Can You Provide a List of All the Major Casinos' “Days”?

Can you provide a list of all the major casinos' “day”? Boyd, Caesars, etc. If this has been done somewhere, I’m having trouble finding it.

A casino's "gaming day," according to FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is defined as "the normal business day of a casino or card club," in other words, the 24-hour period by which a casino keeps its records for business, accounting, and tax purposes. A single gaming day, whether it runs from 12:01 a.m. to midnight, 6:01 a.m. to 6 a.m., or 10:01 p.m. to 10 p.m., "facilitates the aggregation of transactions for purposes of currency-transaction reporting."

Now, why would a player want to know this information?

Federal law requires financial institutions, including casinos, to report currency (cash and/or coin) transactions of more than $10,000 in a single 24-hour period -- i.e., the gaming "day." This includes multiple currency transactions that, in the aggregate, add up to $10,001 or more in a single day.

Ergo, anyone who wants to know what a casino's gaming day is could be contemplating a financial crime known as "structuring," or "smurfing," which means divvying up what would otherwise be a financial transaction, usually more than $10,000 in a 24-hour period, that would require a CTR in order to avoid scrutiny by regulators and/or law enforcement.

Example: At 7 p.m., a slot player cashes $6,000 worth of TITO vouchers at the cage. Then at 1 a.m., she cashes another $2,500. Finally, at 5 p.m. the next evening, she cashes $4,000. In the aggregate, she enacts cash transactions worth $12,500 within a 24-hour period, so the casino, keeping track of the cash, is required to fill out and submit a CTR to FinCEN.

Now, say the casino day is 7:01 p.m. to 7 p.m. and say the slot player cashed the final $4,000 at 7:30 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. Was she structuring? Maybe yes, maybe no. But if the casino suspects that she was, it now files an SAR or Suspicious Activity Report; if FinCEN determines that something fishy was going on, investigators might look more deeply into the financial transactions of the slot player.

Which is why the whole subject of the casino gaming day is shrouded in mystery and intrigue.

In fact, read the following.

"Dear Valued Guest,

"We would like to take this opportunity to inform you of Title 31 of the Federal Bank Secrecy Act administered by the United States Department of Treasury. Under this Act, all casinos are required to report certain cash transactions on a Currency Transaction Report. In order to fully complete this report, our casino is required to obtain the following: government issued photo identification, your legal name, permanent address, date of birth and your social security number. Please note that our casino employees are strictly prohibited from discussing information regarding Title 31. Your cooperation with our casino in meeting these federal requirements is greatly appreciated."

That's the text from the standard card that casino employees are instructed to give to guests who inquire about the gaming day or the information required from patrons for the Currency Transaction Report.

The gaming day is probably the most closely guarded secret in the casino industry. Many of the employees aren't even sure about the times. Employees who do know the gaming-day cycle can be fired on the spot if they disclose it to anyone from the public. Casino employees are even trained never to reveal the $10,000 trigger when gathering info. If someone asks about it, that also leads to handing the guest the explanatory card or answering with similar verbiage. Of course, it's a pretty well-known amount, but transactions that go over it in a day are reported on the CTRs.

All in all, compiling a list of gaming days for any casino, let alone all the major casinos, is a tall task indeed. We're sure some savvy players out there possess this information and are, in various ways, able to circumvent CTRs and SARs, but it's certainly not anything we can tackle in a capacity other than explaining, as we have, the underlying rules and regulations.

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Comments

Scott States Aug-23-2021

Really?

Rather than plotting financial crimes, perhaps the person posing the question simply wanted to get an understanding of when the players club points earning resets for the day.

Donzack Aug-23-2021

Agree with Scott states

But the qod reply opened my eyes to another interpretation that I didn’t realize. The handful of casinos I deal with all start at 0700 for accumulating points, promotions etc.

jay Aug-23-2021

that begs...

So if I was to get 100k in some kind of progressive payout and the Casino gives me one of those giant cheques does this qualify as a suspicious transaction ?

That Don Guy Aug-23-2021

re: that begs...

No, they don't; slot machine/VP jackpots are specifically exempt, although if the first payment is $1200 or more, it is subject to IRS reporting.

Walter Suttle Aug-23-2021

Casino Day

Scott States, that was exactly the reason I was interested.  So we can’t get the answer from the Casinos, sounds like we need to mobilize the LVA readers to monitor the Casinos in an organized method. When you are at the machine around 7:00 am, 2:00 am or midnight, pull your card in and out until you see a change. Then we will compile our own list.

Bob Dancer Aug-23-2021

South Point definition of "day"

The South Point's casino day is 3:00 a.m. - 2:59 a.m. the following day. Some of their promotions, however, start at midnight, and some start at 3 a.m. You have to read the rules to find out. Many promotions have that information on big signs --- which are sort of like an abbreviation of the rules.

PackerBackerAZ Aug-23-2021

slot club day

I have always been given the time that a slot club day starts and ends. I just ask at the desk or my host. This answer has nothing at all to do with a slot club day.

Dave_Miller_DJTB Aug-23-2021

Wow.

A very detailed answer that doesn’t address the question and creates MORE confusion. 

Yes, the CTR / structuring thing is a concern to some people, but not most of your readers. As mentioned, we’re all about comps / points and redemption periods. 

But regarding the response about slot jackpots, etc. The ‘C’ in CTR stands for cash. If you get most of your payout in a check (a real check, not the jumbo photo check), then the C in CTR doesn’t apply.

Randall Kuper Aug-23-2021

ADT

I want to know this information for calculating the Average Daily Theoretical. I would hate to add an extra day of gambling because I start an hour before their day starts or gamble an hour later which adds another day. Then my ADT is lower based on number of days gambled; hence I get lower comp offers.

Roy Furukawa Aug-23-2021

Prevention

It's simply to prevent money laundering. I worked for a bank and it's been the same for decades. And yes, I've seen people try to get around it by depositing $9900, so now they say any suspicious activity needs to be reported. I wonder if player club points necessarily have to run on the same clock as FinCEN reporting.

jpfromla Aug-23-2021

CET

CET starts at 6am and ends 5:59am.

Next....

Deke Castleman Aug-23-2021

Just for the record ...

According to our sources in the casinos, the casino's "day" has nothing to do with the reward-credits cycle. A lot of times different promotions have different daily cycles even in the same casino. We answered the question that was asked. The rewards-credit cycle is a different question.

AL Aug-23-2021

Slot points "day"

I'm only concerned about at what specific time "today" ends and "tomorrow" begins with respect to racking up slot club points (which also implies the amount of coin-in).  Like one other poster, I don't ever want to play only a tiny bit on one "day" because I played after midnight, to a time that is after the new day begins, because if the casino uses daily average coin-in, your unintended "final day" will be tiny, and your daily average will get hurt.  I now patronize only 2 casinos, including the 4 Queens.  I asked a guy at the 4 Queens point-blank what hour was the kickover time; he said he was not at liberty to tell me, but could only say that it was somewhere between 12 midnight and 4am.  So I never play before 4am on my arrival night, or after midnight on my final night.

Gary Reininger Aug-24-2021

Fee

I just shake my head at the fact that a publicly funded stadium charges the public a fee for a tour.

Gary Reininger Aug-24-2021

Oops

Wrong QOD

Walter Suttle Aug-24-2021

Points/comps

So, Deke, if we rephrase the question to being a Casino Day but only in regard to calculating points for Comp or theoretical purpose, will LVA compile a list?

karren Aug-25-2021

CARD COUNTERS?

just wondering how blackjack card counters/ card counting teams get around showing ID when they have large pay outs? Some information I have read, says to think before playing rated/ with a club card, but if you are required to give ID to cash out, the casino will know your name and ID info anyway.

Question of the Day - 23 August 2021

Comments