Oh yeah, it’s a thing for sure. I’d advocate for using the players card as infrequently as possible.
This is a good reminder to assume your play is being tracked. This is an interesting note as well that I didn’t really think of: Fiumara identified “another big piece of the behavioral puzzle”: how players earn and redeem free slot play.
Maybe it’s smarter to go to high limit and blast off your free play there on some non-advantage machine. The RTP shouldn’t be awful in HL, and maybe that helps get these tracking companies off the scent a little.