Exclusive London Casino Protects Personal Data and Enhances Luxury Experience Using AWS Wickr

Les Ambassadeurs Club, or “Les A”, is a members-only gambling club in Mayfair, London. Les A provides players with 24/7 access to state-of-the-art facilities, world-class fine dining, and exquisite private rooms. With members that include aristocracy, diplomats, and famous names from around the world, securing the luxury gaming experience is a must.

Les A utilizes AWS Wickr—an end-to-end encrypted messaging and collaboration service—to communicate securely, and help deliver personalized service that begins the moment a member walks through the doors.

Secure communication channels are critical in the gaming industry. Les A members expect their data to be kept private, and regulators expect robust security standards and tools that can mitigate the risk of data breaches to be implemented. Some of the business challenges Les A faced included a niche customer demographic that places emphasis on the timely delivery of personalized services and experiences to premium players. Les A also conducts extensive customer background checks, and gathers sensitive personal data that needs to be protected in order to meet regulatory requirements and build trust. Additionally, a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance audit revealed personally identifiable information (PII) being exchanged with emails that remained in inbox folders for extended periods of time. And finally, employee use of consumer messaging apps was resulting in crossover between business and personal communications, leading to compliance issues and a loss of configuration control.The Les A Data Security Team conducted an enterprise-wide risk assessment. As part of the evaluation they reviewed secure communication solutions, and chose Wickr for its advanced cryptographic protocols and flexible administrative controls.

Les Ambassadeurs Club is one of the most sought-after memberships in the world. Our members expect luxury and privacy, without compromise. Using Wickr alongside facial recognition has enabled us to confidently protect sensitive data, whilst delivering a white-glove experience.”

Head of Infrastructure, Les Ambassadeurs Club

Les A uses Wickr to facilitate secure messaging and file sharing between more than 200 employees across multiple departments, as well as external stakeholders with access to sensitive data. Wickr’s end-to-end encryption, and ephemeral messaging capabilities that include burn-on-read and expiration timers provide added protection for confidential information.Les A also uses Wickr in coordination with facial recognition technology to accelerate the delivery of personalized service. A third-party solution scans the face of each player who enters the club, and cross-references those images with an internal database. Automated notifications are sent to Les A employees through Wickr when a VIP is identified, along with detail of that player's preferences and appropriate level of treatment so that serving staff, croupiers, and hosts can coordinate accordingly. John Diamond, director of IT at Les A, says, “The clients we cater to expect a high level of service; making a client wait whilst an employee logs into a computer to assist them no longer meets expectations.”

With Wickr, Les A has replaced the use of email for internal communications, supporting their focus on security and privacy. Today, Les A serves more than 20,000 members. The use of Wickr to secure information and automate the communication of internal procedures has allowed a significant amount of real-time data to be shared among decision makers in a format that allows for enhanced service to Les A clients. Diamond says, “Wickr empowers us to accelerate secure collaboration so we can continue offering a service of impeccable quality, and make our membership a requisite for players around the world.”

Housed in one of the finest Georgian properties in Mayfair, Les Ambassadeurs Club is a luxury casino that has been a landmark in the architectural heritage and social life of London since the early 19th Century. The club offers bespoke privileges and an incomparable level of service to its members.

AWS Wickr

AWS Wickr is an end-to-end encrypted messaging and collaboration service with features designed to help keep your internal and external communications secure, private, and compliant.

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