Question of the Day - 28 December 2014

To answer this question, we first revisited the QoD from April 24, 2011, in which we listed all the casinos in Las Vegas (and Henderson) that still had coin-in slot machines at that time.

We figured that if any of those casinos still had slot machines that took actual coins, they’d certainly cash them in for bills at the cage. Also, knowing that the list was bound to need updating after nearly four years, we did so while talking to the cashiers about coins.

Here are the results of our research on the 14 casinos on the list in 2011.

• The California still has coin-in nickel and quarter slots, thus they take only nickels and quarters, no pennies or dimes.

• Casino Royale has no more coin machines and won’t exchange coins for bills.

• Circus Circus has a few machines that take dollar tokens and a couple that take quarters at Slots-A-Fun. If you’re playing the quarter machines, you can get quarters at the Circus Circus cage. To exchange them back for bills, you use the CoinStar machine, but if the Slots A Fun attendant calls over, the Circus cage will reimburse the 10% CoinStar fee.

• The D still has coin-in nickel and quarter slots (upstairs), so they take only nickels and quarters, no pennies or dimes.

• Eastside Cannery no longer has coin-in machines on the floor, but has a CoinStar machine at 9%; if you’re a member of the players club and show a monthly mailer received at your home address, they’ll waive the fee.

• El Cortez still has coin machines, but doesn’t exchange outside coins for bills. They only sell and exchange coins used to be used on their machines (at least in theory).

• Ellis Island no longer has coin-in machines on the floor, but the cage will exchange nickels, quarters, and half-dollars (no pennies or dimes) for bills.

• The Fremont still has coin-in nickel and quarter slots, so they take nickels and quarters, no pennies or dimes.

• Jerry’s Nugget still has nickel and quarter machines on the floor, so they take those denominations (no pennies, dimes, or half-dollars).

• Las Vegas Club no longer has coin-in machines and doesn’t exchange coins for bills.

• Main Street Station still has coin-in nickel and quarter slots, so they take only nickels and quarters, no pennies or dimes.

• Sam’s Town no longer has coin-in machines and doesn’t exchange coins for bills.

• Silverton no longer has coin-in machines on the floor, but they do exchange pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters (no half-dollars) for bills.

• Skyline still has coin-in slot machines on the floor, but doesn’t take outside coins.

Then we called a few casinos in the neighborhood of our office, just out of curiosity.

The Palms doesn’t take any coins; they have a CoinStar machine (9%).

The Orleans’ cage has a coin counter and will exchange coins for bills, but only from hotel guests.

The Gold Coast cashes in coins for bills, no questions asked. Being close to where we live, we tried it. No problem at all; the cashier dumped the whole bucket into the hopper of her coin-counting machine at the corner of the cage, showed us the total, and handed us the cash.

So to answer your question, we can say that yes, it’d be worth lugging your coins to Vegas (as long as they don't cost you more than their money's worth in baggage fees). Just check with the cage where you’re staying to see if they’ll exchange them for folding money. If not, there’s always Gold Coast and Silverton.