The world's first AI casino faces difficulties

According to the Financial Times, SenseTime was working on the world’s first AI casino based at Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa.

According to a preliminary plan, the casino was supposed to include robotic dealers and intelligent cameras that can spot suspicious player behavior. However, SenseTime encountered technical difficulties and postponed the project’s implementation.

It was expected that SenseTime’s comprehensive surveillance system would be able to monitor people’s behavior across the entire casino-resort and prevent possible fraud as effectively as possible. SenseTime’s unique gaming system was intended to use gesture-recognition technology to track dealers’ and customers’ hands, as well as to verify players’ wins.

But former employees said that the project is being held up by a number of technical problems. For example, the surveillance cameras did not provide high-quality images, especially in poorly lit areas.

It was also problematic that all staff wore identical uniforms, and the system could not recognize differences between people. Replacing live dealers with robotic systems has also not yet been successful.

“Theoretically casinos could use facial-recognition technology or machine learning functions to monitor visitors in order to detect fraud. I think that’s a fairly interesting use, the legality of which is probably still being explored,” explained Sean Leong, a partner at the international law firm Withers.

SenseTime representatives, for their part, said that information security and data privacy are “top priorities” for them, and that they use data only for purposes permitted by clients.

Those purposes include identity verification, as well as record-keeping and statistics.