After the Netherlands, 20Face is now conquering the French entertainment industry. The first casino of Groupe Tranchant has already been equipped with our privacy-proof facial recognition, and more locations will follow soon. “Our industry revolves around hospitality, which means fast, frictionless and controlled access,” says Jean-Louis Fiorucci of Certus Technologies

Groupe Tranchant operates seventeen casinos in France and Switzerland. The family business, operational since 1988, takes social responsibility seriously and does everything by the book. France, in particular, has strict gambling legislation. The aim is to combat money laundering, protect young people, and prevent gambling addictions.

The wishes of Groupe Tranchant

For the Tranchant group, it is therefore crucial to keep a close eye on who enters a casino. At the same time, long queues at the entrance of the establishment are not desirable; they make the evening out less pleasant for visitors and keep staff from their main task as hosts and hostesses. The solution: facial recognition. Casino Amnéville as the first location.

In the Netherlands, we had already demonstrated how useful the deployment of facial recognition is in the entertainment sector at the Fair Play casinos. We did this together with Certus Technologies, and Boon Edam. To also provide Tranchant casinos with facial recognition technology, Certus Technologies used in this case speedlanes from Automatic Systems, a Belgian manufacturer.

The first installation has now been done at the Amnéville location. The municipality in northeastern France is a tourist attraction, partly due to the Thermopolis spa resort.

How does it work?

Regular visitors to the casino no longer need to stand in line. Of course, the choice for facial recognition is entirely voluntary, as prescribed by European and  French regulations and our business principles. Those who opt in for facial recognition, upload a selfie, that is subsequently converted in a facial vector. The foto is then deleted.

Upon entering the location, this person can walk directly to the access gate and hold their membership card in front of the scanner. At that moment, the sensor activates and one of the following scenarios follows:

• Does the name on the card match the visitor’s face and is this person allowed to play? Then a green checkmark appears almost immediately on the screen at the gate. The doors open and the exciting evening can begin.
• Does the name on the card match the person’s face and is this person not allowed to play (for example, due to self-exclusion)? Then a red cross appears on the screen at the gate and the doors remain closed.
• Does the name on the card not match the person’s face (because they are using someone else’s card)? Then access is also denied.
• And what if a intruder tries to enter by climbing over the gate or crawling underneath? Then an alarm goes off and security can quickly intervene.

Bycatch is not a pretty sight

In addition to the European GDPR, France has its own strict privacy rules. When implementing the access solution, it was therefore extra important to only detect customers who had given explicit permission. The sensor is therefore configured to only activate when a customer holds their card in front of the scanner. This way, we avoid bycatch. We have now confirmed that the access system is 100% compliant. Before the installation in Amnéville went live, the French gaming authorities thoroughly examined the solution. Result: we passed with flying colors! The next six Tranchant locations can follow soon without problems.