Asia’s new mega-casinos are driving sales and innovation in advanced surveillance technology, from chips with built-in radio transmitters to high-definition, multi-lens, digital cameras that can scan huge gaming floors and catch the deftest sleight of hand. Security solution providers such as German-Australian joint venture Dallmeier International, California-based Pelco, a unit of Schneider Electric, and Samsung Techwin, about 25% owned by Samsung Electronics, are among those reaping the benefits of Asia’s casino building boom. Tens of thousands of security cameras, including some of the most advanced commercially available, have been installed in the southern Chinese territory of Macau alone in the past five years, and many thousands more are on order for the multi billion dollar hotel-casino resorts still in the pipeline. “It’s big business. The camera market here has started to get very big… It’s probably the most demanding environment for a video surveillance system anywhere in the world,” said Craig Graham, Dallmeier International general manager for Asia. “Some of these guys (casino operators) have 700 tables and up to 1 000 slot machines, all of which have to be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Graham said Dallmeier had about 20% of the video surveillance market in Macau’s gaming industry, where its clients include Sands China , a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands and one of six casino firms licensed to operate in the only place in China where casinos are legal. There are around 100 000 cameras installed in Macau’s casinos[…]

Source http://www.chinapost.com.tw