Aaron Gamino, a former security officer at the Peppermill Reno casino resort, has alleged that the gaming property’s facial recognition system does not work as intended. This comes after a plaintiff sued the casino after he was mistakenly identified as another customer.
The Resort Got an Innocent Man Arrested
In 2023, Jason Killinger visited the Peppermill Reno casino, only to be promptly arrested despite having done no wrong. As it turned out, the casino’s facial recognition system had mistaken him for another customer who had been previously banned from the property.
Killinger’s arrest happened despite him producing legal documents that proved his actual identity.
Killinger eventually launched civil rights lawsuits against the casino, the casino worker who arrested him and the City of Reno. While Peppermill Reno settled the matter with Killinger, the other case has since exploded, attracting the attention of many legal experts. Killinger’s challenge was recently backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Innocence Project.
Now, Aaron Gamino, a former security officer at Peppermill Reno, has come forward to reveal some details about the ID system and the casino management.
In a sworn declaration, Gamino said that the facial recognition system regularly misidentified patrons. According to him, Killinger was not the only victim and sometimes as many as 12 false matches would happen within a single shift.
What Gambino Had to Say?
Gamino explained security personnel received almost no training on dealing with facial recognition technology. Instead of treating matches as “leads,” Peppermill Reno’s management instructed security officers to detain suspected trespassers even when they could present valid documents that proved their actual identity. Gamino added that his supervisor was harsh toward colleagues who questioned this approach.
To top it all off, Gamino alleged that the casino failed to correct its database even after errors were discovered.
For reference, Gamino worked at the casino hotel between 2024 and 2026 and was not present during Killinger’s arrest. However, his claims contradict earlier statements by the defendants, which insisted that the facial recognition system did not make incorrect identifications.
In any case, civil liberties advocates seem to agree that automated facial recognition alone is not a cause for an arrest.