What happens to the coins that visitors throw into the fountains and reflecting pools at Las Vegas casinos?
We got to wondering that ourselves when we were visiting Mandalay Bay last Sunday and noticed the king’s ransom in one of the water features. With all the slot machines to play and all the other ways to spend money in Vegas, why people would just throw money into the nearest fountain is one of the enduring mysteries of Sin City. There seems to be something about the sound of running water that ignites a Pavlovian compulsion to fling coins at it. "Some of those places make bank when you clean out the fountains," observed one casino exec.
As you might imagine, what’s done with all this lucre, after it’s scooped out of the water, varies from company to company –- and sometimes from casino to casino. MGM Mirage provided us with a particularly comprehensive breakdown:
"The Mirage has in the past given the coins from the water feature near the people mover along the Strip to [the] Shriners and Red Cross.
"Bellagio gives coins from their front feature to Habitat for Humanity.
"In 2007, New York-New York donated proceeds from its water features to Make-a-Wish of Southern Nevada.
"Mandalay Bay and Luxor give theirs back to Voice, our company’s foundation, where the money is disbursed to charities throughout southern Nevada under the direction of a board made up entirely of employees.
"TI discards everything they clean out of the Sirens Cove, as does Circus Circus Adventuredome from the water rides they have."
You read that right. Yes, we’ve found a casino (two, actually) that throws money away—on account of calcification and dirt.
Much the same holds true at Wynn Las Vegas. Vice President of PR & Advertising Jennifer Dunne writes, "Our engineering department has informed me that the coins removed from the water features are cleaned and given to charity. Some coins are damaged significantly due to hard-water deposits and/or erosion from chemicals in the water. These coins are not accepted by banks and therefore of no use in their current state to charity.
"While we have made many attempts to clean them, we have not found a perfect solution! We are holding them here in the hopes of figuring this out eventually … So please keep us posted if you uncover a way to resolve this!"
Aspiring inventors, take note!
Wynn Las Vegas’s disbursement of the recovered money given to charity is overseen by Elaine Wynn. "We have given coins to After-School All-Stars and, some time ago, Opportunity Village," Dunne says.
The fountains at Forum Shops are the purview of Simon Property Group and the coins collected therefrom go to support the Simon Youth Foundation. The latter "helps at-risk kids … earn high school diplomas and scholarships," according to its Web site.
"We donate to a variety of charities around the Las Vegas area," said Tropicana spokesman Hud Englehardt.
When Harrah’s Entertainment’s staff cleans out the ponds behind the Flamingo, where tropical birds and fish roam, "They collect five or six buckets [of coins] at a time and donate to various nonprofits," reports Harrah’s spokeswoman Jacqueline Peterson, adding that the most recent beneficiary was the Salvation Army. (No word on what Harrah’s does with the coinage it collects at Caesars Palace or any of its other Las Vegas casino-hotels.)
At least until the opening of Echelon, Boyd Gaming has only the Mystic Falls simulated wilderness that’s the centerpiece of Sam’s Town. The money flung into those waters are donated on an annual basis to the Henderson Boys & Girls Clubs.
According to Station Casinos, both Texas Station and Red Rock Resort "clean out the fountains regularly and donate their change to their 'Smart Start' partner school." That program pairs a Station casino with a high-need elementary school, with Station providing both a $10,000 annual donation and volunteer time. Red Rock's Smart Start partner is Diskin Elementary.
Several casinos have no water features whatsoever … perhaps a sound public-relations move when Nevadans are being told to take out their lawns and install Astroturf. The Palms has small ones in some of its suites – so small, Palms spokesman Larry Fink notes with a laugh, that you couldn’t throw money into them.
