Sycuan Casino

The Challenge:

With more than 2,200 employees and nearly 350 keys, the Sycuan Casino faced a daunting task in controlling access to secure areas while facilitating access for essential operations personnel. Located in the east county area of San Diego, Sycuan Casino features more than 2,000 slot machines, 34 table games, two restaurants, a deli, and a 450-seat performing arts theatre. Sycuan needed a reliable, secure method of issuing and storing keys, as well as a comprehensive system for maintaining an accurate record of who was in possession of all keys at all times.

Paper logs, which had been used in the past, had been ineffective and insuffi cient for Sycuan Casino's facilities. According to Harold Johns, Security Director for Sycuan Casino, keys were hanging on paperclips, out in the open, for any employee to take.

At the recommendation of the director of compliance from the Gaming Commission, Sycuan Casino turned to Morse Watchmans, a leading provider of key management products, for its expertise in large-scale key user facilities. Sycuan Casino's key management technology objective was to obtain a manageable system to issue, retrieve and track keys that eliminated human error.

Morse Watchmans Solution

Working closely with Harold Johns, Security Director for Sycuan Casino, and the facility management team, Morse Watchmans developed a customized key access solution to meet the casino's goals utilizing its KeyWatcher key management system. This state-of-the-art system consists of wall-mounted key storage cabinets that eliminate outdated lock boxes, unreliable manual logs, and messy key identifi cation tags. The KeyWatcher intelligent key management system helps prevent lost or stolen keys by only releasing assigned key to users with the proper authorization code and recording the access history of each key, including user, date, and time of checkout/return.

With KeyWatcher, when a key is missing or overdue, an alarm can be programmed to alert security personnel of the situation who can then quickly track down the person who checked the key out. KeyWatcher, was installed in combination with Morse Watchmans' Key-Pro™ Performance Software, to provide Sycuan Casino with extensive key management reporting options, centralized programming, advanced network capabilities, improved system communications, detailed reporting and real-time transaction polling.

“Morse Watchmans was extremely helpful in developing our key management system initially, and has helped us to expand it as necessary,” says Johns. “Anytime we have a new key access challenge arise, Morse Watchmans is responsive and presents us with two or three options and a recommendation based on our goals. I always follow their recommendations.”

Solution in Action

The Morse Watchmans KeyWatcher system eliminated Sycuan Casino's paper chase created by outdated, and often not updated, manual logs. The KeyWatcher system provides Sycuan Casino a precise log as to the times, locations and holders of all keys at all times. Sycuan Casino started with one KeyWatcher cabinet managing 100 keys strictly for the security department. Today, Sycuan Casino uses a total of 14 KeyWatcher cabinets in eight locations throughout the facility to track and manage keys for secure areas for the entire operation.

Under the authority and administration of Sycuan Casino's assistant director of security, the KeyWatcher system can be easily customized to meet each of the facility's individual department needs. Sycuan's security department can set access constraints at an individual level, for each key, every hour of each day. For example, if installation of new equipment is scheduled in a department, access hours can be extended for relevant employees for the installation period, and returned to normal upon completion.

Any unauthorized key access attempts or discrepancies such as late key returns or returns to the wrong location trigger an immediate alarm to the security department and show up on reports. At Sycuan Casino, key reports are run for the entire operation weekly by the security department and all discrepancies are noted and resolved appropriately. In addition, all departments also run key reports at the beginning and end of each shift, resolving key accountability issues immediately.

According to Johns, KeyWatcher system glitches have been few and far between. However, on the rare occasion Sycuan Casino has had to contact Morse Watchmans for support, the company has been extremely responsive. Despite a three hour time zone difference and the Casino's 24 hour a day operations, Morse Watchmans has been able to resolve problems consistently on a timely basis.

The Results

Since implementing the KeyWatcher system, Sycuan Casino has strict accountability for keys throughout its operation. KeyWatcher provides controlled access to keys to authorized personnel when they need them, requiring dual and triple user authentication as needed. Keys are continuously tracked and reports can be printed in order to provide information required by the gaming commission as to the use and location of keys to secure areas.

“Before KeyWatcher, our key management was a nightmare; paper logs were seldom updated and there was no way of tracking down a key when it was missing, “ says Johns. “Now, anyone who once felt they were more important than the system now realizes they aren't. The cabinet is not concerned with a requestor's rank, status, pay stub or any other parameter … only whether the person is authorized to receive that key at that particular time of day or week. KeyWatcher has unlimited patience and will wait until the correct set of elements are met before releasing a key. Key management doesn't get much better than this.”