A Brave New World of Ambient Intelligence in the Casinos of Macau: Reality or Fiction? (2015)

Brief description of the issue of in the casinos of Special Administrative Region of Macau (SARM)The concept of intelligent ambient or IAm1 (from the English Ambient Intelligence)2 represents a digital and pervasive ambient created by the convergence of the technologies of radio transmission and broadcasting (as an identification by radiofrequency (RFID)3, agents of software, sensor networks, and processing of data by personal mobile devices. The convergence of technologies in cyberspace facilitates the integration and the interaction of the devices named as intelligent4. This new reality in the casinos of the Special Administrative Region of Macau portrays an ambient (intelligent) in which the players are surrounded by intuitive interfaces embedded in every corner (even the most inhospitable ones) of the casino5.Consequently, as a non-derogable rule, casinos have a remarkable paraphernalia of objects (subsumed therefore to the taxonomy digital ambient) embodying one capacity of analysis of context and of adjustment to the needs of the gamblers of the casinos of Macau6,7.In fact, those intuitive interfaces capture, collect, and store, in real time, the casino patron's personal data, and ultimately intend to shape and standardize their real necessities, habits, and attitudes, thus allowing to maximize and optimize the intelligent ambient in which those interfaces were primarily created.With that goal in mind, the systems of IAm of the casinos of the Special Administrative Region of Macau have to collect and process large amounts of personal data and define the players' profiles. These personal data are frequently collected and processed without any notification of the casino patrons8, through devices and techniques which perform a silent and continuous tracking of players' personal habits9, profaning, at least in theory, one of its key requirements - the existence of consent of the holder of the personal data10,11.Thus, in the intelligent ambient of the casinos there is a certain working density in the systems of surveillance, that claim the risk of undue and unsolicited processing of personal data12,13.In the cases of use of personal data for spurious purposes mentioned above, that unreachable core weakens itself and violates the thematic privacy and spatial privacy of the casino patrons.Closely following the lesson of the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht - BVerfGE), the thematic privacy that is precisely reappointed the same universe of factual constellations covered by privacy in a material sense, refers to those data or realities that the holder of the fundamental right intend to subtract to the curiosity and to the public discussions14,15, such as sexuality, deviant behaviors and diseases16.On the other hand, the sphere of privacy in a spatial sense belongs to an area of entrenchment of the individual that ensures the possibility of meeting and being with himself and of evasion17, which normally happens inside the hotel rooms of casino patrons18.This means there is an unreachable core of privacy that emerges from personal data of the casino patrons that involves - and identifies with - the universe of things, facts, events, experiences, emotions, and places, meaning that they are a core of irreducible subjectivity, individuality and personhood, and thus, logically, the casino patron legitimately intends to keep to himself and for a small number of others19. Therefore, being that a space of guardianship of privacy converted into a place of fulfillment of private life20,21, it is understood that the use of personal data of casino patrons for strange purposes (e.g., blackmail) to the services trade and of functionalities given by the casinos of Special Administrative Region of Macau has, as a result, a big profligate (grosser Lauschangriff)22,23,24. Furthermore it embodies a derogation from the principle of the dignity of the human person and of the right to the free development of personality25 (art. …