Casinos are watching players more than ever

Casinos are using more sophisticated technology to keep tabs on each gambler. Bally Gaming and Systems have a system that they call the Bally's electronic Table Management System that a few casinos in the United States are using. Every card that is dealt is displayed on monitors in order for managers to keep track of every player. They can create a profile of the gambler to conclude whether or not he or she is a winner or loser. This way they can hand out "comps", like free meals or reduced hotel rates, to bad players to encourage them to keep playing and ignore the better gamblers.

Chips also contain radio-frequency identification mechanisms to report back to the casino. They only way they can keep track of gamblers who play the slot machines is with their frequent-player cards. They reward only the people who are doing badly.

This might sound like terrible news for gamblers. But the casinos have been tracking players down for years. Pit bosses and managers were the ones who kept an eye on things back in the day. All that has changed is that casinos have started using better technology to watch many gamblers at a time.