Why Casinos and Race Tracks Need ID Scanners?

Casinos and race tracks are venues that handle a lot of visitors at once and deal with huge sums of money, which change hands time and again. These are also institutions that value the convenience of their high-profile and returning guests to a large extent. This is why customer service has to join hands with strict security measures when it comes to casinos and race tracks via Magnetic ID Scanners.

Marrying safety and convenience together, however, is not an easy proposition. In order to ensure security, an individual’s identification must be rigorously verified, while comfort dictates that a guest shouldn’t be harassed by being forced to go through this scrutiny every time they visit. This is exactly where magnetic ID scanners come into play.

How Do Magnetic ID Scanners Combine Security With Customer Service?

Previously, the queues at the entrance of casinos used to be long enough to discourage new visitors from trying to enter. This is because the gates needed to be manned by dozens of security personnel who would first verify your identity card and would then try to figure out if you were on any banned lists.

External lists such as DSN, PEP, or OFAC also had to be consulted before letting a guest enter. Furthermore, the gatekeepers also had to ensure that the ID card you provided was genuine, and not a well-made forgery. When manually performed, the verification of just one visitor could take more than 10 minutes.

Of course, this ruined any attempts at pleasing the customer once they finally entered the casino or race track. Not just that, this system was highly unreliable as well because human beings – no matter how well trained – are bound to err at times. These errors could result in serious legal issues and thefts, costing the casino or race track vast sums of money.

Magnetic ID scanners

The process of verification looks very different. Dozens of guards do not have to be positioned at the gate; just one or two guards with handheld magnetic ID scanners are sufficient. All they need to do is ask for an ID card (driver’s license or passport) and have the magnetic ID scanner scan the barcode on it. These ID scanners can just as easily scan QR codes as well.

The moment the scan is done, the important details like the photo and birth date of the individual are displayed in an amplified form for the guard’s convenience. Also, fake cards are automatically detected through pattern-matching of the unique text font or the micro prints. ID scanners can also figure out if the holograms or fluorescent overlays on a driver’s license or ID card are fake.

Also, during this very process, the scanner runs the ID details through several banned lists. These banned lists don’t just refer to the official government-issued lists like OFAC, PEP, etc. A problematic customer (who has caused trouble before) can also be flagged by the casino or race track itself. Magnetic ID scanners raise red flags the moment their cards are scanned again at the entrance.

Deal With Lawbreakers And Disruptive Individuals

Security professionals can deal with lawbreakers and disruptive individuals at the entrance itself, so the rest of the patrons in the racetrack or casino are not disturbed. Problems such as these are bound to crop up at institutions where liquor is served and a large amount of money is handled on an everyday basis. Magnetic ID scanners allow the managers to handle these problems quietly and cleanly without interrupting the entertainment.

Conversely, these ID scanners can also inform the guards if a VIP guest comes by. This heads-up helps you start preparing for the VIP’s entertainment from the very beginning. However, if privacy is a major concern for the customers, then you can easily turn off the data collection and storage feature of the magnetic ID scanner so that it won’t store any of the data extracted from the ID cards or driver’s licenses scanned in the past.

Added Benefits of Using Magnetic ID Scanners at Casinos and Race Tracks:

Casinos and race tracks often have loyalty programs to entice their priority guests into visiting the facility again. Previously, setting up these loyalty membership accounts took a long amount of time. Now, you can register the guests through just an ID scan.

The information that you collect on the guests also helps you in another way. As you might already know, most businesses cannot do without targeted marketing through social media nowadays. And targeted marketing requires a knowledge of the visitor demographics at your facility. You can prepare detailed reports and understand the visitor’s customer behavior through this data collected from the magnetic ID scanners.

However, you must remember that collection of such customer information for prolonged periods is illegal. This is why you must ensure that your handheld ID scanner allows you to erase this information.

In Conclusion

Magnetic ID scanners allow you to verify the details of your guests quickly without compromising on the quality of scrutiny. This is exactly why they have become so indispensable in bars, nightclubs, and even regular convenience stores that sell cigarettes.

Unlike convenience stores, however, the possibility of running into serious trouble at a race track is exponentially high. With free-flowing liquor and cash, you need to make sure that your client is exactly who they say they are.

However, you don’t just have to check the IDs to serve out penalties. Through loyalty programs, you can also reward the guests for being priority customers. A high-quality and reliable ID scanner can facilitate this process as well.