Ask the Slot Expert: More adventures in cashless gaming at the slots

Last week I received an email from the STN Cash (Station Casinos' system for cashless gaming at slot machines) support team. The email said that they were making some changes based on feedback from players.

The biggest change is in how cashing out is handled. After I had signed the account agreement and funded my account at the cage, I played a machine and hit the Cash Out button. I expected the machine to print a ticket because I had not connected to the machine using the STN Cash app on my phone.

The machine did not print a ticket. And my credits were gone.

The slot floorperson and I expected to see a ticket caught in the ticket out path when she opened up the machine. No ticket.

She checked the ticket log on the machine. The most recent entry was not for the amount I cashed out nor was it timestamped with the time I cashed out.

I assured her that I definitely cashed out about $80 a few minutes ago.

She checked the cash out log next. There it was! A record of my cash out. If it didn't go to a ticket, where did it go?

I said, "I just set up a STN Cash account. Could the money have gone there?"

She said, "Check your balance."

I opened up the app on my phone. The home screen, which shows your current balance, was $80 more than what I initially funded the account with ($5). The transaction history screen showed an $80 deposit to the account.

She said that once you go cashless, all your cashouts go to your STN Cash account.

That made sense. I want to go cashless. It just would have been nice if the "all cashouts cashless" procedure had been in the FAQs on the website or if someone had told me that after I set up the account.

Cashouts are not necessarily cashless now. Now you can choose whether you want the credits to go back to your account or to a ticket. Hitting the Cash Out button will get you a ticket. Disconnect from the machine using the app (assuming you connected to the machine using Cardless Connect in the app rather than putting in your players card) will transfer the funds to your STN Cash account.

I questioned this change at first. I thought that people were not fully embracing the cashless lifestyle.

After I thought about it, though, giving the player an easy way to choose between account and ticket made sense. Before the change, you had two ways to get cash out of your account. You could go to the cage and make a withdrawal from the account, or you could transfer money to your linked bank account and then withdraw the cash from it at the bank or an ATM. If you don't have an account that refunds out-of-network ATM fees, you could end up paying a fee to get money from your STN Cash account.

There should be some contactless way to convert cash in the account to cash in your pocket.

Now you can withdraw money from your account by transferring it to a machine, hitting Cash Out to get a ticket, and then redeeming the ticket at a kiosk.

The other change mentioned in the email makes no sense to me. Before the change, if you left a machine without disconnecting from it in the app, the machine would eventually do a Card Out and automatically transfer any credits you left on the machine back to your account.

Now the credits just stay on the machine.

I thought the automatic transfer was a great safety feature. We've all gotten distracted by something and left a machine without cashing out. The automatic transfer limited the damage thieves could do if they tried to play the credits you left behind.

Unfortunately, the Cash Out button change once again makes it possible for a thief to steal your credits by cashing them out. The changes removed some of the safety features of using a STN Cash account.

I would suggest to the STN Cash team that they undo these changes and add an option in the app to Disconnect with Transfer or Disconnect with Ticket. This may not be possible with the current software.

I had a few glitches on my most recent attempts to use my STN Cash account. I took out a marker, which they gave to me in a ticket. (I didn't ask if they could just put the funds in my STN Cash account.) I had played an NSU machine for a while when a lady started playing the machine at the other end of the bank.

Every few seconds she coughed. Just a little cough.

I thought that maybe she had Tourette's. Or maybe she had what my old boss had that made him cough a few times a minute when the weather got cold in New Jersey. (Appropriately, his last name was pronounced cough-us.)

I figured I could live with this. I'm masked and she's masked.

Well, actually, only I was masked. She had a cup of coffee and a takeout container in front of her and no mask in sight. I don't know what she's got going on. I'm moving.

I disconnected using the app (so my funds went to my STN Cash account) and went to another machine. When I checked the home screen in the app after I settled in at my new machine, the balance available was unavailable. There were just dashes after the dollar sign instead of numbers. In tiny type underneath was this message: STN Cash is processing.

I tried connecting to the machine to see if that helped. It didn't. I pressed the button to try to transfer money to the game to see if it was just a display problem, but all I got was an error message. At least the deposit did appear in my transaction history, so the money was in the account even if the app couldn't display it.

I waited a few minutes to see if the problem would clear up. It didn't. Now I had a problem. All of my money was in my STN Cash account and the app was holding my money hostage. Off to the cage to see if they know anything about the problem and to see if they could withdraw money from my account.

I explained my problem to the cashier. I should have just asked her if she could withdraw money from my account, but instead I asked if she could see the balance. I figured that she would say yes and that I would then ask her to give some of it.

She said that she couldn't see my balance. This was mostly true. She couldn't see the account using a standard cage terminal, but her supervisor could using the STN Cash terminal at the STN Cash window at the end of the cage.

We moved down to the STN Cash window where the cashier asked me to see if my app could connect to the machine they have there. I had no problems connecting. She said she would call the cage supervisor.

When the supervisor arrived, the cashier told her that I could connect to the machine, my slot club points appeared on the machine, but my money didn't. I said that the money doesn't automatically go to the machine. You have to use the Fund Game button in the app to transfer money from the STN Cash account to a machine.

The supervisor called STN Cash support. We went through the same troubleshooting steps again. While she was on hold with the support tech, she said to me that the only thing she could do is withdraw cash from the account.

I said that that was really what I wanted. I wanted to report the problem and see if there was a system problem or if there was something they could do to clear it. If it couldn't be cleared, then I wanted to withdraw some cash so I could play.

After that 20 minute farrago, I finally had some playing money. I settled in at another machine and feed cash into it.

While I was playing, a support tech called me to ask what kind of phone I had. When I was finished playing -- and cashed out into a ticket -- I checked the app again. My balance was there now. I would be back tomorrow for gift day. I'll use my ticket to fund the game and then disconnect to transfer my credits back to my account.

The next day, when I was finished playing, I hit the Disconnect button in the app. A confirmation dialog appeared. It said that my credits would be transferred to my STN Cash account.

Good. That's what I want. I touched OK. The machine printed a ticket.

It looks like we went from always cashless to never cashless.

I went to pick up my gift and figured I would deal with this problem on my next visit.

Here are the latest Covid data. There is a difference in the hospitalization data for US versus NV. The CDC reports total number of Covid hospital admissions. Nevada reports current hospitalizations, not admissions.

All data comes from the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_totalcases, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions), except for Nevada current hospitalizations (https://nvhealthresponse.nv.gov/).

	Totals						Weekly Changes
	US			NV			US			NV
Date	Cases	Hosp. Adm.	Deaths	Cases	Curr. Hosp.	Deaths	Cases	Hosp. Adm.	Deaths	Cases	Curr. Hosp.	Deaths
11/16	47,145,861	3,320,189	761,426	461,616	725	7,844	604,748	63,164	7,862	4,577	22	85
11/09	46,541,113	3,257,025	753,564	457,039	703	7,759	516,764	33,219	8,290	5,539	34	103
11/02	46,024,349	3,223,806	745,274	451,500	669	7,656	555,915	38,028	9,226	4,327	45	109
10/26	45,468,434	3,185,778	736,048	447,173	624	7,547	488,829	42,265	9,842	4,753	(87)	96
10/19	44,979,605	3,143,513	726,206	442,420	711	7,451	578,396		11,963	4,381		136
10/12	44,401,209		714,243	438,039		7,315	795,586		14,067	15,710		149
10/05	43,605,623		700,176	422,329		7,166	554,194		10,642	3,852		121
09/28	43,051,429		689,534	418,477		7,045	817,218		14,463	6,160		165
09/21	42,234,211		675,071	412,317		6,880	971,637		14,691	7,466		152
09/14	41,262,574		660,380	404,851		6,728	1,176,763		12,919	10,256		145
09/07	40,085,811		647,461	394,595		6,583	975,725		10,076	5,237		104
08/31	39,110,086		637,385	389,358		6,479	1,113,414		9,385	7,592		173
08/24	37,996,672		628,000	381,649		6,306	1,045,491		7,507	8,117		116
08/17	36,951,181		620,493	373,649		6,190	959,978		4,715	7,065		150
08/10	35,991,203		615,778	366,584		6,040	819,524		3,987	7,652		122
08/03	35,171,679		611,791	358,932		5,918	622,832		2,279	7,489		81
07/27	34,548,847		609,012	351,443		5,837	652,251		2,394	8,347		79
07/20	33,896,296		606,618	341,096		5,758	169,933		1,478	3,351		28
07/13	33,726,363		605,140	339,745		5,730	181,047		1,959	4,982		33
07/06	33,545,316		603,181	334,763		5,697	75,104		1,373	2,234		27
06/29	33,470,212		601,808	332,529		5,670	87,507		2,057	3,020		24
06/22	33,382,705		599,751	329,509		5,646	75,420		2,157	1,930		22
06/15	33,303,285		597,594	327,579		5,624	95,797		2,293	1,560		17
06/08	33,207,488		595,301	326,019		5,607	114,250		3,762	2,271		21
06/01	33,039,238		591,539	323,748		5,586	123,333		3,709	991		27
05/25	32,969,905		587,830	322,757		5,559	174,125		4,234	1,676		26
05/18	32,795,780		583,596	321,081		5,533	223,966		4,230	2,301		27
05/11	32,571,814		579,366	318,780		5,506	303,856		4,687	2,541		33
05/04	32,267,958		574,679	316,239		5,473	343,348		4,908	2,559		40
04/27	31,924,610		569,771	313,680		5,433	383,163		4,958	2,747		65
04/20	31,541,447		564,813	310,933		5,368	464,556		5,072	2,590		36
04/13	31,076,891		559,741	308,343		5,332	480,061		5,321	2,986		57
04/06	30,596,830		554,420	305,357		5,275	448,935		7,124	3,084		38
03/30	30,147,895		547,296	302,273		5,237	439,510		6,793	939		63
03/23	29,708,385		540,503	301,334		5,174	388,928		7,446	1,863		53
03/16	29,319,457		533,057	299,471		5,121	381,695		8,362	3,078		81
03/09	28,937,762		524,695	296,393		5,040	480,902		11,573	2,413		83
03/02	28,456,860		513,122	293,980		4,957	463,356		14,129	2,835		75
02/23	27,993,504		498,993	291,145		4,882	451,083		13,923	2,406		162
02/16	27,542,421		485,070	288,739		4,720	602,906		21,411	4,149		198
02/09	26,939,515		463,659	284,590		4,522	779,305		21,828	5,444		244
02/02	26,160,210		441,831	279,146		4,278	1,007,777		22,004	7,249		249
01/26	25,152,433		419,827	271,897		4,029	1,312,565		23,385	10,324		250
01/19	23,839,868		396,442	261,573		3,779	1,317,119		21,318	11,324		279
01/12	22,522,749		375,124	250,249		3,500	1,790,345		22,660	17,217		294
01/05	20,732,404		352,464	233,032		3,206	1,499,561		18,435	14,655		233
12/29	19,232,843		334,029	218,377		2,973	1,258,540		15,460	12,493		186
12/22	17,974,303		318,569	205,884		2,787	1,656,411		18,537	16,472		239
12/15	16,317,892		300,032	189,412		2,548	1,494,763		17,247	18,825		229
12/08	14,823,129		282,785	170,587		2,319	1,375,502		15,483	18,418		175
12/01	13,447,627		267,302	152,169		2,144	1,114,175		10,286	15,942		121
11/24	12,333,452		257,016	136,227		2,023	1,197,199		10,784	14,130		106
11/17	11,136,253		246,232	122,097		1,917	1,099,790		8,501	11,115		65
11/10	10,036,463		237,731	110,982		1,852	767,645		6,838	8,868		68
11/03	9,268,818		230,893	102,114		1,784	588,207		5,809	5,936		35
10/27	8,680,611		225,084	96,178		1,749	492,026		5,585	5,238		(10)
10/20	8,188,585		219,499	90,940		1,759	401,037		5,053	4,501		48
10/13	7,787,548		214,446	86,439		1,711	351,270		4,886	3,910		48
10/06	7,436,278		209,560	82,529		1,663	306,965		4,962	3,232		36
09/29	7,129,313		204,598	79,297		1,627	303,616		5,136	3,058		54
09/22	6,825,697		199,462	76,239		1,573	288,070		5,370	2,196		82
09/15	6,537,627		194,092	72,043		1,491	250,265		5,404	1,825		65
09/08	6,287,362		188,688	72,218		1,426	282,919		5,638	2,734		92
09/01	6,004,443		183,050	69,484		1,334	251,790		5,291	3,237		104
08/25	5,752,653		177,759	66,247		1,230	330,411		7,889	4,076		125
08/18	5,422,242		169,870	62,171		1,105	358,071		7,463	4,973		114
08/11	5,064,171		162,407	57,198		991	365,353		7,203	5,776		117
08/04	4,698,818		155,204	51,422		874	418,683		7,532	7,367		109
07/28	4,280,135		147,672	44,055		764	460,996		7,042	7,130		91
07/21	3,819,139		140,630	36,195		674	463,682		5,395	8,181		57
07/14	3,355,457		135,235	28,744		617	422,861		5,102	5,607		57
07/07	2,932,596		130,133	23,137		560	351,367		3,394	5,006		24
06/30	2,581,229	Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question. Copyright © John Robison. Slot Expert and Ask the Slot Expert are trademarks of John Robison. Recent Articles Ask the Slot Expert: Rebutting an article about why slots are not random - Part 5 Ask the Slot Expert: What influences how frequently a bonus round can hit? Ask the Slot Expert: Rebutting an article about why slots are not random - Part 4 Ask the Slot Expert: Should I double this hand in Double Down Stud Video Poker? Best of John Robison Ask the Slot Expert: My account was suspended for sharing free play Ask the Slot Expert: Should I come to Las Vegas in late August? Ask the Slot Expert: Closed casino redeems reader's slot tickets Ask the Slot Expert: Picking your way to a fortune on 88 Fortunes Ask the Slot Expert: Can a cell phone affect a slot machine? Ask the Slot Expert: Can I redeem a slot ticket at another casino? Ask the Slot Expert: Cashing out money left on a slot machine Ask the Slot Expert: Can casinos manipulate your slot play via your players card? Ask the Slot Expert: 'Proof' that player's cards affect results on slot machines Guide to Winning at Slots: The Best Number of Coins to Play John Robison John Robison is an expert on slot machines and how to play them. John is a slot and video poker columnist and has written for many of gaming’s leading publications. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology. You may hear John give his slot and video poker tips live on The Good Times Show, hosted by Rudi Schiffer and Mike Schiffer, which is broadcast from Memphis on KXIQ 1180AM Friday afternoon from from 2PM to 5PM Central Time. John is on the show from 4:30 to 5. You can listen to archives of the show on the web anytime. Books by John Robison: The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing Slots	SEARCH ARTICLES:   This Author All Authors John Robison John Robison is an expert on slot machines and how to play them. John is a slot and video poker columnist and has written for many of gaming’s leading publications. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology. You may hear John give his slot and video poker tips live on The Good Times Show, hosted by Rudi Schiffer and Mike Schiffer, which is broadcast from Memphis on KXIQ 1180AM Friday afternoon from from 2PM to 5PM Central Time. John is on the show from 4:30 to 5. You can listen to archives of the show on the web anytime. Books by John Robison: The Slot Expert's Guide to Playing Slots