Prerequisites
Permissions to View/Edit Alerts Settings required
Overview
The UCS alert is designed to detect players whose chip usage exceeds their known sources of chips, resulting in a negative chip balance. This may indicate suspicious activity involving untracked chips. You configure the alert by setting a negative chip balance threshold and enabling contributing and mitigating factors. This allows the system to replicate what analysts already do—identify patterns, validate risk, and apply mitigating context.
For Active Alerts
If Active alerts are turned on for your organization, this alert is set up in Settings > Alerts (Beta). Choose the property at the top of the page, then open the Unknown Chip Source (UCS) card. The card has four tabs:
Detection criteria – The Detection window (the standard number of days, or a Custom window) and the UCS threshold. Activity that meets these is recorded as an event.
Risk assessment – The Contributing risk factors and the mitigating Recent WWC factor, each with a weight. Together they adjust the event's Confidence Score from its fixed base.
Escalation qualification – The Threshold score an event's Confidence Score must reach to become an alert. If pattern qualification is available for your property, you can also require a Minimum qualifying events count within an Evaluation period before an alert is produced.
Escalation prioritization – The High priority threshold. Alerts at or above this Confidence Score are marked High Priority.
On Active alerts, this alert type can include the Cash Denominations contributing factor. It looks for cash transactions in the bill denominations set in your alert settings. For details, see the contributing factors article.
Steps to Configure the UCS Alert
Access the Alert Settings Page
Click the gear icon in the bottom-left navigation bar.
Select the AML module, then click Alerts (Beta) in the left-hand menu.
Choose the property at the top of the page, then open the Unknown Chip Source (UCS) card.
Set the Detection Window
Defines how far back the system looks for chip activity each time alerts are run.
A common setting is 30 days, meaning the system analyzes the past 30 days of transactions.
Ensure the alert window is equal to or longer than the frequency of alert runs (e.g., if alerts run every 14 days, the window should be at least 14 days).
A shorter window may result in gaps in analysis. Consult your Client Success Manager before reducing the window below 30 days.
Configure the Detection Criteria
This determines which chip activity is detected. Every UCS event starts from the same fixed base Confidence Score; the UCS amount only decides whether an event is recorded.
The UCS alert has one detection criterion:
UCS threshold: This is the minimum UCS amount required to produce an event. UCS amount = (chip redemptions + chip losses) − (chip purchases + chip wins). Wagers are not counted.
Ask yourself: At what dollar amount would I consider filing a SAR?
Many operators set this between $10,000 and $40,000, depending on risk tolerance and the reliability of chip inventory data.
Set the Contributing Risk Factors
Contributing risk factors increase the Confidence Score. On Active alerts, a higher score can decide whether an event is escalated to an alert.
These factors help validate that the chip activity is potentially suspicious. Each has a weight.
If a factor doesn’t add confidence, clear the checkbox to the left of the factor to turn it off.
Set the Mitigating Risk Factors
Mitigating risk factors decrease the Confidence Score. On Active alerts, a lower score can keep an event below the escalation threshold, so it is not escalated to an alert.
The UCS alert includes one mitigating risk factor:
Recent WWC
You set a day period and a percentage. If the player had an active WWC alert within that many days before the end of the detection window, and its amount is at least that percentage of the UCS amount (for example, 90% or more), the factor applies. Only the most recent WWC alert in the period is compared.
This factor is commonly used to reduce the Confidence Score when a recent WWC alert explains the chip activity.
The factor has a weight that sets how much it reduces the score.
For more information on how contributing factors influence the Confidence Score, see the knowledge base article How is the alert score calculated.
Expected Result
Once configured, the system will record a UCS event when a player’s chip balance is negative and the UCS amount is at or above the UCS threshold. On Active alerts, the event becomes an alert if its Confidence Score reaches the Threshold score. The Confidence Score will be influenced by any contributing or mitigating risk factors turned on. If no qualifying chip balances are found, no alert will be produced.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the UCS amount calculated?
For the UCS alert, the UCS amount is chip redemptions plus chip losses, minus chip purchases plus chip wins. Wagers are not counted. A player who used more chips than they sourced has a positive UCS amount.
What’s the difference between the WWC and UCS alerts?
The WWC (Walks With Chips) alert flags players with a positive chip balance above your threshold—indicating chips left the floor. The UCS (Unknown Chip Source) alert flags players with a negative chip balance, meaning more chips were used than sourced—suggesting untracked chip activity.
How does a recent WWC alert reduce the score of a UCS alert?
If a player recently had a WWC alert, it may explain the source of the chip activity that caused the UCS event. When turned on, this mitigating risk factor reduces the Confidence Score if the player’s most recent active WWC alert within the configured day period has an amount that is the configured percentage or more of the UCS amount (for example, 90%).