What exchange rate do casinos give?

Coming from Canada (hopefully this summer).

Right now the CDN $ is about $0.83 but the bank is charging $1.23 CDN for $1 USD, That's a $0.06 per dollar fee. Yes I know the banks make money in trading currency...but that's a little higher than usual.


So what rates can I get in Vegas?

 

I have heard Monte Carlo gives the "best" exchange rates on the strip, but not sure how close to par it is.

 

How much are you taking out? I would think taking from ATM is going to get you the best rate and least hassle.

 

Lets say about $2,000 CDN

 

Actually, your math is wrong. That is about 2.5%. If you take the US Dollar and divide it by .83, you get roughly 1.205 Canadian being the equivalent.

 

Most of the major casinos are going to have an exchange rate similar to what you would get at a bank back home.

Overall its not really worth worrying too much about the actual rate unless you are exchanging a lot of money: even if you could get a half percent better rate at a casino for $2000 thats only going to amount to $10 more... unless its your casino where you are exchanging the money you'll be walking around with your full roll just to make a couple of bucks extra and if you have to cab it there and back that'll cost more than you save.


But there is an advantage to exchanging money at the casinos: when you change your money they will give you a receipt and you will have up to 24 hours from the time on the receipt to sell back money up to the amount you originally exchanged at the same rate they originally gave you.

So if you exchanged $500 CAD and they gave you an 83% rate you'd have $415 USD... if you had a big day of mostly break even gambling and then at the end of the day you had $425 USD you could go to the casino cage with your receipt and exchange $415 of it back in to $500 CAD, where you can then exchange your Canadian again and get a fresh receipt for another 24 hours at whatever the exchange is now (if its a worse rate you'll get less than the $415, if its better you'll get more).

So it is advantageous because if you come home with money you usually have to pay a premium on it twice, once when you originally exchanged it to US funds and then again when you exchange it back to Canadian, which if they are dinging you 2.5% each time that becomes 5%


Another thing you can check is: back in Canada places like Western Union or currency exchange businesses will almost always give better rates than the banks, usually by a percent. The catches there are:
-> you are limited to what they have on hand. If they only have $300 in US and its all in $5s and $1s then thats all they can sell you
-> most of the currency exchanges will charge you a fee unless you meet a threshold for how much you are buying, IE: you have to exchange at least $250 or they charge you $20 on top of the fee. The amount you have to buy usually isn't that much ($150-500, varies depending on the business and their policy), but if you are only exchanging a few dollars the exchange fee can usually be pretty steep.

 

If you're ok with not taking it all out at once I'd think this is your best option. At least for U.S. banks and taking out any foreign currency, you get the best available rate (essentially the spot rate) + some forex fee, like 2.5% or 3%. This is almost always the best option if you're not going to a country that loves USD and 3rd party vendors will actually give you way more than the official rate for your dollars (Argentina comes to mind but I'm sure there are others)

 

I'm a little confused...what method are you suggesting?

 

Just take cash out from the ATM. Your bank will charge you a forex fee to convert from your local currency to usd but still cheaper than currency exchange places. What I always do when traveling internationally.

 

For me at least, this isn't a good option. First, I have a withdrawl limit of $1K a day Canadian which ends up being $800 or so US at the moment, and then using an US ATM results in five or six dollars in fees, so even if they give me the current bank exchange rate without any mark-up, I'm still losing the better part of a point on ATM fees.

I usually change my money at a currency exchange before coming. Here the rate seems to be around 1-1.5% better than the banks offer.

Anyways, bottom line is do what is convenient, and you are comfortable with. I don't think there is any more than 3% difference from best to worst procedure. So $60 on $2K Canadian. Does it really matter if you lose $1600 or $1660?

 

im going in june, the best exchange rate is at calforex, they offices all over canada. cheaper than going to the bank!!

 

6:5?