Rolls of Quarters
 

This may be a dumb question, but:

A friend has rolls and rolls of US quarters. Since he's in Canada, he cannot easily take them to a bank and get them exchanged (banks here don't want to deal with foreign coin, only notes).

If I take them with to Vegas, will the cages at the Strip hotels exchange them for bills? I know they would in the days when the slot machines actually paid out coins and they had the automatic counters at the cage, but now that everything is paid out via ticket I don't know if they still have the counting machines. Anyone know?

Thanks.

There should be no problem with several rolls, the casinos still need quarters and even pennies to pay the ez-pay slips ins cash. They used to have counting hoppers, that would count coins--I haven't seen them in a while.
Some banks will accept coins (even from non-depositors) and not charge a fee. Many supermarkets (for a small fee) have machines which will convert coins into cash.
[Recently, in an Atlantic City casino I wanted 4 quarters for a dollar, and was refused: "we don't deal in coins anymore." If I insited I probably could have gotten my 4 quarters...]

My friend wants me to take about 30 rolls (so it would be a major PITA if each cage only wants to take a couple of rolls at a time!). I'm also a bit concerned about how all of the quarters together is going to appear though the TSA scan!

Oh well, if the cage won't take them, I'll just spend a day wasting them all in a Flip-It machine! :p (Do they still have these in Vegas? Lately I've only seen them on cruise ships.)

When I was downtown LV in February the Fremont still had a coin counter machine. Some of their video poker games were still coin in.

If they want to have a look, they'll have a look. It's not illegal to carry $300 in cash in your luggage, regardless of denomination. Hell, bring 600 rolls of pennies of you want.

Can't you just take them to your bank?
 

Problem solved, hopefully.

OP's friend is in Canada where foreign coins are not accepted (not that they're accepted anywhere else - a broad exception of course being the Euro zone where EUR coins and notes are accepted as domestic EUR coins and notes).

A few casinos still use coin, those that do will be more than happy to take your sack of quarters and dump them into a counting machine. But no casino, to my knowledge, accepts dimes or pennies.

Slots-a-fun
 

Some casinos still use coins (at least as of my last trip in March). Take 'em to Slots-a-fun next to Circus-Circus.

MGM Grand has a change booth towards the Strip entrance, near the horse racing game.

As a side question, do Canadian banks near the us border, accept us coins; visa versa, do border us banks accept canadian coins?
[Before the Euro, shops in Strassbourg (France) posted prices in French Francs and German Marks (DM)--since Strassbourg is so close to Germany.]
Also the op is talking about only 30 rolls, if he had to transact three 10 roll transactions, it should not be that big an operation.

I very much doubt it either way. I think there's some issue other than handling. Some people like me who go down somewhat frequently just save them for the next trip (as such, I've lost a lot of value in the past 5-6 years) while others just slip them into change for retail. Canadian banks have long had USD accounts so USD notes and cheques can be deposited/written against/withdrawn but coins are never handled.

OP here.

Just to follow up, I was able to exchange $340 in quarters no problem at the change kiosk at the Bellagio.

I had also asked at the main cage at Flamingo, and was told that they would take them if I was a registered guest at the hotel. (It seemed odd that they would tie it to staying at the hotel, but that's what she said. I didn't press her on it, since I didn't have the quarters on me at the time, and I had earlier seen the counting machine in the Bellagio kiosk).

Not sure why I thought of this, but I'm wondering if TSA might consider the rolls to be a potential 'weapon', since 2,3,4 or so could be put into a longish sock or something like that...:eek:

Gracias amigo!! I can use that money now to buy a ticket to Vegas and exchange all the dimes and nickels!