Ethical Dilemma

The Ethical Dilemma of Casino Surveillance

Cheaters and thieves are constantly targeting casinos in order to try and make a quick buck. In order to counteract these problems casinos have put in place surveillance. The casinos also put a lot of pressure on their surveillance employees by applying quotas for finding mistakes by other casino employees or catching thieves. Casinos also offer bonuses and the threat of being fired for a lack of findings. The ethical problems are that because of these pressures surveillance employees are becoming biased towards other employees and customers in order to maintain their jobs and bonuses. Surveillance actions are also creating an unhealthy working relationship with the rest of the casino employees. If surveillance did not have all of these pressures all of the employees could get along better and the biased towards other employees by the surveillance team would be eliminated.

The bonuses structure for surveillance employee’s grants them income that they have become accustomed to. In order to maintain that flow of income they are constantly reprimanding other employees for minor things they would have ignored if they were not getting a bonus for it. If surveillance were to only receive bonuses for major infractions where money was going to be or lost then other employees would be more understanding of their actions. There is no reason to reprimand employees for first time minor infractions when a simple verbal warning would have sufficed, but because there is money to be made the most extreme approach is taken instead.

By placing a quota to surveillance employees that requires them to find mistakes by their co-workers is not productive. It also forces them to question their personal ethics by making them choose between their jobs or their co-workers job. Employees make mistakes, although if no money is lost and security was not compromised their no reason to entice someone to capitalize on them. Removing the quota...