Question of the Day - 02 December 2005

There is indeed a Travelex currency exchange booth at McCarran Airport, Terminal 2 (the international terminal), which is not only accessible to those without tickets to travel, but is also, to the best of our knowledge, the only bureau de change in town that will accept coins as well as notes. It’s a brand new policy that’s only been in place for a few weeks and the only denominations of coins accepted are single pound or euro coins -- nothing smaller. They’ll give you the same exchange rate as they would for notes, which on the day we called was 1.57 dollars to the pound (£) and 1.05 to the euro (€). They do, however, charge an exchange fee at a flat rate of $5.50 for sums less than $500 or 1% of the transaction value thereafter. These exchange rates are substantially less than others we were quoted on the same day.

For example, the only other dedicated currency-exchange store we know of in Las Vegas is the Foreign Money Exchange, located close to the Riviera at 101 Convention Center Drive, Plaza 122 (702/791-3301). Open Monday-Friday from 8:30 am-4 pm, it’s been in business since 1979 and charges no fees. On the same day that we called Travelex, they were offering rates of $1.66 to the pound and $1.13 to the euro.

Many casino cages also exchange foreign currency (notes only), but we found that rates vary significantly from property to property, so it’s worthwhile to shop around, particularly if you're exchanging a large amount.

Some casinos, mostly those downtown and in the neighborhoods, only exchange Canadian dollars: El Cortez offered a rate of 70% (i.e., you get US$70 for $100 Canadian), while on the same day Vegas Club was offering US$79.79 and Texas Station had a rate of US$82.

Other casinos we called, mostly on or nearby the Strip, accept a range of foreign currencies, including not only pounds and euros, but Swiss francs, Australian, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore dollars, Japanese yen, Danish krone, Swedish krona, and Thai baht. (More than a few claimed that they also accept Italian lire, French and Belgian francs, Austrian schillings, Irish punts, Spanish pesetas, and Greek drachmas, even though all of these currencies ceased to be legal tender in 2002, when each of these countries switched to the euro!)

As an indication of how much they can vary, here are the dollar exchange rates we were quoted for pounds and euros at various casino cages on the day of our survey:

Some of the check-cashing joints around town also exchange foreign currency, but we wouldn’t recommend going down this route. When we called Continental Currency (at Rancho and Washington) for their rates, they couldn't quote them over the phone, but did inform us that they’d take 10% of the total money cashed as their fee.