Making soft targets harder topic of G2E workshop

By Thomas Moore

Friday, Sept. 30, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Whirling around the clock and designed to be open and welcoming, casinos will probably always be soft targets for active shooters, so addressing the possibility of a mass shooting on the casino floor was the topic of an all-day workshop at the Global Gaming Expo on Thursday.

“We don’t want to create an environment like they have in Russia,” security consultant Tommy Burns said during the workshop. “Because of the Chechen terrorism, in Russian casinos they have people standing outside with Kalashnikovs (assault rifles). Hopefully, we never get there.”

Burns is a former Henderson police chief who served as director of security for Station Casinos and Harrah's. He was one of eight experts who led the roughly 70 workshop attendees through the various issues casinos must consider to prepare and deal with an active-shooter situation.

Capt. Devin Ballard, leader of Metro’s SWAT team, spoke about the importance of training and developing a close working relationship with law enforcement. Stephen Surfaro of Axis Communications discussed surveillance technology, some of which can actually anticipate confrontations by listening in on people’s conversations and analyzing their speech patterns.

Other speakers addressed how to prepare employees for the possibility of a shooting and deal with repercussions after a shooting has occurred.

Burns’ talk, however, outlined the challenges casino executives face when trying to make their soft casino targets a little harder.

Burns said some parts of the resorts, by custom and practice, have security measures that could help stop active shooters or at least limit the mayhem they can cause.

Both nightclubs and dayclubs, he said, typically use metal-detecting wands to search patrons, limit the size of purses and bags allowed inside, and in some cases physically pat down customers as they enter.

“At day clubs, well, that’s a riot worse than the nightclubs,” Burns said. “They do pat-downs at the big clubs and pools, and nothing is allowed in. Zero. Not even chewing gum. They are hardening a soft target, and they do a very, very good job today.”

However, Burns said, those measures are simply not practical on casino floors that typically have multiple entrances and are connected to hotel lobbies and hotel towers.

“Wanding in a casino environment is not going to happen,” he said. “Bag restrictions? Those are unreasonable and are not going to happen. Pat-downs? Not gonna happen.”

However, some of the challenges Burns mentioned come more from the attitude of the people managing casinos than the logistics of the casino space.

In some cases it’s just an unwillingness to face the reality of mass shootings.

“What’s the biggest reason we don’t train for active shooters?” Burns asked. “Usually it’s just because management doesn’t want to do it.

“They think it’s too weird to train employees about that. And it’s getting them over the hump, getting them to buy in, that’s the challenge. They know that robbery can happen, they buy that. They know workplace violence can happen … It’s convincing management to train for active shooters that can be difficult.”

In other cases, Burns said, management has decided that security is not as important as other considerations.

Burns said he was asked to create a security protocol for one of Las Vegas’ attractions, and he recommended that management limit the size of luggage customers were allowed. The company running the attraction decided to enforce the limits for everyone except one group of people, he said.

“Guess the exception,” Burns said. “It was the high-rollers. But what about the high-roller’s marauding nephew whose girlfriend just left him? Think of the business they’re going to lose because something happens and they didn’t follow the protocol.”