Card Pulling and Card Abstinence

Card pulling is something a lot of people do, and it’s something I always used to do up until mid-2025 or so. I still do it at some casinos, but for the most part, I’ve stopped being as flippant about it.

We’ve all heard that it’s a good idea to use your casino player’s card. Historically, that was the case. You wanted to show every bet you made to the casino, because even if you won sometimes, they cared more about the volume of your bets than whether you won or lost. Based on that play, you could get free slot play, free food, free rooms, and free show tickets. If you’re a big enough whale and the casino isn’t some hole-in-the-wall establishment, there’s almost no end to the perks you could get.

And hell, everyone wins sometimes. Some of the biggest losers in the casino sometimes book some of the biggest winning sessions too, especially if they’re betting a lot per spin (see any popular slot YouTube personality).

But what if you, and others like you, started winning more than you were supposed to? More than seemed mathematically possible. Sure, over 100 spins or 1,000 spins, a small percentage of people could still win. But over 10,000 spins and 100,000 spins? It starts getting more and more improbable.

Yet once advantage play machines started hitting the floor and certain people learned how to play them profitably, that’s exactly what happened. For years, casinos—from marketing to hosts to security to bean counters—either didn’t understand the scope of the exploitation or didn’t care. These days, many casinos are taking note of people winning much more than they should be and doing something about it.

Even before many casinos started getting wise to advantage players, it was always a good idea to hide wins. Maybe you’re up tens of thousands at a casino for the year and you’re only playing slots. How? The “theo” (theoretical loss) says you should be down $150,000, not up $80,000. Maybe your account deserves a little detective work.

And suppose you had $60,000 worth of hand pays at the end of the year, but you were able to show Sam you lost more than that while gambling. That might be a little beneficial, right?

Enter card pulling. Pull your card before something like this, and the nice win wouldn’t register on the books:

If you had a feeling you were about to smash a slot, you could remove your players card quickly enough sometimes and not have anything register. I used to pull my card like you wouldn’t believe, and looking back, that was dangerous. Still, it would look like I was hemorrhaging money when in fact I was crushing the casino.

These days, some casinos have software in place to combat that. Not only will the win still show up on your account, but you’ll look mighty suspicious ripping your card out of a machine mid-spin.

Here’s what you can do instead: Don’t insert your card in the first place. If it’s a short-run machine where you’re only going to be spinning five or so times, who cares about whatever comp equity you’re forfeiting by not putting a card in? Further, if someone is inspecting player logs, you don’t want to be seen as the guy who plays 50 different advantage machines and nothing else.

If you’re playing one long Buffalo Link or something and you care about comps at the casino you’re at, sure, stick in the card. If you don’t care about comps, well, you probably shouldn’t be playing Buffalo Link-type games anyway. Looking ahead beyond 2026, the recommendation may change to “don’t use your card at all.”

Stay tuned.