Maybe; but it's been ages since I've seen a swiped card transaction go that slow, and the card swipe uses the same card reader hardware, the same network technology, and the same "and so".
As far as I know US banks use the same chip standard as European banks (EMV) and in some countries those transactions are pretty fast (in others less so).
The card swipe doesn't use the same reader hardware as the chip reading (well, it is in the device) and there is more processing going on with more round trips to the bank if using the chip. Likely different parts of the software are used both at the reader and the bank as well.
Canada has them, too, and they're great at restaurants. Great for tipping since they just hand you the device at that point with common percentage options on screen (or the option to customize it).
The American experience of server collects your card, comes back with two receipts, mental arithmetic to figure out the tip, write it down on the receipt, hand the receipt back, and server types in the tip amount just seems clunky in comparison.
In general, though, I carry cash for tips since I know those probably won't be taxed.
Maybe. I don't own a US card but heard of such stories.
But I can tell you that my German card is quite slow in Germany (not as slow as US transaction though) but blazingly fast in Sweden, Denmark, or France.
