I've wondered about the eye-in-the-sky since I first heard a song by the same name. If you know the 1982 Alan Parsons Project song, "Eye in the Sky" then you might wonder if it has to do with casinos. I did. It does. A couple of great lines are: "dealing with fools, I can cheat you blind," and another is "looking at you, I can read your mind." I love the "Eye in the Sky" Buy Direct.
Now those lines may be a little esoteric, but the The Project's previous album was called "The Turn of a Friendly Card." Coincidence? Of course not.
Alan Parsons was an assistant engineer on the Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be" albums. He also worked as the engineer on Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" album, all concept-based recordings. He met Eric Wollfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in 1974 and the two musicians hit it off. Eventually they would form The Alan Parsons Project, and while not their first album, "The Turn of a Friendly Card" was certainly a story of its own.
If you don't know the album, don't feel bad, but the 1980 release tells the story (through light, progressive rock) of a middle-aged, frustrated and restless man who heads to the casino, ready to risk everything he has. Songs include titles like: May Be a Price to Pay, I Don't Wanna Go Home, Turn of a Lucky Card, and the hits Games People Play and Time. The latter, probably my favorite.
The album also includes Snake Eyes and Nothing Left to Lose, but Eye in the Sky came on the next album. Why? I can't figure it out.
Now the actual eye-in-the-sky that casinos use has been called many things. It's often referred to as the "peak" or the "tower," but one thing remains, it sees everything, if it is well designed and well-managed. While the "sky" used to consist of a guy laying on his belly across a dusty plywood beam in the cat-walks of the casino rafters training a pair of binoculars at the tables below, surveillance is very sophisticated now.
If you drop a dime on the floor, a good surveillance operator can switch cameras at the flick of the wrist, swivel a joystick to move a pan-and-tilt camera and zoom-in to read the date on the coin, in living color. That's why so many cheats are caught. It takes somebody, like an attentive pit boss on the gaming floor or a smooth operator (wait, that's another song) in the "eye" to know what to look for, but once a problem is detected, it's just a matter of time!
Comments
Eye in the sky. I thought you were going to say something of interest. I have no delusion on the type of security and the power of it but a trip DOWN Abby Road?
I have had way to many hands where the house could not make ITS MINIMUM IN HAND and would end up folding while on my side of the table I sit with trips or straight or even better which on occasion would have paid out something resembling my phone number (A little inflated but as frequently as this has happened (especially with Caribbean poker) I have often wondered if these miracle “big brothers” might be cheating the little guy. I swear I have had the minimum payout 9 times out of ten as apposed to the 10 OR 20 x 1 etc. I was do! IF THE HOUSE DID NOT FOLD. By coincidence, if I am holding a poor hand I loose my bet and the anti. I am positive casinos increase there incredible odds and especially if they detect you are under the influence of the free booze they keep pushing at you. Why not write something about the real potential uses of ‘THESE EYES’ the only people who try to get away with anything are the card counters and the fools that will occasionally think they are gonna get away with sliding a chip from a distracted patrons stash left unguarded.