A system and method of tracking a patron in a gaming environment uses a
database that stores known images and known text descriptions of existing
patrons. An image of a patron is captured by an image capture device, and
a text description of the patron is obtained. The image and the text
description are transmitted to the database. A comparator compares the
image or the text description to those on the database. The image is
stored in a patron folder if the image or the text description is found
to match an existing patron. The image is stored in a temporary folder if
the image or the text description fails to match one of the existing
patrons, and once the patron has been identified, the image is
transferred from the temporary folder to the patron folder.