Question of the Day - 15 March 2015

We've surveyed this in the past a few times, so it was interesting to check back and compare rates, which aren't that great right now if you're carrying Canadian dollars -- or pretty much any other foreign currency, for that matter -- on account of the renewed strength of the U.S. dollar.

When it comes to casino cages, they only accept major foreign currencies if you're buying in, they don't act as full-on money exchanges. In other words, you can't present a casino cage with U.S. dollars and expect to get Euros back, should you be planning a trip to Paris; for that, you'll need to make use of one the actual currency exchanges in town, which we also checked out for this answer, in addition to a range of different casino cages of various shapes and sizes. Here's the lowdown:

• Foreign Money Exchange: This business has been operating on Convention Center Drive for well over three decades and, like casino cages, it charges no fees or commissions, which is a big plus. We called on March 13 and they were currently buying Canadian dollars for 80 cents and selling at a rate of 0.762 to the U.S. dollar.
• Travelex: There are two locations in Las Vegas, one at the airport (Terminal 3) and one in the Fashion Show Mall. Unless we were given bad information by the latter, then definitely use the airport location if you're going this route, since we were quoted wildly differing rates by each. At McCarran, they were buying for 74 cents and selling for 70, but for transactions under $500, there's also a hefty fee of $9.95 or $7.95, respectively. Fashion Show quoted the same fees, but they are buying Canadian for 90.24 to the U.S. dollar and selling for 69.60.
• Bally's 0.76
• Bellagio: 0.7547 (decimal precision duly noted!)
• El Cortez: 0.70
• Orleans: 0.75
• Palms: 0.72

Hope this helps!