I can honestly say that if I have pre-paid to enter an event, I have never ever then had to register at the cash desk on the day, I just go and find my seat.
This has happened to me once and once only. Worryingly it was the APAT Omaha event at DTD at the end of August, so maybe there is a precedent here. Was told to register at the cash desk even though I had bought in online days before. Others that were told to do the same were as surprised as I was. I didn"t ask what would have happened if I"d have not done this, since I was there anyway so registering was no problem. The event didn"t sell out so there were no alternates to find seats for, but boy there would have been some pissed off people if it had have sold out and they had been withdrawn with no refund for being 10 minutes late.
The new "rule" if there is one seems to be related to introduction of the reserve a seat for £5 option. If you pay a fiver and are not there at the start then you lose the fiver. I think we can all accept that. But can someone else pay the full fee for you and register you? Would that be a new rule? At some places this wouldn"t even be possible without a players card.
But if someone has paid the full fee or won a seat in advance and is late their money is in the prize pool. The should at the very least be given till the first break to get there and asking them to register at the casino before the event starts or lose the buy-in is just plain daft.