AP-ID announces new casino-inspired ID authentication system

Published 8 November 2006

Currently in use at the Venetian, system can verify thousands of different IDs, including international driver’s licenses and passports; while verifying, system also checks government and private watch lists

What happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, but not this new ID authentication system. Founded by a group of former gambling industry investigators, Green Bay, Wisconsin-based AP-ID is now offering a reader and software combination tool that can quickly verify the validity of thousands of different government and corporate identity cards — including drivers licenses from forty-five different countries as well as passports and military ID’s. To be clear, the system does not access any databases. Rather, it searches for the authentication features each type of card should contain. Present a California driver’s license, for instance, and it automatically searches for the watermark and color separation.

This is helpful on the casino floor, where state and federal laws require ID checks whenever a certain amount of money is borrowed or cashed in from chips. Yet the so-called ePAC does not stop there. While the system checks the card’s authenticity, it also cross references a slew of security watch lists, including the FBI’s most wanted list, OFAC, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board Excluded Persons list, as well as any other customized internal watch list. The interface also helpfully extracts and stores all of the ID’s images and biographic data for record keeping, auditing, and marketing purposes.

Interested readers can take a look for themselves at the Global Gaming Expo to be held 14-16 November in —where else? — Las Vegas. For an even better demonstration, however, be sure to take a trip to the Venetian casino. Should you happen to win $10,000 in chips, the ePAC will be there in the cage waiting for you. According to Grizz, the casino is just the first to take advantage of AP-ID’s latest effort.

-read more in this company news release