Abandoned credits/tickets & whether it’s finders keepers or property of the casino/state is constantly debated among many gamblers. There doesn’t appear to be any uniformed rules & it really depends from casino to casino, state to state. My approach is to simply not take them. As an advantage player I never want to give a casino a reason to throw me out. If I see a small amount of abandoned credits on a machine I’ll cash it out & set it aside. If it’s a good sized chunk I’ll notify a slot attendant & have them deal with it.
Some casinos have a relaxed attitude towards credit hustlers. I don’t know if he’s still getting away with it in 2019, but here’s a New York Times article from 2012 about a guy who was doing pretty decent buzzing around Resorts World Casino in New York & taking abandoned credits. Other casinos however will show you the door & ban you for the day. Others when they catch you will ban you for life.
I knew a hustler several years ago who was making really good money at a particular casino. This casino had a ton of advantage slot machines & he didn’t have much competition for plays as it was a casino that was in a fairly remote location. He dominated the place.
This slot hustler had a habit of always cashing out abandoned credits on machines while making the rounds. He wasn’t particularly slick about it either. He didn’t sit on the machine, put a ticket/bill in the machine, check the rules of the game or things of a similar nature. You know just in case he would get caught to pull the plausible deniability card. No, he would always walk directly to the machine, push the cashout button, collect & walk away. He had been warned by the casino before & other hustlers would advise him to stop doing it, especially if he was going to do it like that.
One day I get a call from the hustler. He tells me he’s been lifetime banned from that particular casino. I ask why but he doesn’t want to get into the details. I respect his wishes & don’t press any further. It wasn’t until much later that I found out that the reason he was banned was because he took an abandoned ticket worth 32 cents. This hustler blew his chance to continue making thousands upon thousands of dollars for 32 cents.
Some casinos depending on the jurisdiction will get the law involved to actually prosecute you. Colorado is one state that takes the prosecution route. Here and here are a couple of links to articles written in 2017 about how they deal with credit hustlers. Do I think Colorado’s approach to credit hustlers extreme? Definitely, & it looks as if there’s a complete lack of common sense as well as a waste of resources to treat people like criminals for what in many cases appears to be taking minuscule amounts of money. In some of these cases it even appears that people are doing it unknowingly. If someone cashes out a $500 when a player is looking the other way sure. But for $2? Give me a break.
Now could you take abandoned credits left on a machine & get away with it? More than likely. Lots of people do it all the time & nothing happens to them. We’re in the business of gambling but with so much money to be made from the advantage slot machines, it’s a bet I’m not willing to make.
