I have "harvested" a lot of cards, and at 5'11" I can stroll up and down the aisles and scan the tops of most machines for abandoned cards. I love rows of red video poker machines - they are not too tall and you can scan a couple of rows at once. In walking through the casino, the eyes in the sky are watching to see if you try to skim somebody else's cash or coins, not cards. But they may keep an eye on you. I like to stop at a machine, place my hand on the top as I lean in and examine the pay table, and finally turn away, sliding out the card that is now in my palm. In a really crowded casino, if a card is on a machine being played by someone, I will reach over him/her and pull the card off. If they glance back, I will look at the face of the card, shrug my head, and mutter, "I was sure I left it around here someplace..." If this works, it is better to check if there is also a card in the reader. Once somebody said, "Hey, that card is my brother-in-law's." The card went back and I moved on. You can also find cards, at least in the midwest, at the card booth while they are printing you out a new one. Some places have a box or part of the desk top where abandoned cards are parked for people to come check for them. If the club personnel are busy, you can lean forward, pull a brochure, flyer or newsletter out of the rack, and start reading it as you place it over the cards. When you can, scoop up some of these. Most of these people will never come back for them.

I once was in the California as I walked through to go play some video poker over at Main Street Station. As I went along, I grabbed four or five cards from machine tops, one from in a reader, and was heading for the escalator to the bridge to MMS. I was stopped by two security guards who asked for my ID and where I was staying (at the Fremont). As they called this info in over their radio, I asked what was up. I was told I was seen taking "their slot cards." They asked for, and I gave them the four or five in my pocket, and then they asked me to leave. I was really shook up about this for awhile and from then on I did a better job of hiding what I was doing.

Slot cards are a unique collectable. Nearly every one in your collection has a note right on it that says you do not own that card. It informs you that the casino can demand and or take that card if they want to. What would we do if a overeager security guard at the Tropicana walks into the trade room and just picks up and takes any Tropicana cards he sees? We would do nothing, because they can do that. What do you think of that!