Every casino across the United States takes certain measures to ensure the security of the casino as well as players. Surveillance cameras, security personal and more are used to keep the games running smoothly and players safe. However, there are ways for criminals to get around security, take for example the recent counterfeit chips debacle in New Jersey. A poker player in the Borgata Winter Poker Open was able to place millions in poker chips into game play. Now a Pennsylvania casino is putting a measure in place to protect the casino from this type of situation.
According to a recent interview by PokerNews with Matt Glantz of Parx Casino, a new policy has been set in place by the casino to help keep counterfeit chips from game play. The Parx Casino is located in Bensalem and will implement the new policy to track the chips in game play. This policy was especially put in place as the Parx BigStaxV starts in a few days.
Glantz told Poker News that the recent incident in New Jersey posed concern for the poker community. The poker industry needs to take appropriate steps to ensure this does not happen. The Parx facility has taken a complete inventory of the chips involved in tournament play before an event begins as well as after every tournament. These steps are required by the Gaming Control Board of the state and a report must also be sent to the Bureau of Gaming Operations after each event showing any discrepancies in the chip inventory.
As the BigStaxV takes place this February, a new policy will be put in place. Each tournament that takes place in the poker room at Parx, the dealer at every table will count and log the highest denomination chips for each seat at the poker tables. Breaks will be strategically placed during the tournament so the dealer can make these recordings. The staff on the poker floor will then be responsible for verifying as well as combining the logs to create one master list to be used for the event.
Floor supervisors must also count and log each chip, high and low denominations, at each table when the dinner break occurs. The casino understands that there is nothing to stop a criminal from placing fake chips in game play but by checking in this manner, hopefully an incident like the Borgata can be avoided.