began to expand its casino operations, tribal leaders realized that many of their facilities had outgrown the limitations of their existing analog surveillance technology. In looking to modernize their security system, they sought an open IP-based solution that would provide secure, evidentia?ry-quality video recordings, operate at 30 frames per second and would be easy to set up and expand without major expense or disruption of gaming activity.
As the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma began to expand its casino operations, tribal leaders realized that many of their facilities had outgrown the limitations of their existing analog surveillance technology. In looking to modernize their security system, they sought an open IP-based solution that would provide secure, evidentia?ry-quality video recordings, operate at 30 frames per second and would be easy to set up and expand without major expense or disruption of gaming activity.
Choctaw Nation's own onsite team worked with Axis partners – ConnectionsIT of Santa Rosa, California and CameraWatch Technologies of Jackson, Mississippi – to install an array of Axis fixed dome and PTZ network cameras on the casinos' fiber backbone. The Axis cameras monitor back of house hallways and money areas as well as building exteriors, parking lots and high-stakes gaming areas.
Security teams monitor the cameras 24/7 from surveil?lance rooms on the casino properties, enabling them to immediately respond to any incidents of theft, customer safety or questionable behavior by patrons or employees. As word spreads of the new surveillance systems, tribal leaders are noting a significant drop in fraudulent slip-and-fall claims and shortages at the tables and the tills.
The Choctaw casinos' legacy analog cameras were be?coming a hindrance in working with local law enforce?ment. The images they captured were of insufficient resolution to be acceptable in court. And because the images were being recorded on VCR tape, they wore out over time, creating difficulties for security teams who had to play back video repeatedly over several days or weeks during an investigation.
“Casino security needs advanced cameras that will cap?ture the details of a card, a ticket, the number of chips thrown on a table or under one's hand,” explained Paula Penz, gaming commissioner for the Choctaw Nation, the third largest Native American tribe in the United States.
Another important feature of the Axis technology was the ability for the network cameras to operate at 30 frames per second, a standard that exceeded the guide?lines set by the National Indian Gaming Commission. Other criteria that favored Axis network cameras were their support of PoE which allowed the casinos to save installation costs by using a single cable to both power the cameras and transmit the video over the network. In addition, the selection committee val?ued that the Axis network cameras supported both M-JPEG and H.264 advanced compression at a full 30 fps, allowing casinos to affordably maintain 14 days of archival storage.