Abstract: Affinity points issued to customers as premiums for other activities or for purchases are maintaining for each customer an account of accrued affinity points. Each customer has a respective account of accrued affinity points that he or she can use to engage in wagering with gaming credits in the form of affinity points from the respective account. Automatically in response to wagering, winnings are credited in terms of affinity points to the account of the customer, losses are debited in terms of affinity points to the account of the customer, and additions to, subtractions from and current balances of affinity points are displayed in the account on the console.

Abstract: An exemplary embodiment of the invention is a dryer that uses a high speed blower (12) producing high velocity air, a heater (14) and an optimized air outlet (16) to generate both optimal force and temperature at the user's hands. The air outlet is sized and shaped to maintain direction of air flow, and to entrain a sufficient amount of air so as to increase the force of the airstream while not entraining too much air in the core region of the airstream which otherwise would significantly reduce the airstream impact force and temperature. These result in reduced drying time and in-process comfort and comfort afterwards.