If you wire money to a casino, you can pull it at the cage at any time. It's not taking a marker, it's merely getting the money you put on deposit. At that point they can only track it if you take it in flags and then use the flags.

Many, many people wire in money to the Bellagio for the WPT events and have no problems using it simply for poker.

Very interesting thread. Let's say for example you had just won $20k in Vegas and you are in the airport for your trip home (or anywhere else). How can you actually prove you won the money playing poker? I can just imagine a scenario where they say "we don't believe you" and seize all of your cash. I can't think of many worse things than that. I hope it never happens to me or any of you guys.

Wire the damn money FTW

I agree with your previous posts that carrying a lot of cash on you is not problem for 99.9% of domestic flights. You're gonna get more scrutiny flying out of small airports than flying out of Vegas, where they see people leave with monster stacks of cash frequently, so if may help to bring a tax return with you as precaution. If you look young or dress like a gangsta, consider dressing nicer, as it makes you look far less sketchy than wearing your grinding gear.

However, my personal experiences differ with respect to the above about wiring. I've wired money into Aria and Venetian the past two summers and they will only allow you to withdraw 10% of the wired funds as cash. The rest of the funds must be redeemed at a gaming table and if you play just a few hands and leave, I am sure your wire transfers will be more heavily scrutinized in the future. You mention large tournaments, and agree that you can use wired funds to buy into those, but the casinos are way nittier about allowing you to withdraw wired funds for cash games.

If it's a tournament score, you'll have a receipt from the win. If it's a cash game, I've never won that much but it's my understanding that the cashier will make you do some paperwork when you cash in a large amount of chips, so you should be able to get a copy of whatever forms they have you fill out.

That's odd, I've wired $40k to the Bellagio, and pulled it in flags from the main cage to play poker. YMMV I guess.

Just going to chime in real quick. I believe there is a Law in both US and Canada that state you cannot have more than 10K in cash on your person.

Not too long ago I read a story about a couple who were on their way back to Ontario from Quebec. They had been at a Casino and won 25K. They were pulled over by the O.P.P near Ottawa. The money was in a bag in the trunk of the car.
The officers noted that the couple were acting weird and nervous. They asked to search the vehicle. At this point if you say no they will figure you are hiding something. Hesitantly the couple said okay. The money was found and seized. It took a few hours for the cops to confirm their casino story.

I won a nice jackpot once. It was over 10K. The Casino will give you the option of taking it all in cash or splitting it up (Cash and Cheque)
It comes down to the fact that usually people who are stopped with large amounts of money on their person are criminals. They are either drug dealers or money launderers in the eyes of Police.
If you can't prove the money is legit than kiss it good-bye.
You would have to be crazy to carry bag loads of cash around with you anyway.
Just my 2 cents....

lol, please find me this law

"Q. Will I be delayed during screening if I am carrying large amounts of cash?

A. TSA does not restrict passengers from carrying cash through our security checkpoints. However, when TSA discovers a passenger carrying a sum of cash that appears to be in excess of $10,000 and the passenger is traveling to a location outside of the United States, TSA may notify U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to ensure compliance with international currency-reporting requirements. Also, TSA may notify law enforcement officers if cash is discovered during the security screening process that appears to be related to criminal activity based on factors such as the quantity, packaging, circumstances of discovery, or the method by which it is carried."


Per www.tsa.gov

He's talking about driving around with cash or having it on your person...Not at an airport.

We've already covered domestic and international flight rules. Canuckeh is talking about something that definitely does not exist in this country.

There is no law preventing you from carrying any amount in cash. Law enforcement, however, can seize any amount from you if they think the money is from illegal activity. I've known people that had a few grand taken away from them; I've heard stories of as little as $400 - it's up to the discretion of the officer. Lots of variance there, but you don't need to worry about shipping a tournament and having it seized.

Someone shipped over a million several years ago, and brought it back home with him in a couple of duffel bags (can't remember his name just yet - tip of my tongue). He had no issue (well, minus the hassle) once he showed documentation of the score. They don't want to take your money just for the sake of it. That money was legally obtained with the appropriate CTR and W2G's filed - they had no legal grounds to take that money, and so they let him leave with it.

Jay, you're not right on this one. You may have been successful in taking cash out at the Bellagio for poker, and that's because they are more considerate of poker as a form of gaming at the B. Lol could you imagine them telling Barry G that if he wants to wire a million dollars to them before he flies that he'll have to run to a BJ or craps table and redeem his $ in flags / cranberries and then run back to the poker cage again? lol.

The managers in onedollars' case probably felt they were being generous by letting him take out 10% even.

Yes, you will piss the casino off very quickly if you wire money to the cage, bet the minimum once, leave, and go back to the cage to cash out. This is a sure way to not be allowed to wire money again.

At the MGM I wanted to get a box w/o really getting a box (well I would have gotten one if they offered them), and I was told that 100% of the the money I wanted to withdraw would have to be in the form of markers. This is regardless of my deposit method. I could have given the cage cash, a cashier's check, or done a wire, and it all would be the same.

What a place like Aria probably does for bigger players who want to send cash ahead of time is just get someone to run the paperwork for them. They hand a chip runner type person their ID / players card, run to the cage then come back with paperwork, get the paperwork signed, then go back to the cage to get the cash before they return to the poker room with it.

Domestically just bring the $ on you, put it in your carry-on bag, and be honest if asked. You'll almost never have a problem unless you already have other problems.

If you want to bring 20k with you, just carry 10k on the plane. when you get to Vegas, put it all on red. If you need 40k, put it on red twice

Yes, but there's a non-zero chance of incompetence. I wired money to the Rio last year weeks in advance and it took them several days and me several overseas phone calls to my bank to "find" it. That is after the first person I ever talked to confirmed they received the money but the "person in charge is on break, please come back in a couple of hours". Luckily I brought some cash as well or else I had to skip the first few tournaments.

I read these stories every year at WSOP time.

People wire money to Venetian or MGM or wherever, try to get it, and are told "no" and the only real option they are offered is that the casino will wire the money back to their bank. They have to run around Vegas trying to scrounge up enough cash to play while they work on a plan B. Sounds like Rio and Bellagio are exceptions. Not sure I'd trust Bellagio if I didn't have a relationship with 'em already. Rio will hopefully be more cooperative.

And almost every year I hear of Rio "losing" a wire transfer. A few years ago there was an ongoing tale that was taking months to resolve. Rio claimed "we didn't get it" and the bank claimed "we sent it" and the 2+2 guy was SOL for months. Never did read how that got resolved.

So say I'm flying from Canada to USA wit 20k and I check mark down I am carrying over 10k they aren't gonna to start actin suspicious and take it from me or am I better off not check marking it down I ave more 10k+ in my pocket

Check it, obviously.

That's likely the key. I ran into that at Wynn when trying to tap my credit line for poker (before I knew what the drill really was for markers) and the poker room manager explicitly said "since we don't know you that well, we can't." If I were playing high stakes there every day it wouldn't be a problem, those are the exceptions they'll make. Important to note that casinos base their business model on making exceptions for certain players.

Absolutely check it. If you don't and they find out they have the right to confiscate every cent you have on you. This happened to a group of 3 guys splitting 25k among themselves at this year's PCA. The limit isn't 10k per person but 10k for everyone in your traveling group combined (in case you are not flying alone).

100% check mark that you are carrying over $10k. If you are going to Vegas, bring a tournament schedule showing tourneys you are going to buy into.... And keep your bank withdrawal / US conversion sheet as backup if they ask.. If they ask, just tell them exactly what you are doing and often you go right through...

Actually, I did not answer your question completely... If flying from Canada to the US, you actually have to first vist the Canadian Border (CBSA) office first before going through security and US Customs. The CBSA fills in a form for FINTRAC purposes that you are taking $10k out of the country. At some airports, this office is not easy to find, but you must go there first.

There is either a BofA, Chase, Wells Fargo in every city in America. Why not open an account there in hometown and withdrawal in Vegas?

^This or WU the money to yourself rather than wiring to the casino. Sending that much will likely cost at least $7-800 though.

The Rio allows you to wire money for WSOP registration. Unlikely you can get any cash to speak of from the wire.