Casinos for years have provided cards for credit purposes for players and tracked table play - most likely manually. However John Acres started a company that would later become Acres Gaming (Sold to IGT) - In the early 1980's Helped Steve Wynn Set up the 24 karet club at the Golden Nugget. With your card it the machine would distribute tickets when you won. The system did track, but not to the extent that they do now a days.