Opinions on wiring money to casino cage?

Hello,
I was just wondering what people thought about the positives/negatives to wiring cash to a casino. I know per MGM's instructions that;

-You will not receive cash from your wire, wire transfers may be used for gaming activity only.
- You will be issued either chips for table games/poker play or purchase tickets for slot play
- You will not be able to cash out chips/TITO tickets unless you have your initial wire amount on deposit. At the end of your trip any funds left on your account will need to be returned to the original account

Has anyone done this and felt their play was confined somehow? Were there benefits/comps from hosts?
Thanks,
P

I'm reading a thread from another forum from a decade ago and here's one reply that caught my eye.

"Having done both and dealt with this very issue, I can tell you that you are far better off buying a cashier's check made out to yourself and faxing it to the cage for verification prior to your trip than wiring in money. Most casinos are leery of giving you cash off of a wire - it has to do with money laundering regulations. They don't want to act like a bank. Any amount you don't use specifically for gaming they generally want to wire back to your account (there is some leeway for a few thousand dollars here and there, but not alot).

However, once you have taken $1 off of a cashier's check front money deposit, even if it was for $1 million, they will break the cashier's check and will generally give you the remainder in any form you want. This will also give you flexibility if you want to change hotels. If you decide mid-trip that the tables suck where you're staying, you can simply withdraw your remaining balance and go. If you wired money in though, they will wire it back to your account, then you would have to wire to the new hotel, which can't occur on weekends and even during the week will cost you at least a day."

I've never used a FAX machine so I don't don't know how that would work. Is it possible to pay for a cashiers check with just cash at some random bank? I don't know. Is there a phone app to transmit a photo of the cashiers check to the cage nowadays? What ID & online paperwork is necessary to open a front money account? Does the IRS care if you open a front money account? Do front money accounts even pay interest? I may just use a cashiers check issued to me from another casino.

You should read this thread to understand casino anti money laundering policies.
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/off-topic/36179-casino-anti-money-laundering-and-compliance/

I don't play with what is called "front money" I play with casino credit lines
https://wizardofvegas.com/member/mdawg/blog/#post1785

so if I wire money to the casino it is to pay off a marker, which sometimes I have a loss at a certain casino from a session and I need to pay it. I have paid off markers with bank wires, cashier's checks, personal checks, chips (including "foreign" (that's the term used) chips from another casino) and cash.

For any sort of check or wire, the casino has to verify that it came from you (an individual) unless their casino compliance has verified some business as being 100% owned by you, and then after such verifications some (not all) of the Vegas casinos will allow a bank wire or check from your business.

If you are using a cashier's check to pay off a marker, no verification is done, it posts instantly. If using cashier's check to provide front money, it must be verified. If using a bank wire to provide front money, it is cleared instantly as long as compliance verifies that you or a wholly owned business is the payor.

As far as this "At the end of your trip any funds left on your account will need to be returned to the original account" that is not necessarily true. Now, why would anyone want to present check, cashier's check or bank wire and then get cash? That's not money laundering that's the reverse of money laundering. But if you wanted cash I doubt the casino would object, although most anyone who presents check or bank wire would just want any remaining funds returned in the same form presented.

As far as this "any remaining funds" concept that presupposes a loss? If you have won, which I generally do, you then have the choice of getting the winning chips converted to either cash (always available), or to a casino check or bank wire to your account, so long as the pit has verified the win, and then, the check or bank wire for a win may be up to the amount of the verified win.

In short, there is no difference in how the casino will treat a front money check, cashier's check or bank wire other than how long it takes to clear. Bank wire, instantly, cashier's check within hours, personal check may take days.

Gosh, what about this FedNow that was supposed to make check clearing happen in a minute? I guess banks have to sign up for that and somehow you have to find out if the casino bank and your bank are both signed up so the transaction can go through quickly. But personal checks taking days is what FedNow is supposed to alleviate as of last summer and it's a slow rollout.

From MDawg's link:
A check issued by the casino may be for only two things: (1) a return of a front money deposit made by cashier's check or bank wire, or (2) a verified win. END OF STORY. If the check is marked "Verified Win" or “Pit Winnings” it means verified win – such a notation is not placed on the check lightly, and is pursuant to the Casino’s Compliance Division. Some casinos do not bother to mark their check memos with anything at all, however, ANY check issued by a casino would be ONLY for (1) or (2) as described above.

So these casino cashiers checks become some kind of defacto TITO when carrying large amounts of cash isn't a thing. Just have to deposit them into a front money account when you walk into the casino so you can get a check back when you walk out. Might keep a $10 minimum balance there to keep the account open.

If you're using a personal check to pay off a marker, one way to have it clear faster is to email the cage proof that it cleared - screen shots from your online bank account. Otherwise, the wait is about a week.

I don't know about cashing a personal check at the cage to get chips or cash, I have never done that. I assume they have a way to verify funds or allow that sort of small time check cashing instantly, but we're talking about maybe $1000. or so?

Just spoke to the Aria cage. They say cashier's check is no different to cash being wired. You must play to gain access to the cash. the interesting thing is you can take your winnings with you as long as you transfer back the amount taken out at the table from marker. so if you take out 5K and stop playing with 7K, you can take 2K with you and return the 5K taken out. You can use that 2K however you want or even give it back to the house to transfer back to the account you wired in from.

I had not heard about drawing casino credit. I should find out who my host is to consult, thanks.