Ask the Slot Expert: Cash-out complication causes perplexing point problem

A presenter at a Microsoft seminar I attended made this comment the beta testers for his product. When most testers called, their "problem" was usually operator error or a misunderstanding of how the product worked.

But when this one tester called, he said that they said, "We got a problem." This tester knew how the product worked and what it was supposed to do. His problems were real problems.

I have a problem when I go to the slot club booth with a problem. They don't know that I kinda know what I'm talking about. The first part of any interaction is the booth representative rep-splaining to me how the system works and that my problem may not really be a problem.

I cashed out on a slot machine this past Sunday. The machine displayed an error message: Cash Out to Host Failure.

I think that means that something went wrong registering my cash out in the ticketing system. My ticket didn't print. I figured that the error was reported pm the devices the slot attendants carry and someone would come of their own accord. I waited a few minutes, but no one came so I hit the Service button.

The attendant who came looked at the message and called her supervisor. The supervisor said that some machines have been having this problem. She took a picture of the error message and had the attendant "reset" the machine. It wasn't a lengthy reboot. Just a second to clear the error message.

After the reset, my ticket printed. I pulled my card and then they took the machine out of service.

I checked my points earned at a kiosk when I was finished playing. The play from that machine was not included in my totals. I figured that it would show up once the technicians fixed the machine and put it back in service.

Monday, no points. Tuesday, no points. Wednesday, still no points. I had a free play offer that day, so I was going to the casino. I stopped by the club booth to report the missing play first.

The night before I did an analysis. I listed all the machines I played, the number of points I played on each machine, and the number of status credits I should have earned. I compared those numbers with the numbers in the system. My numbers matched those in the system if I omitted the play on the problem machine.

The booth supervisor looked at my worksheet and compared it with what he saw in the system. The system had the first three video poker machines I played.

Then, he said, there's an entry for three points.

Well, I explained, I had another problem machine. I put in my card. The bezel turned green but the Redeemable Points display never changed from 0 to the 50,000 it should have said. Worse, the Session Points counter did not change to 3 after I played my first spin.

I pulled my card and put it back in. This time the Redeemable Points display was correct and the Session Points increased as I played. Problem solved, I thought.

The booth supervisor used his radio to call for a slot attendant. The slot attendant called for her supervisor after hearing the problem.

When the supervisor arrived, I was about to explain the problem for the fourth time, but the booth supervisor cut me off. He said, "He kept detailed records. Our system matches his records except for this one machine."

Someone asked why I had waited so long to report the problem.

I said that I hoped the missing play would appear once the machine was put back in service. And I had no way of knowing when that would happen. (And between you and me, I wasn't going to make a special trip to deal with this.)

The slot supervisor said she'd file a point adjustment form for me. I had looked for the asset number tag on the machine, but I couldn't find it. I took a picture of the serial number plate instead.

They need the asset number for the form, so I took her to the machine. It was only 30 feet away and in plain view of where we were standing.

When we got to the machine, she said, "I remember you."

I said, "I thought I recognized you."

She was the supervisor involved with the reset on Sunday.

She said she would submit an adjustment form for the points I should have earned (it was a multiplier day) and it might take a day or two for the form to be processed.

That problem dealt with, I then went to an NSU machine to play my free play. It didn't appear on the machine.

I dreaded going back to the booth to report the missing free play, but then I finally remembered that the offer was app exclusive and I had to redeem it in the app before it would be available.

I redeemed it in the app. I opened the slot club panel again. The free play was not there. I pulled my card and put it back in. Still no free play.

I thought there might be a problem with the servers, so I walked around for a little while to give the systems a chance to catch up.

When the free play still hadn't appeared after a few minutes, I thought about just leaving because the main reason I was there was to play the free play. It was only $15, though, and I needed to kill time until my take-out breakfast was ready at the coffee shop, so I decided to play.

I checked to see if the free play was available when I was leaving the casino after picking up my order. Nope.

A slot attendant was near by. She was talking to a couple. When she was done, I waved at her. I asked her if there was a delay in having the free play available.

She said that the couple she was just talking to asked her about the same problem. She wasn't told yet about any problems. She suggested giving it more time and maybe going to a different area of the casino. Might be a WiFi problem. She said I could go to the booth if the free play still wasn't there.

I just left the casino. I had already nixed the option of going back to the booth. Jean Scott recommended that I should choose my battles and I had already won one that day.

I should probably also mention that I didn't really care about $15 in free play after winning $110 playing NSU.

Update: The points were added to my account a few hours after I left. I didn't get an adjustment in status credits. When the supervisor said she would submit an adjustment form for the points I earned and the multiplier, I thought about asking about the status credits. I just assumed that she would also request an adjustment for them because none of the play on that machine made it to the player tracking system. Oh well. Next time I know to ask for that adjustment too.

If there is a next time. Player tracking systems are very reliable and problems are rare.

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com.

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Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com. Due to the volume of requests, I am unable to reply to every question.

Copyright © John Robison. Slot Expert and Ask the Slot Expert are trademarks of John Robison.