Access to cash

Cash is the gambler's raw material. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money. Specifically, for my purposes, it takes a daily bankroll of roughly $3,000 to $5,000.

When I'm at home in the Vegas area, I usually keep this much money or a little more in the house and take it with me when I go out. Yes, I habitually walk around with thousands of dollars in my wallet. I take reasonable precautions and stay mostly on casino property when carrying cash, and in more than 10 years as a gambler I have never had a problem.

Sometimes the money I have with me is not enough, due to a large loss. If I need to replenish a large part of my daily bankroll to continue playing, the ATM is of no use. This limit on daily withdrawals at my bank is too low. Paying casino ATM fees -- or any ATM fee, except in the most dire emergency -- is out of the question. And don't even think about an exhorbitantly expensive credit card advance. (For a more detailed and highly entertaining discussion of options for obtaining access to cash in a casino, see Max Rubin's book, Comp City.)

If the bank is open, great. But if it isn't, or I'm too far away, that could be a problem.

One potential solution is casino credit. The good thing about casino credit is that it's free if you qualify. You have 30 days to pay your markers. The problem with casino credit is that it must be established in advance, separately, every place you want to use it. Plus, I just don't like the idea of borrowing money to gamble, even without interest. But if you can handle it, play at a limited number of places and qualify for an adequate line, credit can be a good solution.

Another option is depositing front money at a casino where you plan to play. This is what it sounds like, giving the casino your money in advance and drawing it down when you arrrive. Like casino credit, this requires advance planning and isn't helpful for taking advantage of spur-of-the-moment opportunities.

I recently became aware of what in many cases is a better option, though not without its limitations. A company called Global Payments offers a check cashing card that is accepted at many casinos. I recently signed up, a very simple process. You just provide a blank check and your ID at the cage of a participating casino. You also must give your Social Security number. I assume they checked my credit (good) and checking account balance (about $10,000 at the time). I was given an initial limit of $4,000 a week. This is not as much as I could conceibably need, but it's a lot better than the $300 limit set by the last casino where I tried to cash a check, years ago.

There's no charge for this service, and you don't even need to bring a check to the casino, just the card the company gives you. Of course, if your check bounces, you'll be liable for fees and possibly costs of collection. I plan to use it a few times rather than going to the bank to withdraw money and then ask for an increase in my limit. I will write about what happens, and whether there any unanticipated downsides to using this service. But for now, it looks like a valuable piece of the puzzle posed by unexpected needs for cash.