Front Money

For my upcoming trip I was planning on putting front money in the cage and drawing markers off of it. I spoke to the cage and they said if it is cash just stop by the cage with an id and they will set it up. Is there anything else I should know about? If I am winning can I overpay back and add the winnings to my front money at the table or would i need to go to the cage to do so. Also if I want to take come cash with me can I just walk away from the table with chips?

It depends on the casino as to how the front money works.

When you go to the cage, make sure they understand you are putting up front money that you intend to draw against at the tables. Once I had the cashier put the money in as a secure deposit, and the only way I could get the money was to go to the cage and ask for it, like it was a bank.
At the table, you ask "for a marker against your front money". This will let the pit know you have money on deposit, and you will get your chips a bit faster.
What happens next also depends on the casino. If you only play for a short time, and you are up, you can ask to buy back your marker. Let's say you took a marker for $1000, played for 1/2 hour, and you have $1200 in chips. Sometimes the marker is still at the table, and you can ask to pay it off. You give them 1000 in chips and they give you the marker back. I have been able to do this about 25% of the time I have taken markers. Other times, they tell me the marker has already gone to the cage. In those cases, you just take all your chips with you and head back to the cage.

You cannot over pay back at the table, to add to the front money at the table. You would have to do the add at the cage.

There is one other consideration on front money. I put up 3000 in front money on one trip. I took a 1000 marker at the table, had a great session, and ended with 3000. The marker had already gone to the cage, so I went to the cage and put the whole 3000 onto my marker money (so I now had 5000). Later I took a 1000 marker and lost, and again took a 1000 marker and lost. Another 1000 marker, and I ended the session with 3500 in chips. Back to the cage to put it on deposit in my front money. (3000 dep -1000 mrk + 3000 dep -1000 mrk -1000 mrk -1000mrk +3500 dep = 5500)

When I got home from the 3 day trip and called my travel host to check on my play, she indicated the casino had me down for having put $9,500 on account, and that I had 22.5 hours of play. In reality I had only taken $3,000 to play with.

So adding your winnings to your front money I think also can potentially help your rating.

To follow up, a more generic question about front money (or, specifically, at Fitzgerald's, if anyone has experience there, since that's where I'll be staying...):

Does it matter how you deposit the money at the cage? I'm sure cash would be available to be drawn against virtually immediately, but what about a personal check? Bank check? I've heard people say that bank checks should be faxed to the cage a few days before arriving, is this true?

It would seem to me that a casino cashier could easily verify the availability of funds with the routing and account numbers on the personal check, but maybe it's not so simple?

Will it matter that I'm arriving on a holiday (Thanksgiving), and banks won't be open until 4 days after I get there?

Thanks for your help!

((just asking because, I dunno... I think it would be kinda cool to get a marker at the tables, and this strikes me as the best way to go about it, with the added bonus of making sure my money stays safe while I'm there. I know, I'm a dork.))

What you heard about faxing the check is what I heard.

But the truth is, this is something that can vary from casino to casino.

Bottom line: Call the casino and ask ALL the questions you just asked us.

Quote: CapnDave

It would seem to me that a casino cashier could easily verify the availability of funds with the routing and account numbers on the personal check, but maybe it's not so simple?

I cashed a check at the NYNY cage. They use some third party service to establish how much they will let you cash a check for, and what they came up with was less than half what I had in the account at the time. So I would say, no, they can't easily verify the availability of funds.

Is there generally a minimum level to be playing before the pit is okay with you drawing against a marker? If I'm a $10 BJ player and only withdraw $200 at a time, is that just going to piss them off?

Quote: Actuarial

Is there generally a minimum level to be playing before the pit is okay with you drawing against a marker? If I'm a $10 BJ player and only withdraw $200 at a time, is that just going to piss them off?

Working against/ off of markers has a lot to be said for it. Perhaps someone else will have a different opinion, but I would suggest only having markers in the multi-K range. I don't understand why anyone would do otherwise. Maybe, once again, I missed the whole point ;-)

I have arranged in advance to have a line of credit available at the casino (MGM Grand), and I am not required to give them a check or cash up front to fund it.

The casino loans me the money, and after the trip I have thirty days to pay off the loan.

Interest free.

Consider that option.

Quote: Actuarial

Is there generally a minimum level to be playing before the pit is okay with you drawing against a marker? If I'm a $10 BJ player and only withdraw $200 at a time, is that just going to piss them off?

There's definitely a maximum amount of time before creating a new thread is preferable to resurrecting an old one. Not sure how long, but I'm going to say 5+ years falls into that category.

Quote: sabre

There's definitely a maximum amount of time before creating a new thread is preferable to resurrecting an old one. Not sure how long, but I'm going to say 5+ years falls into that category.

at least this one was only 1 page. I hate it when I read 3 or 4 pages just to realize it was a 6 year old thread.

I say!
Who cares what I say.....?
Some threads have popped up recently that were several years old. Some I had already read and then was current on except for the last post or two. Others I had never read, some 10 plus pages long. I chose whether or not to start from the beginning, to read what had been written before. I like that choice.
Just me. Just 2F.

I refuse, so far, to read the Hot Blond Challenge thread from the beginning. So far.....

Quote: Actuarial

Is there generally a minimum level to be playing before the pit is okay with you drawing against a marker? If I'm a $10 BJ player and only withdraw $200 at a time, is that just going to piss them off?

That'd probably just piss them off. I'd say $500 should be the minimum you pull out at a time, or some amount that should let you play for at least 30-45 minutes before pulling out another (i.e.: don't pull out $500 at a time as a black chipper). But, for playing on credit/front money, the amount you're wagering shouldn't matter.

Quote: Actuarial

Is there generally a minimum level to be playing before the pit is okay with you drawing against a marker? If I'm a $10 BJ player and only withdraw $200 at a time, is that just going to piss them off?

A lot of the casinos require at least 5-10k for front money (call their cage; they'll let you know if you call their cage ahead).

I wire money, always take the bank receipt, and call ahead a few days to make sure they have my wired funds ready. Last time, when I called, the amount was deposited into account 'unknown'. Had I not called, it could have been a real pain to get access to those funds.

Wiring 25k or more and you'll get they're attention. Max Rubin's comp city has a lot of decent advice (call the pit/cage/host in advance).

I'd say a minimum marker should be for 1k; anything less and you risk annoying them.

I've been watching people buy-in at the $5 craps table for anywhere from $300 to nearly $1000 in my 3 trips there. I'll try to keep in mind that I could use a marker if I need to buy-in for a thousand or more. With people winning the Fire Bet for $5000, craps tables are more used to dishing out a lot of chips to broke af players nowadays.