Harrah's Casino in Illinois Sued Over Facial Recognition Use

A new Illinois lawsuit accused Harrah's Casino in Joliet, Ill. of violating the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act by possessing the facial geometry scans and identifying information of its Joliet casino customers "without creating and following a written policy, made available to the public."

According to a news report, the lawsuit asks a judge to award liquidated or actual monetary damages, whichever is higher, to lawsuit co-plaintiffs Leon Martin and Anthony Adams and members of the class action lawsuit, "for each violation of the Biometric Information Privacy Act." The same law firm representing the co-plaintiffs has also filed a near-identical lawsuit against Joliet's other gambling casino, Hollywood Casino in Joliet.

According to the report, last year, Harrah's downtown Joliet casino had gross receipts of nearly $178 million and admitted 1.29 million patrons, with an average daily admission of 3,536 patrons, the lawsuit states. "Defendants use facial recognition technology with their video security cameras at their Illinois casinos," the suit explains. "Defendants' facial recognition technology identifies a person by scanning the geometry of a person's facial features and comparing that scan against databases of stored facial geometry templates."

According to the report, the lawsuit contends that Joliet Harrah's:

Failed to inform the plaintiffs and other Caesars rewards program members in writing that it was collecting their biometric identifiers or information, the purpose and length of term for such collection, and failed to obtain their written consent before defendants' collected their facial geometry scans.
Never established and followed a publicly available written policy establishing a retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying scans of plaintiffs' and other rewards program members' facial geometry.