Twenty-eight years inside casino security, surveillance, and risk, across institutional, tribal, and privately held operations. This page is the work as gaming knows it: the games, the cash, the regulators, and the exposures that exist nowhere else.
Every discipline the firm offers, delivered with the specifics only the industry teaches.
The full protective operation of a gaming property, designed and run as one system. Staffing models sized to the floor, the hours, and the risk rather than to habit. Post orders that an officer can actually follow at three in the morning. A guest-facing posture that reassures the right people and deters the wrong ones without turning the property into a checkpoint.
Use of force, firearms, and less-lethal programs. The moment an officer puts hands on a patron is the moment a property's liability is decided. Richard Acosta is TASER certified by Axon, current through 2026, NRA certified, and a CCW instructor registered with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. For armed posts he delivers firearms training and qualification and supplies the armed guard policies and procedures to stand behind them; for every officer he builds use-of-force policy, less-lethal deployment standards, training cadence, and post-incident documentation so that a defensible decision on the floor is still defensible in a deposition. The full training practice lives on the Training & Resources page.
K9 programs. Explosive and narcotics detection for large events, concerts, and VIP arrivals, and patrol teams as a visible deterrent. Richard has run every part of a working K9 program, from standard operating procedures and budget to handler hiring, training, and daily operations.
Surveillance room design and operations, camera coverage audits against the games, the cash, and the regulatory requirement, and a candid read on whether the room is actually watching what matters. Game protection, advantage play and cheating detection, and investigations support delivered by someone who has run the room, not read about it.
Thousands of investigations carried through in partnership with local and federal law enforcement, and the working relationships remain. Technology and system selection is handled on the operator's side of the table, with no vendor relationship to protect.
The discipline that pays for itself, built for the gaming control environment. Threat and vulnerability assessments, insurance and claims exposure reduction, and liability mitigation that closes the gaps negligent security claims are built on. Internal theft and fraud controls across cage, count, slots, table games, food and beverage, and procurement.
Regulatory compliance alignment with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, tribal gaming commissions, and NIGC minimum internal control standards, so the program holds up when it is examined.
Protective programs for owners, principals, and their families, and coverage for the moments gaming uniquely creates: high-profile guests, performers, VIP events, arrivals and departures, and K9 sweeps of venues, vehicles, and routes. Discreet by design, coordinated with local and federal law enforcement where the threat warrants it.
The same practice, delivered for sovereign nation gaming: commission-directed engagements, NIGC minimum internal control standards and compact alignment, surveillance independence, and programs built to strengthen the tribe's own capability. The firm's founder has worked inside one of the most sophisticated tribal resort operations in the country.
An expert who has actually held the job.
Richard Acosta, CSP, provides expert review, written opinions, and deposition and trial testimony in matters involving casino and hospitality security. His opinions are grounded in 28 years of direct operational responsibility across institutional, independent, and tribal gaming, which means they reflect how security and surveillance are actually run at well-managed properties, not how a textbook describes them. He is retained by plaintiff and defense counsel and has no stake in which side the facts favor.
Counsel can expect a candid early read on the strengths and weaknesses of a case, clear written work, and testimony that holds up to cross-examination because it is built on operational specifics. Conflicts are cleared before any engagement is accepted. Matters are handled in confidence. A CV and fee schedule are available on request.
Operators usually begin with the assessment. Counsel usually begin with a brief call to describe the matter and clear conflicts. Either way, the first conversation is private and carries no obligation.