Ask the Slot Expert: A ticket too large

My luck had changed the past week, so I started off with a sizable ticket when I sat down to play NSU at Suncoast. This machine continued to make amends for the stinginess of most of the NSU machines I've played during the summer and fall. In addition to my fair share (probably more than my fair share) of premium hands, I also got a set of deuces. A little late according to the averages, but always welcome whenever it hits. It's so disappointing when you get a set of deuces and the machine just turns around and takes it all back. Because this machine was being kind to me, I was able to hold onto my deuces winnings and then some. I cashed out a ticket for just over $3000.

I used to redeem tickets before leaving the casino. I didn't want to lose a ticket. I had envelopes filled with singles, fives and twenties. Every once in a while I took the bills to the cage to "color up".

After playing with Jean Scott for a while, I saw that she didn't always redeem her tickets at the end of the day. She saved them for the next visit, which was usually not too far away. I switched to redeeming my tickets only when they were big or I wasn't planning on visiting the casino again soon -- or I needed the money to play in a different casino.

I figured I would use this ticket when I did my tour of slot machines after playing video poker. I sat down at my favorite Quick Hit Blitz machine and put the ticket in the bill acceptor. The machine thought for a little while and then returned the ticket. I took a close look at the ticket. The bar code looked good. It should work. I put the ticket back in the acceptor. After a few seconds, the machine spat out the ticket again.

Finally I realized what was going on. My ticket was too large. Nevada Technical Standard 2.050 (Credit play requirements).1 says that the maximum number of credits you can put on a machine using coin or currency is $3000. My ticket was $16 and change over the maximum.

No problem. I'll just redeem the ticket at a kiosk. Right after I inserted the ticket in the kiosk's bill acceptor, I saw a notice on the machine that looked like someone made it on a Brother P-Touch Label Maker: The maximum ticket that can be redeemed is $2999.99. The screen displayed a message saying that I needed to take the ticket to the cashier for redemption and the machine returned the ticket to me.

Actually, I was 99.99% certain that I was not going to be able to redeem the ticket at a kiosk. I learned that there was a limit on ticket amount at kiosks at Red Rock the first time I scored a hat trick on sets of deuces. The ticket was over $3000 and the kiosk at Red Rock told me to take it the cage. I don't recall ever seeing a regulation limiting the ticket amount that can be redeemed at a kiosk, so I thought maybe Suncoast would allow a larger ticket. Nope.

Actually, Suncoast's procedures for large ticket redemption are more elaborate than Red Rock's, at least for tickets just over the limit. At Red Rock, they ask for my player card and a supervisor has to approve the redemption.

Suncoast wanted my player card too. It also required a supervisor's okey-dokey. There was one more step. The cashier radioed the slot floorpeople to have someone verify the ticket. I heard her say the machine number, my name, and the ticket amount. There were a few people waiting in line for the cage now, so she asked me to step over to the next window so she could take care of the next guest while we waited for verification, which came a few minutes later.

I asked her if the floorperson had to check the ticket log on the machine. You may remember a few weeks ago when I set up an account in the STN Cash cash-less gaming system that I cashed out on a machine and didn't get a ticket. The slot floorperson checked the Ticket Log on the machine and the last ticket printed was timestamped long before I cashed out and for a different amount. Then she checked the machine's Cash-Out Log. It had my cash out. Where did my money go? Not to a ticket but to my STN Cash account.

A friend who works at the Westgate once showed me a Ticket Log on one of their machines. In addition to the timestamp and amount, this log also showed the player card number that was active when the ticket was printed.

I don't know whether the floorperson actually pulled up the log on the machine I had played (What if someone was playing it then?) or queried the ticket database from one of the terminals on the slot floor. The floorperson said the ticket was legit and the cashier paid me.

Happiness is having a ticket too large to be accepted at a slot machine or redeemed at a kiosk.

My holiday wish for you is to cash out a ticket that is so large that it requires special handling.

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