Extremely fair exchange rate at Caesars Windsor

I visited Caesars Windsor over the weekend. I bought CAD at the casino at a rate of .96CAD:1USD. I sold CAD at the cage at a rate of 1CAD:1USD when I left to head back to Michigan. That's a very small spread, and - especially on the conversion back to USD - a very favorable rate. At DTW, the currency conversion desk was selling CAD at .91CAD:1USD, and buying CAD at a rate of 1.08CAD:1USD. I guess it's good to know that CET is better than the market in this one small area...

Seneca Niagara has a buy back program where if you have a player's card, you pay the exchange rate when going from CAD to USD. They give you a receipt. If you present the receipt with your cash out, they convert it back to Canadian with no loss on the original exchange (any excess is exchanged at the rate).

"Canadian currency can be exchanged for U.S. currency at any of our cashier windows at very favorable rates. Guests providing a Players Club Card at the time of exchange can request a receipt for purposes of exchanging back to Canadian within 48 hours."

Good info, but it's not a CET call. The exchange rate is set by the government of Ontario, who owns the casino.

Quote: teddys

Good info, but it's not a CET call. The exchange rate is set by the government of Ontario, who owns the casino.

Ahh! Now I see why they didn't screw me. I should've known better than to think CET would do something nice for their customers...

Quote: teddys

Good info, but it's not a CET call. The exchange rate is set by the government of Ontario, who owns the casino.

Not true. The government of Ontario receives licensing fees from those casinos which is a (large) percentage of Revenue. Casino Niagara, Fallsview, and other casinos throughout the province use at least a 6 cent spread on the exchange rate (ie, buy at .97, sell at $1.03). The exchange rate is indeed a CET thing. There is no regulation at OLG that dictates what the exchange rate must be.

I stand corrected. That is what nigh-every cashier told met at CW whenever I changed money.

Any Cosmo Kramer types on board? I smell a windfall ;)

Quote: Face

Any Cosmo Kramer types on board? I smell a windfall ;)

But will USPS layoff Newman before we put this plan in action?

Quote: Face

Any Cosmo Kramer types on board? I smell a windfall ;)

LOL! We could do a two parter: 1) bring cans to MI to trade in, and 2) get cheap CAD to gamble with. And based on my luck at the border, there's a pretty good chance that a free groping could be arranged as well.

Quote: boymimbo

Not true. The government of Ontario receives licensing fees from those casinos which is a (large) percentage of Revenue. Casino Niagara, Fallsview, and other casinos throughout the province use at least a 6 cent spread on the exchange rate (ie, buy at .97, sell at $1.03). The exchange rate is indeed a CET thing. There is no regulation at OLG that dictates what the exchange rate must be.

I'm not versed in Canadian gaming law, and I've only been out of the country once, ironically, to go to Casino Windsor (at the time, it was being converted to Caesars). However, I'm not surprised that Caesars would have relatively competitive exchange rate. Across the pond (or lake in this case), yet a MILLION MILES AWAY (now that you must have a passport to cross), there are three HIGHLY competitive casinos: MGM Grand Detroit, Motor City (which I guess is the big shark, although I don't understand why), and Greektown Casino.

I think the passport thing really took a lot of Caesars customers. I find that when faced with real competition in a given market, Caesars/Harrah's really drives some pretty good promotions. In Las Vegas, they just don't have real competition on the strip (yes, MGM and a lot of other groups have casinos, but they don't really target CET, and frankly, CET doesn't need to promote that.)