In a recent article we wrote about players pulling their cards during bonuses, a concept came up that went a different direction than the article had suggested, but offered an interesting suggestion as to why some players might do it:
The account will lock up after a longer bonus, too, thus necessitating a visit to the player desk. This has happened quite a few times to me, and is very annoying!
Carol
This suggestion got players debating in the comments on Facebook, but it makes sense why – not all casinos handle the abandoned card scenario in the same way. Some players aren’t familiar with it because their casinos don’t do it.
So what is an abandoned card? The idea is when a card has been left in the machine a certain amount of time without any wagers being placed, the casino presumes that a card has been left behind by mistake – hence abandoned.
Some casinos will simply time out a card when the machine , allowing you to remove the card and plug it back in, while others will disable the players card account altogether, necessitating a trip to the players card desk to resolve.
By disabling the card, it ensures someone else can’t randomly take the card, attempt to use earned comps or other perks that belong to someone else, and so on. But it means more of a hassle for players.
The amount of time before a card times out will vary by casino. We’ve seen it as short as a few minutes (although the quicker timeframes are usually connected with a timeout and not a full disabled account) and as long as an hour.
The shorter timeframes can get in the way of games with a really long bonus, which is where the problem can most often arise. Think those Konami games with hundreds of spins, or Buffalo games with a lot of retriggers.
Games with a long enough bonus can take it past being in the machine a certain amount of time without wagers, because the bonus doesn’t require any bets to be made – it’s all part of a previously placed wager. So then the card will time out, or be marked abandoned.
Players who have had the hassle of having to go reset their cards at the desk noted they’re more likely to pull their card on a long bonus to avoid another wait in the desk’s line. Some players probably get overzealous and pull their card every time, which isn’t really necessary as most bonuses are well within the time limit.
Everything in our last piece still holds up – some players do pull it hoping to manipulate the data, and sessions do stay open until a bonus is complete. Sometimes when you pull your card, certain card systems will display on the screen that the card is still registered as the session is still open until the wager is resolved (in this case, the completion of the bonus). But this does indicate another reason why some players might pull their cards out and then put it back in afterwards.
