Mysterious credit in card bank....what would you have done?

[Chimp]

This happened to me about 4 years ago and I periodically think about it and regret my actions.

I was at Rincon and my favorite machine was taken. I sat one machine over hoping my machine would open up soon. I put my card into the machine, which I did not realize was a 5 cent denomination. I logged into my bank. I don't remember why but I must have had some credit in there. Well, $5000 pops up. My initial thought was that I must have been reading it incorrectly and it was 5000 nickels. I am terrible at math. But my adrenaline was starting to pump. I downloaded the minimum amount, as I was on a nickel machine and didn't really want to play it.

Then the machine I wanted opened up and I moved over. I inserted my card and checked my bank and it still said $5000 minus the small amount I had downloaded. I started panicking and didn't know what to do. I hate to admit this but my first thought was can I use this without getting caught? Then for a minute or two I struggled with the ethics (or is it morals?) of playing with it. Then I went back to how can I use this...I didn't want to get caught and kicked out of Total Rewards.

I was afraid that if I downloaded the entire amount it would trigger the machine for an attendant to come over. Or even an attendant passing by to notice the large amount of credit on the machine. So finally I started to download the highest amount that I could but not the whole thing. I think it was $25 at a time. I would download, play, print a ticket for any profits, then download $25 again and repeat the process.

As you know, to download from your bank you have to punch in your code each time and wait for it to go onto the machine. A somewhat lengthly process. So I did this for a few hundred dollars and I was really starting to get nervous now. I was worried that someone watching the cameras was seeing my constant downloading and ticket printing. I'm sure my body language was also showing as unusual.

So I decided to move to a different machine to look like I was acting natural. Well, I inserted my card into another machine and my bank was empty! I was soooo mad at myself.

Obviously it was a computer glitch but I wonder what would have happened had I kept playing with it or downloaded the whole amount at once.

Please don't judge me for trying to use the credit. It was a very unusual situation and I was panicking, albeit it in an excited cheating sort of way.

I would love to hear what some of you might have done in this situation.

[Alan Mendelson]

At first, I was thinking that you won some kind of bonus where cash or free play is loaded into certain player's accounts. if I recall, about four years ago Rincon had these promotions as did other casinos. But when you said the money disappeared after your changed machines I don't know what to think?

[Chimp]

I never thought of that Alan but I don't think it was any kind of bonus. I would remember that. I think it was simply a computer error where the credit appeared on the wrong account.