Las Vegas Shooting: How Has Casino Security Changed?

After the Oct. 1 shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip, one question continuously emerged. How was someone allowed to transport 23 rifles to the 32nd hotel floor of a global tourist destination?

After the shooting the New York Times detailed the balancing act casinos face when it comes to security: On one hand, they must try to ensure the safety of their guests. On the other, invasive searches could leave guests uncomfortable and reluctant to enjoy the casino's amenities (spend money).

Exactly one year before the tragic shooting Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, detailed the possibility of an attack of Las Vegas in almost prophetic terms.

Wynn told Las Vegas reporter Jon Ralston in a Sept. 29, 2016 interview with KTNV Las Vegas that the reason Las Vegas was ripe for an attack is because ""this place is chock-full, in a relatively small place between Sahara and Tropicana, of all of these folks, and they regularly congregate at night in 10 and 20,000 bundles."

"This city is tempting for all those reasons," Wynn said.

An article published today by Wired looks at how one Las Vegas casino is taking measures to prevent an attack similar to the one that claimed the lives of 58 innocent concertgoers.

The Westgate Casino is employing a discreet security system that may have helped prevent the Oct. 1 shooting.

That fact has prompted Westgate to be an early adopter of not just architectural features but surveillance tactics. And it's why, this week, the resort began testing a discreet weapon-sensing device called the Patscan Cognitive Microwave Radar. Marketed by Canadian security outfit PatriotOne, the Patscan CMR combines short-range radar with machine learning algorithms to scan individual guests for guns, knives, and bombs in real time—without forcing them to line up and walk through metal detectors. And unlike the giant, whole-body scanners you see in places like airports, Patscan units are small enough to hide inside existing infrastructure, from walls and doorways to turnstiles and elevator banks. Most people will never realize they're there—and that's exactly how Westgate wants it.

The article is a fascinating read into what the future of hotel security might look like on the Las Vegas Strip. Anyone interested in the topic is encouraged to take a look at the entire story, which can be read here: https://www.wired.com/story/th....

Image via John Locher/Associated Press