Our speaker today was Bruce Tunnicliff, Director of Safety and Security at Casino Arizona. He and our own Harvey Clark serve together on the Board of Infragard which is a collaborative partnership between the FBI and members of the private sector.
Casino Arizona invests heavily in safety and security measures because they are a big target with lots of money flowing through the casino. Much of Bruce's job involves training employee on how to respond to various threats such as an active shooter or an armed robbery. Casinos see a variety of crimes such as money laundering, credit card fraud, prostitution, drug dealing, theft and gaming scams. Casino Arizona works closely with The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in reviewing the adequacy of the casino's preparation to deal with various threats. The cooperation with these agencies has been great according to Bruce. On a larger scale, some casinos abroad have been targets of terrorist attacks so how to respond initially to such an event also fall's under Bruce's authority.
In response to a question about why casinos allow smoking, Bruce shrugged his shoulders and said people who like to gamble also like to smoke, The casino has a non-smoking area but it is admittedly quite small.