How Much Cash Can You Fly with in the U.S.?

If you fly into Las Vegas from another state in the U.S., what is the max cash you can fly with?

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, go through a Transportation Services Administration security screening and that's where travelers can run into serious problems when carrying a lot of cash.

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

That, however, is an admission that you're carrying a lot of cash, which can 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 cash triggers 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 dialog 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.

In fact, you have to go through all sorts of contortions to prove that the money is yours. There are 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, then leave yourself some extra time at the airport in case you're compelled to explain why you're carrying it.

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Comments

Pat Higgins Jan-11-2019

Pat H

Great and timely QOD for the start of the New Year.  

Several years ago the wife and I won some money and had about $3k.  I purchased a money belt that I was wearing.  Thought I was good since it was cash and the metal detector would not "ding" as I went through the detector.  BUT--I had some metal paper clips on the cash. Dummy! They asked what I had on my body.  I told them.  They patted me down and asked what I had under my pants.  I told they we got lucky and I purchased a money belt.  I responded that we had won a little money.  They said they had to see it and examine the money belt.  

I responded that it wanted to do so in private. Went to a little room with 4 TSA agents.  They looked at it and their only response was and I quote "don't you know you aren't suppose to win in Vegas."  :)  That was it.  Guess it could have been drugs.  Now I use plastic paper clips and put it in the wife's purse while we go through security.  Smart things I learned doing stupid stuff.

Jerry Patey Jan-11-2019

Cash

I routinely carry 10k in money belt. In 20 years I have not been ? With scanner I would take off and stuff in suitcase in view of agents. Never a ? You are not going to Vegas to buy drugs

Dave in Seattle. Jan-11-2019

Cash TO 'Vegas?

You won't need to carry a lot of cash when you go to Las Vegas.
Just set up a casino credit account with your casino of choice.
 Just ask for a $1,000 "marker" at the tables or at the casino cage.It's the same as writing a check.

  If you won money,the casino can write you a cashiers check for that amount so you won't have to carry that cash.

Roy Furukawa Jan-11-2019

No need

If you want to use large amounts of cash in Las Vegas,  arrange for your bank to wire it to the casino and you can draw from that as it is safe in the cage. If you win a lot of cash in Las Vegas you can always get a check or wire it back to your bank for a bulk of it and not carry so much cash either. There are few reasons to risk carrying large sums of cash to or from a casino. Call the casino and ask for the cashier to find out your options.

[email protected] Jan-11-2019

Cash

I usually carry a few thousand dollars to LAS, even though I have a credit line, since I use the credit line mostly for video poker and the cash for horse racing.  Once after a nice win I had about $8K.  I asked the cashier if they could convert it to a cashier's check and was told "no".  I'd often read that you could as one of the other commentators said, but such was not the case.

I always keep my cash in my carry-on and have never had any trouble when the scan it in security.  It just has never come up.

Question of the Day - 11 January 2019

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