Making a "fake" slot card is not as easy as one might think. Here are some things to consider:

The cost of equipment alone to make today's slot cards runs well over $2million (used), plus the labor of operating these various pieces of equipment. Today's slot cards are made exactly like today's credit and ATM cards. Which do you think a dishonest person is more likely to counterfeit if they have that equipment?

Let's assume someone already has the equipment to make cards (like ACC). The cost of creating a small run of cards is extremely high (a minimum of $1,000 COST!). (Gene can attest to the high cost of small runs!) ;) There are only a handful of high-end slot card collectors, hardly worth the hassle of making cards just for a dozen or so back-door sales! Plus, the manufacturer risks the chance of losing the real customer, the casino! I highly doubt this risk would be taken!

I believe "finds" are less likely in this field, since each person received one card from the casino (at a time). Buying multiple chips is much easier! A "find" of many old cards (of the same type) should be scrutinized as to the source. In all honestly, the real risk of finds comes from the manufacturers (yes, ACC included). All manufacturers keep old stock for samples, future sales, etc. Sometimes they are sold to recyclers (plastic recyclers), sometimes they are used as sales samples, etc. Caches of old cards are more likely to come from the plant than anywhere else!

(Side note - ACC used to give out in our brochure at the World Gaming Congress a blank version of a purple Flamingo KC card or a Imperial Palace Dragon card along with a couple others to everyone that visited our booth! These card book in the $100's, and over the past few years we must've handed out over 1,000 of them! Yet oddly, none or very few have ever been "on the market"!)

As I've posted a long while back on the Slot Card BBS, the real problem comes in some of the older cards that were silkscreen printed on blank cards. Anyone with silkscreen equipment (T-Shirts, mousepads, etc.) could "in theory" counterfeit the renowned "Gold Landmark" card very easily! (Barry - that's why I asked to see yours at the convention - the simplicity and quality of the printing concerns me that it could be very, very easily faked). On the other hand, the silver Landmark is a laminated plastic card (printed by offset lithography). Matching the printing and ink on that card would be 10 times harder!

As for the "names" issue, that IS a problem that should be addressed. The thermal technology that puts monochrome names on cards does so by slightly "etching" the name into the card, so it is usually discernable under light if the resin is removed. PhotoID technology (like the San Manual or Bicycle cards) can be removed 100% w/o detection. But, since most people collect variations based upon manufacturer changes, removal of personalization is no where near the comparison of adding plastic to brass cores. (closing that can of worms now...)

Either way, all ID machines (and use in slot machines/hotel doors) horizontally scratch the high-gloss surface of the cards (both front and back). NO amount of polishing will remove these scratches, so that should be a tell-tale sign of a "used" card (as opposed to a new blank fresh out of the box).

Hmm...I was leading up to a point...now I forget...