Guess it's my turn...
I agree that the posted images are pretty poor but not knowing what cameras are used or the resolution, compression and frame rate they are recorded at, what I have to say is just speculation.
First of all, to those of you who criticize the camera mounting height, be aware there is no simple way around that. Unless you want to really complicate the installation with low-hanging pendants, ceilings are the only place to mount cameras in most casino (and I'm sure other) applications. Wall mounts are typically not an option and in any case would likely be blocked from getting optimal views anyway.
Second, well-made cameras should have at least a 10-year life span. Considering the huge number of cameras we have, we typically don't replace the vast majority until they approach that age. Now if someone wants to donate a couple of million $$$ and find room for the associated network infrastructure, I would consider replacing all of our analog cameras with IP HD, but until then, we will stick with our analog cameras. Not that they provide that poor a picture quality; in fact, we've received many compliments on our camera coverage and image quality.
And that brings up my third point - although some may not appreciate this, I've rarely seen what I would consider acceptable camera coverage in casinos over the years. Unfortunately, that is especially true when the cameras were chosen and installed by Integrators. Although you might think casinos would be among the most discerning regarding camera layout, setup and recording, my observations have been quite the opposite. I've often marvelled at how poor Casino Surveillance departments' coverage actually is. They often miss the simple things, like when to (and not to) deploy AGC; location choice and even camera and lens choice.
Few casinos regularly test cameras or utilize coverage maps (showing each camera's FOV overlaid on a CAD). Few casinos record most cameras at their higher-quality settings - instead opting to save money on storage and infrastructure. Many casinos use CIF or very highly compressed 4CIF at low frame rates for back-of-house cameras (like the ones shown above).
In fact, some VMS manufacturers and Integrators tried to convince us to display and record the cameras in our upcoming system replacement at lower quality and frame rate than we specified. The specification I wrote called for all analog cameras at 4SIF/D1 @ 30fps @ 2.5-3.0Mbps and all 720p IP cameras @ 30fps @ 4.0Mbps. We had to insist on that because too many manufacturers and Integrators kept pushing us to view analog cameras at 2.0Mbps and cut the frame rate for back-of-house, or what they call "non-critical" cameras. My response was "What do you consider non-critical?" "If there's a slip and fall causing severe injury or a fight in a hallway, are the cameras viewing those scenes still 'non-critical'?"