The fact that the vast majority of stores that don't accept CC for GC do accept cash *or* debit leads me to believe that the added security of the PIN number is enough for most stores to be comfortable with the greatly reduced level of fraud risk involved. Assuming that fraud is the #1 reason for stores going cash/debit only, one would think that the imminent chip and pin transition would be good for this hobby. On the other hand, it's probably unlikely that any store that's already changed to cash/debit only would revisit this and start allowing credit cards again. Our 1970s-era mag stripe technology with absolutely no encryption has not been kind to MSing.