Friday, July 09, 1999
Casino's security reviewed after theft
Worker allegedly walked with $84K
BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
RISING SUN, Ind. — There were three security forces and a long list of rules and regulations to keep a Grand Victoria employee from walking off with $84,000 cash. But they didn't work.
Instead, Eihab A. Nassar, 23, continued Thursday to elude police who want to question him in connection with the Tuesday night crime. The Cincinnati resident — a citizen of Amman, Jordan, who began working as a cash runner just over a month ago — is being sought on an Ohio County felony theft warrant.
He allegedly picked up the bundle of $100 bills from a first-floor bank and failed to call the required security guard who would have accompanied him to a third-floor cashier. Videotapes showed that Mr. Nassar kept walking, alone, across the casino floor and out the door, police said.
“When you get individuals who work around large amounts of money, you will have thefts. This is a natural occurrence,” said 1st Sgt. Steve Banks of the Indiana State Police Gaming Division. He said authorities are proud that in three years of riverboat gambling in Indiana, there has been only one other major employee theft — in the earlier case, an employee gradually stole a total $300,000 in casino chips.
Sgt. Banks, security experts and representatives of the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC),which regulates the industryagree that ample policies are in place to prevent such crimes. Problems occur when protocols are not followed.
IGC auditors arrived at Grand Victoria Thursday. If they find IGC-approved security procedures were ignored, then Grand Victoria could face cash fines, more stringent rules and increased supervision, said spokesperson Jennifer Arnold.
“The internal control procedures approved by the commission, if followed, provide for an environment where employees cannot very easily steal cash,” she said. “In this case, it's likely that all the procedures were not followed, although we have to conduct an investigation to confirm that.”
Grand Victoria officials did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
Each of Indiana's nine riverboat casinos carries plain-clothes Indiana State Police officers on every cruise. They also employ a private, uniformed security force and a surveillance staff to monitor continuous camera displays.
Cash transactions should be watched by all three, Mrs. Arnold said.
“You've got good policies and procedures in place, but they are not followed,” said Reno, Nev.-based Ken Braunstein, a national casino security consultant. “It doesn't matter if this is a casino theft or a bank theft, or a school-district theft. The case is exactly the same.”
A retired criminal justice professor from the University of Nevada at Reno, Mr. Braunstein has been working with casinos and resorts on security matters for 15 years.
Although each state with legalized gambling has its own way of doing things, most (including Indiana) follow employment procedures begun in Nevada: Prospective hires are subject to an extensive background check including criminal and financial history.
In Indiana, convicted felons are not allowed to work in casinos without undergoing extra scrutiny by the Gaming Commission. A person found to have lied about a prior conviction is automatically barred.
And a person who is deeply in debt, and earning relatively low casino wages, should not be working with large sums of cash, Mr. Braunstein said.
“The product in gaming is cash ... so, yes, the temptations are great,” he said.
The Indiana Gaming Commission has issued 14,210 active casino employee licenses since the first riverboat opened in 1996.
Last year, 40 people had their licenses revoked: 21 for criminal activity on the job; seven for local gambling-related arrests; six for improper action while dealing with a game; two for improper conduct on other riverboats; two for failure to follow IGC rules; and two for unsuitable conditions uncovered through background checks.
As in Mr. Nassar's case, it is not unusual for a temporary license to be issued before all of the background information is obtained, the IGC's Mrs. Arnold said.
“A lot of times, these casinos are in areas that have high unemployment and we couldn't very well — especially in the beginning — tell the boats or the people who were applying that they could apply and then in eight weeks or a month they could be hired,” she explained.
“Until now, it has worked pretty well.”
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