Today’s gaming facilities often encompass a variety of related businesses, including lodging, entertainment, retail, conference space, parking and food and beverage. Certain types of physical security technology these individual areas is specific to the particular application, such as the installation of man traps outside a cash counting room in the casino. In other cases, the technology can span all venues within the complex – for example with the implementation of a key control and management system.
Each of the areas in a mega-gaming complex; casino, hotel, restaurants, bars, shops and so on, has areas or doors that can only be accessed with a mechanical or card key. A well defined and implemented key control plan can help maintain the integrity of these secured locations, and the key management solution can conveniently be applied to all areas within the complex for improved administrative control.
Key control solutions offer accountability by providing electronic storage and tracking of keys. Authorized users have access to keys only as approved by the system administrator. For example, cleaning staff for the casino who are assigned to the day shift are not able to access keys outside of their regularly scheduled working hours. Nor will they be allowed access to keys for which they are not authorized such the administrative office in an adjoining hotel. Personnel also cannot exchange keys during or at the end of a shift because the key bank system will note that a key was not returned or that it was returned by another user.
Knowing who took which key and when is fundamental to a key control strategy. This audit trail provides critical data of every user who accesses the system, and at any time security management can view who has keys out or who has had keys out and when. Systems can even be programmed to send e-mail alerts when keys are not returned on schedule. The additional use of software can provide more complete activity reports or sort the data based on defined criteria for more comprehensive analysis and control.
Automated key control and management systems are an ideal solution for the high security environment of a gaming and hospitality facility.
