To quote a posting of mine from June 30, 2002...

"Where to get cards? Casinos, first and foremost. Every time you go in, tell them you didn't bring your card along. (Make it true -- don't!) Tell them you sometimes play two machines and would like to have two cards. Most places are glad to do this. (If you are a fatally honest person, make it true. Next time you walk down a row of nickel machines, sit down and put one nickel in the one in front of you and one nickel in the machine to the right. Then you can look the lady right in the eye and say you sometimes play two machines.) Some places (especially larger riverboats) have two places to get cards, one in the dock building and on on board. Other casinos (Virgin River in Mesquite and Caesar's and the Rio in Las Vegas are some) have two booths. Get a card or two at one, then do the same at the other Player's Center. Remember who you got that card from, and if you are there for awhile, see if a new person is working the desk later. Get another card as you leave, if that's the case. Now we move into the less than perfectly honest collectors area. As you walk the casino, if you see a card on top of a machine where nobody is playing, stop at that machine, put your empty hand on the orphaned card, look intently on the video screen or the pay table for a few seconds, and then slide the card in your hand off and into your pocket. Do not be too obvious in grabbing cards off the tops or out of the slots. Overzealous casino security people have at times ignored felons armed with machine pistols robbing the cashiers cage in order to roust a slot card collector they spotted picking up "the casino's cards." I think I am the only guy whose picture in the California's Prohibited People Book has never been part of organized crime. If you are really black-hearted, you can look over the desk at the card booth while the person is making out a card for you. Are there "lost" cards laying on the counter for people to reclaim? Not when you leave. Are there blank cards on the work table behind the counter, and does the fellow turn his back on you? Do you have a conscience that can keep it's mouth shut? Then grab a few. If they spot you and yell, just say you were taking a look at the new card. If you start mugging little old ladies in the parking lots for their cards, then you have gone too far. I tried to do that and the darned old ladies always kicked my butt. We got some really tough little old ladies in the Midwest, and they all play nickels at the Indian Casinos."

To relate an incident I had years ago at the California in Las Vegas. I was walking through the place (in the back, out the front) to go to Main Street Station, and I grabbed a card or two off machine tops and one or two out of slots where the machines had nobody around. I was spotted, and a pair of security guards stopped me and asked for my ID and where I was staying. I was at the Fremont that trip, and related that fact. They held my ID and radioed to have my name checked. I asked what was the problem, and the guy said I had been seen taking "their" players cards. I was asked to return them (I pulled a half dozen out of my pocket) and told I had to leave the casino.