Simply sliding them into a machine often does not work. Some you have to slam in, some you have to be gentle with. Others will not work irregardless. This most often happens at VP bars but can happen at any machine. I'm wondering if wiping them down with those hand cleaner wipes might help?
I'd say more often than not that the problem is with the card reader and not my card. Usually a slot attendant call is warranted.
My M life card doesn't like to be read. I've made it a habit when I sit down at a machine, I'll put my card in then sit and watch the reader before I play because it almost never gets read properly on the first try and I've not been credited for several sessions due to this. I've tried with about a dozen different cards too. Girlfriend never has this problem, but I've never had her try with one of the cards I'm holding...maybe it's my technique?
Ya those things get dirty and wont read a card. Same way some bill acceptors won't accept your brand new crisp $20.
Watch where you keep your players card. They can become de-magnetized by keeping them near a cellphone.
I had one reader on mh last trip that wasn't working at Mandalay. I pushed the attendant button and when the guy came by I showed him how the lights on the reader would just flicker. He just took his fist and banged it once and viola! It worked. I laughed and he smiled and said it happens all the time and I could just try bumping it like that if I found acting up. That's the same way my grandpa fixed the TV!
That happened to us this last trip to Bellagio and we found out that keeping it next to your room key will also demagnatize it. I just started keeping my card and $$ in one pocket and "everything else" in the other pocket. You know....drivers license, pint of whisky, rubbers, vibrator, etc....all the usual stuff:evillaugh
I don't recall ever having a problem inserting it, but there are 4 instances when I should have pulled it out a little sooner.....
I used to be absolutely hopeless in getting my card to read the first time. My wife and I would play side-by-side; she'd always get it on the first try and I'd be getting the red light over and over again. I'm a little better now; putting it in faster is better than slower but 'slamming' it in isn't right, either. And I've used the wrong casino's card a few times, once being stupid enough to complain at the player's club desk, "Sir, this isn't our card..." (both the Cosmo and Platinum CET cards were black.)