What dollar coin do casinos use?

PhillyJoe

Haven't been to one in awhile. Ikes? Out of "circulation" for twenty years. SBAs? Never in circulation. Oh, no, not the Sacs. Any gamblers out there?

BRdude

Morning Joe,
Most casinos I've been to have their own design on a Ike sized token type coin. They do use halves and quarters, but for dollars they use their own tokens

itsnotjustme

BRDude is right. The biggest reason is cost savings. If a large casino has 300 $ machines, and each needs to hold 1,000 coins, that would require $300,000 in coin. Producing their tokens may cost $.20 each, or $60,000 total. The $240,000 not tied up in Ike dollars can be used elsewhere.

The savings become smaller with lower denomination coins.

Coulport

For the biggest part, the Ikes were made for the casinos because the silver dollars were pulled because they were worth more than a dollar.
It didn't take them long to figure out that it was cheaper to have dollar size tokens made costing about 15¢ than tying up a million dollars in legal tender Ikes. Then they don't mind when tourists take the tokens home for souvenirs. They probably get to write them off as a business expense too.
I think you will find dollar size tokens the industry standard although most machines take paper money now.

PhillyJoe

As a side note, I'm guessing that even these $ tokens are collected by people. My boss collects casino chips, but I assume these are different.

IrishMike

I have yet to find a mint state slot machine dollar Those things are destined for body bags. On a funny side note, my wife and I go to Vegas a couple of times a year and since she is from New Jersey, about 45 minutes due west of Atlantic City she plays a lot of slot machines. When we first started going to Vegas 15 years ago she used to play the quarter machines and I would stop by and steal her silver quarters. Used to irritate her to no end. She has sense moved on to the dollar slots, as she usually hits a jackpot and then spends the rest of her time shopping. This past year we were coming back to Balley's through the Paris and I said to her let's put this $20 bill in this slot machine. She pulled the arm and hit a jackpot. She yelled at me, we just won $500. I look at her and said no we didn't this is a $5 dollar machine, we won $2500. She looked at me angrily and said, "why would any fool play one pull for five bucks, that takes all the fun out of sitting here and playing."

By the way I got my $20 back and she bought a new wardrobe. It cost me bucoo bucks to ship the items back to Indiana. The moral is, never teach your wife more than she needs to know.

walkerman

My first trip to vegas was in 1961.Imagine! they used morgan and peace dollars in the machines and at the table games.Got lucky the first night and had stacks of cartwheels on my night stand .Next day lost them all back along with the rest of my bankroll.No doubt in my mind at all that there were at least a couple of 93s and 89cc in that stack.Oh well! now they use dollar size tokens with the name of the casino imprinted.

HuliganRS

IrishMike: ROFLMAO



Rusty.

BlueCole

I've gpt several 1,5, & 10 dolaar tokens from Casions in biloxi, MS. Coming from the world of coins, , i was shocked at how beat up they were.

B.

MrLee

BTW. Ike's will not not work in the slot machines. I've tried.

STOCKFORD

they do not use any dollar coins at all
Instead they use tokens the same size as the ike silver dollar
these tokens are interchangeable between slot machines in different casinos but not at treasure island
they use a gold color token that weighs different from the rest
[quite nice with the skull and cross bones on it]

MrLee

<< <i>these tokens are interchangeable between slot machines in different casinos but not at treasure island >>


It's like that at the Luxor. Circus Circus owns the Excaliber and the Luxor (among others) but the dollar tokens are not interchangable between the two. Weird

tjennings

You can get morgans and peace dollars at a couple slot machines in Reno at the Cal-Neva Casino.

coynclecter

Years ago you could use chips from a casino at other casinos. You could also use them to purchase items such as food gifts, even pay your hotel bill. The Fed decided that Las Vegas was making its own money which was the sole domain of the Fed and they stopped it. The tokens and chips are not supposed to be taken from one casino to the next. I guess the gov't didn't want anyone else creating phoney unbacked money.
Another benefit to the cainos is the profit they make when the tourists take home the tokens, at a buck each. They push hard the commem chips, which are all $5.

BTW
I collect chips , I even have old ones from Havana and Monte Carlo. They don't have the beauty of coins but I can feel the history.

Coyn