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For Easter the family decided to hit the local casino buffet in leu of cooking the dinner. I was a bit early so I played a little blackjack. Ended up about 50% ahead on my investment so I decided to walk away, when I went to the cage to cash my chips in I saw they had a coin counter that fills bags. So I asked if they took large amounts of change and was informed they would. I by no means suggest gambling your returns away, but if you cashed your change in and hung around the casino for a bit I'm sure nobody would be the wiser. Or if you were to gamble it, using optimum blackjack strats the house edge is only 1% far less than the fee charged by coinstar.

Wee coin collectors are a clever bunch

Probably would have been a lot easier before all the slot machines went to tickets. You could bring in a wheelbarrow saying you hit it BIG on the penny slots!

I dumped a bunch of halfs at a casino in Indiana... then lost the $ on the tables... It was more of a coincidence than anything.

I would think they would look at you more than once bringing in a 5 gal bucket full of coin to cash in....

This was my modus operandi for about 20 years here in Vegas until coin-op machines slowly disappeared, and self-serve jet sorters along with them. A handful still exist (El Cortez for one) and you could probably get away with bringing in smaller amounts of nickels, quarters and even halves.

I've done the opposite. I've picked up half dollars at casinos and was able to do so (on a fairly limited basis) even AFTER the slot machines stopped accepting coins. Got some silver this way, but not so much to make it really exciting.

I live in Las Vegas, and I've been dumping coins (mostly pennies) at Silverton and The Orleans. I think Silverton is going to get a Coinstar machine very soon though, and I can only dump about $10-15 per transaction at The Orleans. I'd imagine that there are other non-strip casinos in Vegas that could be used.

I've also discovered that some casinos will sell me a couple of rolls of pennies at the cashier, but I prefer buying coins at the banks.

I'd like to find a bank in Las Vegas that will sort coins for free with a machine. Wells Fargo and Chase don't do it.

My grandfather told me stories about his casino visits (pre-1964) and the amount of Morgan and Peace dollars that went through his fingers while playing slot machines in Vegas. Later on he kicked himself for not keeping them, but says they were just too heavy to lug around. Those were the days!

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:My grandfather told me stories about his casino visits (pre-1964) and the amount of Morgan and Peace dollars that went through his fingers while playing slot machines in Vegas. Later on he kicked himself for not keeping them, but says they were just too heavy to lug around. Those were the days!

Ohh, aren't those stories cringeworthy?

I knew a nice gent who ran an in-hotel jewelry store for decades. He used to bring home small wins from the (silver) dollar machines and toss them in a sack in his closet. Till one day he stubbed his toe really bad on the bag, got pissed and cashed them all in. Makes me wanna cry.

I assume the silver dollars were the first coins to get removed easy to tell the difference from the Ikes. I would think that other coinage had a good mix of silver and clad for awhile coming out of the slots.

Admittedly, this is off track from the original topic of the thread, but I still remember seeing silver dollars in 2x2's that were selling between $1.15 and $1.30 or so each. If only I had the foresight to buy and hold til 1979-80.

since we have 4 casinos, i use them regularly to cash in nickels and dimes . especially on weekends when the cu's are closed

One of our local casinos has added a 9% fee to use the self-serve counters. No charge if you bring them to the cage though. Weird.

coindood wrote:One of our local casinos has added a 9% fee to use the self-serve counters. No charge if you bring them to the cage though. Weird.

That could be because the counters are owned by someone else (not necessarily Coinstar), and that other party won't give a break on the fee.

Recyclersteve wrote:

coindood wrote:One of our local casinos has added a 9% fee to use the self-serve counters. No charge if you bring them to the cage though. Weird.

That could be because the counters are owned by someone else (not necessarily Coinstar), and that other party won't give a break on the fee.

I dunno. The same counters were there and fee-free for many months. Really makes me shake my head seeing people cashing out $200 in quarters then using these for-fee sorters rather than walk to the other side of the room and getting 100% from the cashier.

PennyPincher wrote:I'd like to find a bank in Las Vegas that will sort coins for free with a machine. Wells Fargo and Chase don't do it.

Silver State Schools Credit Union, and InTouch Credit Union had free coin-counting for members as of a year ago (when I stopped sorting). Silver State had lobby machines, and InTouch took the coins to the back to count.

Doctor Steuss, that's interesting, and thanks for the information. I'll have to look into it. Silver State Schools CU looks convenient for me. It's easy for me to get penny rolls, but inconvenient to cash in the zinc pennies. Silverton casino switched to a Coinstar machine with a 5% fee.

Keep in mind that some of the Coinstar machines allow you to get gift cards to perhaps 10 or more places (Home Depot, etc.) with no fee whatsoever.

I have been burned by a casino coin counter, because it didn’t count the coins accurately. Try a small sample at first.
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Tourney64 wrote:I have been burned by a casino coin counter, because it didn’t count the coins accurately. Try a small sample at first.
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There has to be a house edge on everything!