Griffin Investigations

Griffin Investigations

Griffin Investigations was once the most prominent group of private investigators specializing in the gambling industryFact|date=September 2008. The company was founded in 1967 by Beverly S. Griffin and Robert R. Griffin.

The company maintained dossiers on card counters, serial jackpot winners, and other individuals, chiefly professional gamblers using legal techniques to gain an advantage in casino games; these profiles were regularly published in the "Griffin Book", and distributed to subscribing casinos. Griffin Investigations was instrumental in ending the MIT Blackjack Team’s winning streakFact|date=September 2008, after a Griffin investigator purchased the names, photographs, and other details identifying the group’s members and the company distributed the information to casinos. Roughly half of the major casinos in the U.S. once subscribed to Griffin’s servicesFact|date=September 2008.

Griffin also marketed a controversial face recognition system that used computer software to compare gamblers' faces against several volumes of mug shots. According to a "Las Vegas Sun" article, Beverly Griffin, co-owner of Griffin Investigations, "estimates as many as half of Southern Nevada's casinos now use biometric technology to identify the faces of card cheats or other undesirables" [http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2002/jun/03/513528388.html] . However, a Las Vegas casino surveillance director (writing under the pseudonym Cellini) reported in the 2004 book "The Card Counter's Guide to Casino Surveillance" that biometric technology was considered virtually useless by actual casino surveillance operatives because of overwhelming numbers of false reads.

History

The "Las Vegas Sun" reported on September 13, 2005, that Griffin Investigations had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in light of legal costs and damages from a successful defamation lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit had been brought by two gamblers, Michael Russo and James Grosjean, claiming they had been improperly detained, labeled as cheaters and arrested, on the basis of information supplied by Griffin [http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2005/sep/13/519349060.html] .

References

* [http://www.griffininvestigations.com/ Griffin Investigations web site] .
*Goldman, Adam: [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-12-31-casino-db_x.htm Casinos use controversial database to net cheats, counters] , Associated Press.
*Jones, Chris: [http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2002/jun/03/513528388.html Hand scanners give customers easy access to safe deposit vaults] , June 3, 2002.
*Nersesian, Bob: [http://www.bj21.com/blackjack/griffin.html Excerpts from "Beat the Players"] , July 10, 2006
*Snyder, Arnold: [http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/content/surveillancetalks.htm Interview with a Casino Surveillance Director] , January 2002.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Griffin (disambiguation) — Griffin may refer to: * Griffin, a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eaglePeople* Griffin (surname), a surname * The House of Griffins (see House of Pomerania), a dynasty of Pomeranian dukes * W. E. B.… …   Wikipedia

  • Investigations — may refer to:* Griffin Investigations, the most prominent group of private investigators specializing in the gambling industry * Investigations ( Voyager episode), the 36th episode of the television series Star Trek: Voyager * Temporal… …   Wikipedia

  • Griffin Bell — Infobox US Cabinet official name=Griffin Bell order=72nd title=United States Attorney General term start=1977 term end=1979 predecessor=Edward H. Levi successor=Benjamin Civiletti birth date=birth date and age|1918|10|31 birth place=Americus,… …   Wikipedia

  • United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations — The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) is the oldest subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (formerly the Committee on Government Operations). Recent investigationsIn 2004 2005, the… …   Wikipedia

  • CNN Special Investigations Unit — infobox television show name = CNN Special Investigations Unit caption = The titlecard for CNN S.I.U. format = Documentary runtime = 60 minutes creator = starring = Varies country = United States network = CNN first aired = January 20, 2007 last… …   Wikipedia

  • Landrum-Griffin Act — /lan dreuhm grif in/ an act of Congress (1959) outlawing secondary boycotts, requiring public disclosure of the financial records of unions, and guaranteeing the use of secret ballots in union voting. * * * (1959) Legislation in the U.S. designed …   Universalium

  • Card counting — A blackjack game in progress Card counting is a casino card game strategy used primarily in the blackjack family of casino games to determine whether the next hand is likely to give a probable advantage to the player or to the dealer. Card… …   Wikipedia

  • Black Book (gaming) — Black Book is the nickname frequently used to refer to a list of persons who are unwelcome in casinos. The name comes from the fact that the persons listed in the book are essentially blacklisted . The term can refer either to such a list… …   Wikipedia

  • Black Book (Glücksspiel) — Black Book (en: Schwarzes Buch) ist ein Jargonbegriff für eine Liste, in der Personen eingetragen werden, die damit de facto ein Spielbankverbot haben, da sie als dort unerwünschte Personen gelten oder auch als Teilhaber oder Betreiber… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Facial recognition system — A facial recognition system is a computer application for automatically identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source. One of the ways to do this is by comparing selected facial features from the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”