A federal judge harkened a scene from the 1995 movie "Casino" when describing the unique role of a surveillance technician, quoting a line in a ruling Tuesday over a union dispute that featured two of the Las Vegas strip s largest chains: In Vegas everybody s gotta watch everybody else. And the eye in the sky is watching us all.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that that eye in the sky and the surveillance technicians that manage those cameras should be considered guards, a designation that restricts their ability to unionize. The panel vacated a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board that said the technicians were not guards.

The majority of the three-judge panel, with one dissenting opinion, said the duties of the technicians who protect high-end jewelry, priceless art, stockpiles of cash and the personal safety of revelrous guests who are not always vigilant regarding their own well-being make them a confidential employee or guard.

Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson started her ruling with the quote from Sam Ace Rothstein in the movie "Casino." During the argument of the case in February, Henderson asked about another casino-related movie, questioning whether technicians would have to ability to pull off a heist a la "Ocean s Eleven."

It does not require a screenwriter s imagination to appreciate the risks of sabotage: the record is replete with testimony about how a dishonest tech might realistically abuse his position at the expense of his employer, Henderson wrote Tuesday.

The Bellagio and Mirage two of the Las Vegas strip s largest casinos asked the court to reverse the NLRB s decision to grant surveillance technicians the right to join an existing union with other non-guard employees.

The technicians, represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers 501, AFL-CIO, claimed in a complaint to the board that the Bellagio refused their right to bargain.

At the crux of the case was whether the surveillance technicians, who have special skills to install cameras in often secret places on casino property to survey both patrons and employees, should fall under an exception to the National Labor Relations Act that considers certain employees confidential.

These employees a key example is a security guard assist management with implementing policies or handle confidential information that could create a conflict of interest in labor disputes. The nature of their assignment would have the potential to divide loyalties if a union member were asked to spy on another or have access to management information.