Question of the Day - 07 December 2023

We get this question fairly frequently; we last answered it a couple of years ago, so it's time to do so again.

If you’re on a domestic flight within the U.S., there's no limit to the amount of cash (or monetary instruments) you can carry. Unlike flying internationally when you must declare $10,000 or more, you don't have to declare any cash you're carrying, no matter how much, on domestic flights. You don't go through Customs, so there's no one to declare it to anyway.

You do, however, have to go through a Transportation Services Administration security screening and that's where you can run into serious problems when carrying a lot of cash. And $100,000 -- 1,000 hundred-dollar bills -- is a lot of cash.

First, to safeguard your cash from theft, TSA "recommends" that you ask to be screened in private, which will prevent drawing attention to anything that can be stolen.

That, however, is an admission that you're carrying a lot of cash, which can and usually does attract its own kind of official attention. Though the TSA has no law-enforcement powers, if screening agents "suspect" that the money is related to some kind of criminal activity, they can and do turn you over to a law-enforcement agency, most often the DEA, since wads of cash set off all kinds of alarms about drug trafficking and/or money laundering.

The following quote is taken from the TSA website: "When presented with a passenger carrying a large sum of money through the screening checkpoint, the TSA officer will frequently engage in dialogue with the passenger to determine whether a referral to law-enforcement authorities is warranted."

Meanwhile, law enforcement has a strong motivation for invoking civil-asset forfeiture (in other words, seizing the cash): They get to keep part or all of the money. You don't need to be even charged with, much less convicted of, any crime. Essentially, you're guilty until you prove yourself innocent.

In fact, you have to go through all sorts of contortions to prove that the money is yours. There are many many stories of gamblers having large sums of cash confiscated by law enforcement at airports. To read a detailed description of one such incident, pick up a copy of our book The Law for Gamblers.

Most travel experts suggest that if you need or want to carry a large amount of currency through an airport, make sure you have a good (legitimate) reason with strong documentation for where it came from, such as casino paperwork, then leave yourself some extra time at the airport in case you're compelled to explain why you're carrying it to the TSA and/or law enforcement.

All that said, TSA at Reid International sees a lot of cash passing through its checkpoints. The vast number of people carrying it experience no problems. But $100K, especially if discovered hidden on your person, is more than just a lot. 

Which leads us to a couple of rules of thumb.

First, never put your cash in checked luggage. Obviously, you want it within your possession at all times.

Second, don't try to carry the cash on your person when you go through a body scanner; you'll have to take it out of your pockets, money belt, or hiding place, at which point it will be in plain sight. (If you have to do that, ask to be screened privately.)

Third, when the cash is in a carry-on, track that piece of luggage from start to finish. 

Alternatively, if you bank with a national brand that has branches in Las Vegas, you can also deposit the cash in your account. Again, if it's more than $10,000, the bank will have to file a form that goes to the IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). But that's a different issue.

Finally, if you want to avoid the entire ordeal, the casino will be happy to keep the cash and issue you a cashier's check or wire transfer the money into a bank account.