Question of the Day - 04 August 2021

Dimes aren't that difficult for coin vending machines to handle: just look at the zillions of pay phones back in the day. And of course, a TITO redemption machine is just a coin and bill vending machine.

The argument about saving space doesn't entirely hold up, as if the machines dispensed a dime instead of two nickels, they would need a lot fewer nickels--and a dime takes up a lot less space than two nickels.

I surmise a much more mundane, casino-oriented reason: back in the day when there were actual coin-in slot machines, most took nickels but only comparatively few took dimes. So if you gave the customer a dime instead of two nickels in change, there was some danger that he might actually leave the casino with that ten cents in his pocket. Unacceptable!

So, entrenched practice rather than utility or superstition. Dimes are bad.

Here in NJ, no change(coins) is given. You either have to go to the cashier, or forfeit. Borgata gives you a ticket out for the change, which you can drop into a box next to the Tito machine for donation to the food bank(or to the cashier)

Kevin's reasoning sounds like the most likely reason historically.  Tossing your change into a coin-dropper on the way out of the casino was pretty common practice.  Otherwise take the current casino reasoning/justification to an extreme and just stock the TITO machines with ones and pennies...

Back in the day casino change employees carried those belt worn mechanical change dispensers capable of dispensing pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters as well as wearing a large bag with coin rolls in it including half dollar and dollar rolls(oh my aching back).  The dime coin tube in the dispenser was always empty and the bag never carried dime rolls.

The slots I was playing took only nickles and the change I brought from home had 10 dimes so I asked the change person to give me nickles for the dimes.  She put the dimes in her coin tube and gave me 20 nickles and asked if I wanted a $2.50 roll of nickles as well.

I asked her if she had dime rolls and she said she didn't so I asked why not.
She replied, Honey, where are you going to spend them and walked away.

I remember a few casinos had dime slots back in the day (early 80s).  As the answer stated, they are prone to jamming because of their thinness and light weight.  A roll of dimes was $5, and gave more play than a roll of Quarters at $10, but the coins themselves were hard to handle.  As you fed the coins in, if you dropped them in too fast, the coin mechanism would jam.  This forced you to adopt a slower pace by dropping the coins one...at...a...time. This made playing dimes a pain.

Dime slots did exist up untill the 1950's.

At least in the mid 80s, for our two Vegas trips a year we would excitedly get rolls of quarters, dimes, nickels, and one roll of pennies to play at Little Caesars. But sure enough at some point it became that machines no longer took dimes, though still taking nickels and quarters (and dollars, of course).

Candy

I know in the mid 90s some places had them, Circus Circus did 

Have noticed that the TITO machines do not pay with $10.00 bill.  I just assume there are only 4 positions in the machine for $1, $5, $20 and $100.  Nor room or need for $10 and $50.  Pretty simple.

It was in the EM Club at the Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines. It actually paid off for me, I left with about a dollar more than I started with.

Oddly, my bank ATM started spitting out $50s at least two years ago.  Say if I want $500, I got $400 in fifties, $100 in 20s.  I thought maybe it was just a glitch of that day, bank short on C-notes, but it happens every time.  Kind of an annoyance except that some businesses, like gas/food stores have a sign "we do not accept $100 bills", and so far they seem to accept the fifties.  

So, I've used the fifies in machine in Vegas, no problem.  HOWEVER, last trip I had to exchange fifties at the cage for $100s/$20s.  Machines wouldn't take them, even new/crisp ones.  I forget which casino.

Candy

Another phenomenon in this trend of dimes disappearing is the extinction of "dime stores". I remember as a kid in the 1950s and 1960s that people used that term all the time to refer to small lower-end businesses, the classic one being Woolworth's. Going to Woolworth's was a cool experience for me as a kid, because in addition to the store there was the lunch counter where you could get a sweet treat or even a full meal for lunch to break up your shopping day. That was an experience that millennials cannot relate to and sadly will never experience for themselves. The nostalgia is immense for me.

When I was a kid ~60 years ago some kids would take a penny and file the edge down to make it the size of a dime.  They could then use it in vending machines to get sodas or whatever.  None of the other coins of the day could be exploited like that.

I asked a cashier once while I was cashing out just as a bit of chit chat. She told me that it was one less coin for the machines to deal with but she couldn't explain about the $10 bills. When I first started going to Casinos in the 1990s I distinctly remember dime machines.

Regarding shacklefords comment, they can make any payment in just pennies but I'm glad they don't.

I used to pass a Woolworths as a kid on the way to school but the only thing I could ever buy for 5 cents was a piece of bubble gum.

Pala and Pechanga casinos in So. Cal. just don't give you any change they keep it all. This is as bad as their phony tax that isn't a tax its just an added on charge. 

I'm sure the casinos have done studies that show that by not having dimes, $10 or $50 bills there will be less fills required for the kiosk.  Having extra stacks of $5's or $20's in the machine more than compensates for giving two 5's instead of a $10.

Unlike pennies, nickels, and quarters (or $1, $5, $20, and $100 bills) there is no cent or dollar amount where more than 1 dime (or $10 bill) is necessary, so there's probably no point in keeping them around when you can just use 2 5s instead.

Last week I played at the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City.  Cashed my ticket at kiosk. It gave me bills but spit out a ticket for the $.50 not paid. Tried another kiosk; same result 

Went to cashier.  Long line. Sign at the end of the line: “Cashing out a ticket?  No need to wait in the cashier line.  Use the kiosks.”  Arrow on sign pointed to kiosks near the cashier. 

Kiosk spit out ticket that said, “Take ticket to cashier.”  😠

Get to front of line. Only two cashiers. One doing a marker; other has customer digging thru his pockets for chips. 10 mins later! I finally get my friggin 50 cents. 

Talk to cashier supervisor. She says there is a coin shortage because COVID. I suggest they need more cashiers. She says personnel shortage because COVID. 😡

Got email survey from HR. Spent quite a bit of time explaining issues. Got a “we’ll contact you shortly” email. 

Two days later, got a very irritating *form* email. “Sorry you had a bad experience.”  F**k em! 🤬

This thought occurred to me then: if X number of people each day decide it’s not worth standing in a long line at the cashier to redeem a ticket for $.01-.99 and leave with their uncashed tickets, how much extra cash does that put in the pockets of the casino?  😏