This is probably a very stupid question but I haven't been to Vegas before.

Where do poker players keep their money? is it safe to leave significant amounts in the hotel room safe?

Can I leave money / chips on deposit at casinos easily as a non resident?

I don't want to have to carry $10K or more on my person but I am not 100% sure where I can safely leave it.

Thanks

$10k is walking around money in Vegas

The room safe or a player box at any one of the casinos if you're paranoid.

you can ask for a safe deposit box at the cashier cage but I'm not sure what the minimum is, they may not do it for only $10k

10k in cash is fine. Anything between 10k and 100k get high denom chips. Over 100K get a box

If you are staying on the Strip, a decent hotel should have a safe deposit box available for guests. These would be either in your room or at the front desk or both. Ask the hotel where you plan to stay, call their front desk now, not when you get to town.

If it is a room safe, please pick a decent code... not 1234.

If you are speaking about seriously more than $10K, ask your host casino if you can wire it to them and use their cage to hold your funds.

When you wire money ahead of time they only let you pull it out to play table games. I’ve done this previously at aria and I couldn’t pull it out to bet sports or play poner.

It's your money. It's not a marker.

Are you saying that Aria actually refused to let you take out your money from their cage, even to gamble in their sportsbook or poker room ? Perhaps you were working with a table games host who was a bit overzealous in guarding "his" turf ?

I am genuinely curious. Anyone have a copy of the Aria "wire agreement" terms ? (I live in Las Vegas and have never wired money to a casino and have never brought >$10K into a casino to gamble......

(However, I do know about policies from the past for wiring funds to the Rio which were used for both the WSOP and other activities. I understand that the registration process is designed now for online registration and payment. https://www.bravopokerlive.com/media...orial-2018.pdf, including handling refunds ..... likely only back to the payment source, not to you in cash onsite.)

(If that refusal you described ever happens (again) at the Aria, why not take it all out of the cage and over to a table game, buy in for the whole roll, place one bet then go cash out your chips .... let us know what happens ?)

This doesn't seem right. I've wired to Bellagio many times and withdrew it all upon arrival. Never wired to Aria though.

I wired to Aria cage and the ONLY away aria would let me access the money was at the blackjack or craps table. Even though I wasn’t borrowing money from them they still made me sign a marker type thing anytime I wanted to access any of the money I had wired in. Once you get the money and play if the pit boss isn’t paying attention you can just pocket some chips. But the pit usually makes you repay the amount you took out and then you leave with the profit.

It always seemed weird to me too, but Hard Rick made me do literally the same thing as well. Those are the only two places I’ve ever wired money into. Even at the end of my trip they wouldn’t give me cash, they just wired it back to the bank account I sent it from

I've also handled marker cases but never heard of one being required with money already on deposit. Times do change however and what you describe may be a policy change.

I'd change casinos if I were you and tell them why ..... you want to avail yourself of all the wonderful gambling activities they offer under their gaming portfolio, but this restriction is nonsense in your view.

How much money are e talking about here ? That bolded tidbit may provide a clue; they are scared of FinCEN and think this policy avoids doing KYC, perhaps ? More likely, they also did not want you walking over to the Cosmo or Caesars to play.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of $10000 was the amount I would usually wire in.

Thanks for the help guys.

I suggest a safe deposit box in the Casino's cage. Postings on 2+2 have indicated that room safes have been broken into several times.

Depending on where he’s staying it’s 50/50 to relatively unlikely that they’ll give him a box if he only wants to store 10k.

With 10k there is no reason to not just carry cash or carry a mix of chips and cash. I’ve carried 10k+ on occasions and it’s not as scary as you think. I also just leave money/chips in my suitcase and assume no ones going to break into my room. I guess I’ve always figured if the thief found my room out of all the rooms at the hotel he sorta deserves my money

i think the chances of having a problem with a room safe are extremely low. sure, you hear the odd story, but thousands of people use them day in and day out without any issue.

keep a couple of thousand on you and the rest in the safe.

What casinos on the strip have safe deposit boxes in the Casino's cage?
Any requirements, free for guests?

I googled but could not find any recent info

once you have the money the pit can't make you pay back anything

Correct. They can’t force you to. But they strongly suggest it and make you feel as if you’re breaking a rule if you don’t. I oftentimes sneak some into my pocket to take to the poker room or the sports book.

As far as I can recall, the majority of the stories about people having money stolen out of their room safes involved idiot behavior on the part of the person who lost the money - either trusting people they shouldn't or leaving the safe open. It's possible, sure. It's also possible that you're going to die in a car crash on your way from the airport.

I've never had anything go missing from a room safe in well over 100 visits to LV. And 10K in hundreds is easy to carry around - as long as you don't make it obvious that you're carrying a lot of cash, you're not going to have any problems. I routinely have more in my pockets during football season, and don't think anything of it.

MM MD

If you don't invite the hooker up to your room, s/he won't steal your bankroll.

Yes, it is common for casino cages to only allow you to withdraw wired funds in the form of a marker at table/slots, and then to only wire the remaining funds back. I’ve experienced that as long as a decade ago. As anything else, there will be exceptions, generally for better-known gamblers.

If you take a marker at a table it is correct that they can’t make you pay it back before you leave the table, but they can refuse to cash the chips at the cage (which is pretty much a guarantee if you’re trying to cash large denoms).

Bottom line is if you’re wiring money, make sure you know the rules of that casino beforehand.

I'm having trouble understanding why they want to control YOUR money? Is it to prevent money laundering or something? If they told me I couldn't have my own money out of the cage I would pop a gasket, none of their business what I'm going to do with it.

Maybe a suit from one of the properties can chime in and explain the reasoning, or pose the question to the gaming authorities.

FWIW I've ridden a motorcycle back and forth to Vegas, California, Arizona, Utah and other western states with $10k in cash in my jacket and never had a problem. Getting ready to do it again this June.

My buddy did lose an envelope with $1500 in it on one of our trips, I tried to make him feel better by telling him the person that found it probably used it to pay for their baby's medicine, then I laughed at him.

Because they aren't a bank. They accept wires to enable you to gamble on slots or table games (where they make lots of money), not for you to easily get a bunch of cash in Vegas.

ok, easy enough to work around I'm sure, lots of people smarter than us have done it and probably have better ideas.

How about mail a cashiers check to yourself at the casino you are staying, pick it up when you get there and cash it? Mail a check back home for the balance or any winnings.

I keep accounts at Wells Fargo, Chase and City Bank, easy enough to extract funds from there.

Keep $10k on me and the rest in room safe. easy game.

Not sure if this has been mentioned or not...

When carrying more cash than you’re comfortable carrying: multiple wallets.

-1 or 2 to hand over (low denomination bills)
-1 for use (few buyins)
-1 concealed...like a travel wallet with the strap underneath your left arm, over your head and under your shirt (the majority of your cash)