Was the hotel very busy or was it at an off business hour (like 1am)?

I've had a few situations where I've had to limit check cashing to my guests due to so many requesting it in a small period of time.

Working overnights I only have $300 in my drawer, during the day, between the managers banks and the FD, there's about $1000. If the accounting department's not in, there's no way for the hotel to get cash from our outside bank on short notice, so we have had to limit check cashing privileges. Of course we would let the guest know we would be able to accommodate them later in the morning.

But the desk agent shouldn't have told you the limits were changed, you should have printed out your benefits page and handed it to them.