The OLG has made good on their promise to implement facial recognition technology in their casinos to help weed out admitted problem gamblers that slip through the security cracks.
It was only a matter of time before technology joined the battle front to keep problem gamblers from destroying themselves and then suing the establishments.
As it stands now, gambling addicts in Ontario might soon find themselves thrown out of casinos when they go to play the odds, thanks to new facial recognition technology the province’s lottery regulator has started installing on slot machines.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has now completed to installation process of its facial recognition technology on two-thirds of slot machines and casinos across the province.
The program is currently voluntary, and targets the self professed gambling addicts who have opted to have their picture taken and stored in a provincial database.
Any player in the database who attempts to enter an Ontario casino and try to play, will activate a computer program that will compare their face with the picture bank and a match occurs, the computer alerts security to seek out the problem gambler.
It’s all very high tech stuff. But it’s likely only a matter of time before systems like this are implemented across the country of Canada. This technology puts things back in balance. If a problem gambler truly wants help, they need only register their picture in the database and the technology will do the rest to ensure they don’t fall prey to their addiction in casinos at least.
