__________ is/are overrated.

[JayhawkCO]

The cash that I carry on a daily basis is two $20 bills, just in case there's some issue with all my cards and I need gas.

I try not to have only large bills, in case there's some issue with my car and I need to catch a city bus.

I would probably Uber/Lyft in that case.

[formulanone]

So, are stores actually unable to get enough pennies, or are they all just pretending?

"Pretending" is doing a lot of heavy lifting; I'd call it "lying", but we can also say "prevaricating" if that makes them feel better about not wanting to get those one cent pieces in the first place.

On the other hand, banks probably have a varying supply of pennies between {deposits/withdrawals} and {no new supply/hoarding} (...pick one from each), and at some point they just don't want to bother having an inconsistent message between one day and another.

[kphoger]

So, are stores actually unable to get enough pennies, or are they all just pretending?

"Pretending" is doing a lot of heavy lifting; I'd call it "lying", but we can also say "prevaricating" if that makes them feel better about not wanting to get those one cent pieces in the first place.

On the other hand, banks probably have a varying supply of pennies between {deposits/withdrawals} and {no new supply/hoarding} (...pick one from each), and at some point they just don't want to bother having an inconsistent message between one day and another.

Translation:  Stores have simply taken this opportunity to stop ordering pennies, because stores also consider pennies to be worthless.  But, in order to not make their customers angry, they blame their penny shortage (real or not) on the government.

[formulanone]

So, are stores actually unable to get enough pennies, or are they all just pretending?

"Pretending" is doing a lot of heavy lifting; I'd call it "lying", but we can also say "prevaricating" if that makes them feel better about not wanting to get those one cent pieces in the first place.

On the other hand, banks probably have a varying supply of pennies between {deposits/withdrawals} and {no new supply/hoarding} (...pick one from each), and at some point they just don't want to bother having an inconsistent message between one day and another.

Translation:  Stores have simply taken this opportunity to stop ordering pennies, because stores also consider pennies to be worthless.  But, in order to not make their customers angry, they blame their penny shortage (real or not) on the government.

I guess it was probably how businesses quietly weaned off carrying fifty-cent pieces, but on a much smaller scale. They just stopped caring about it, and by 1987-88 I don't recall hearing much of a fuss over it, probably because there was an in-kind replacement. I'm sure more people preferred quarters by that time since you could much more easily use and carry it around.

I recall getting exactly one in my change when I was a youth, probably because that cashier figured they could dump the last one on an unsuspecting kid. Since I collected the Kennedy Half Dollars (surprisingly easy to finish a circulated set in the 1980s) and saved up occasionally on a $10 roll, I was the weirdo who also put them back into circulation, or traded them to a few others at face value, although I'm sure they probably just wound up back in the bank.

[webny99]

What is this "cash" of which you speak?

I believe it's the substance the guy in front of me at DiBella's was using to pay when the cashier needed to take five minutes to explain to him how rounding worked given the discontinuation of the penny.

What a waste of time. If I ran a business that accepted cash, my policy would be to just automatically round up the change if anyone was confused or complained.

[kphoger]

What a waste of time. If I ran a business that accepted cash, my policy would be to just automatically round up the change if anyone was confused or complained.

I doubt that the person was the owner of DiBella's.  So the employee was probably just going by company policy, and going against it could possibly make the drawer come up short at the end of the day.

[Scott5114]

What is this "cash" of which you speak?

The primary form of currency in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities, mysteriously eschewed by cities in lesser states that can't seem to figure out how to properly light their signage.

[TheCatalyst31]

What is this "cash" of which you speak?

The primary form of currency in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities, mysteriously eschewed by cities in lesser states that can't seem to figure out how to properly light their signage.

I thought the primary form of currency in Las Vegas was poker chips.

[Scott5114]

What is this "cash" of which you speak?

The primary form of currency in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities, mysteriously eschewed by cities in lesser states that can't seem to figure out how to properly light their signage.

I thought the primary form of currency in Las Vegas was poker chips.

Chips are considered a form of cash under the Bank Secrecy Act.

[SSOWorld]

Did I mention that Vegas is overrated?

Boring and expensive. And old and decrepit

[Rothman]

What is this "cash" of which you speak?

The primary form of currency in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities, mysteriously eschewed by cities in lesser states that can't seem to figure out how to properly light their signage.

What a strange little place of which you speak.  Sounds like the equivalent of a chihuahua.

[thenetwork]

Did I mention that Vegas is overrated?

Boring and expensive. And old and decrepit

Vegas is whining that the number of tourists has been declining over the past several years. 

So what do they do?

• Eliminate Complimentary Parking.
• Add hidden "Resort Fees" to your final bill that are not part of your advertised room rate.
• Eliminate low pricing on food (buffet) and free (while you're gambling) drinks.

There's your problems right there.

[PColumbus73]

More states are loosening gambling laws, so there's less incentive to go to Las Vegas when there's two casinos in Columbus.

[webny99]

What a waste of time. If I ran a business that accepted cash, my policy would be to just automatically round up the change if anyone was confused or complained.

I doubt that the person was the owner of DiBella's.  So the employee was probably just going by company policy, and going against it could possibly make the drawer come up short at the end of the day.

Of course. Just saying what the policy would be if I were to set it. As for cash being a few cents off, that's what a cash adjustments account is for. 

[hotdogPi]

When I worked at Stop & Shop, while I never worked as a cashier myself, the cashiers said they were allowed to be off by $20 in either direction at the end of the day.

From a combination of being six years ago and regional demographics, about half of purchases were in cash. (It still feels like about half when I'm in line as a customer, but I have a much smaller sample size not being an employee.)

[kphoger]

What is this "cash" of which you speak?

The primary form of currency in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities, mysteriously eschewed by cities in lesser states that can't seem to figure out how to properly light their signage.

What a strange little place of which you speak.  Sounds like the equivalent of a chihuahua.

Good observation.  Cash, indeed, is also the primary form of currency in Chihuahua.

[JayhawkCO]

Vegas has multiple issues facing it:

Other states have gambling now, and in some cases, due to the casino lobby, they have better gambling. Most places in Vegas don't have 3:2 Blackjack. They have horrible sports betting with less prop bets, less live betting, and way worse apps.

It's effing expensive. $16 Bud Lights. $100 steaks.

Foreign tourists are coming to the US in far lower numbers than they had in the past. I'll snip my thoughts on that there.

Taxis are a headache and Ubers sometimes are completely unavailable in the city.

The weather sucks balls in the summertime, and since most people get a lot of their vacation time in the summer, they're going to choose to go to the mountains/beach instead of the desert.

Crime and drugs are becoming even more prevalent issues with some areas just a little bit off the Strip/Fremont being places you don't really want to find yourself.

[kphoger]

Crime and drugs are becoming even more prevalent issues with some areas just a little bit off the Strip/Fremont being places you don't really want to find yourself.

The La Quinta Inn in North Las Vegas, back in the mid-1990s, was the first time I'd ever seen a bedside lamp chained to the wall.  But then I remembered how frequently the city of North Las Vegas featured in the TV show Cops.

[bugo]

Did I mention that Vegas is overrated?
Boring and expensive. And old and decrepit

Vegas is whining that the number of tourists has been declining over the past several years. 

Another thing that has led to the demise of Las Vegas (and Atlantic City) is the ubiquitousness of gambling in many parts of the country. Until the last 40 or 50 years, casinos could only be found in a few places. Now they're everywhere. There are Indian casinos in Oklahoma that are just a few slot machines that are in the same building as a convenience store that is run by the tribe. There are casinos in Osage and other counties in tiny towns that you wouldn't think could support a casino. Some of these casinos are in mobile buildings (trailers). There's even a casino in Arkansas now. It's in Pine Bluff, which is the armpit of the south, which makes it even worse. I wonder if Arkansas' second casino will be in West Memphis.

[thenetwork]

Did I mention that Vegas is overrated?
Boring and expensive. And old and decrepit

Vegas is whining that the number of tourists has been declining over the past several years. 

Another thing that has led to the demise of Las Vegas (and Atlantic City) is the ubiquitousness of gambling in many parts of the country. Until the last 40 or 50 years, casinos could only be found in a few places. Now they're everywhere. There are Indian casinos in Oklahoma that are just a few slot machines that are in the same building as a convenience store that is run by the tribe. There are casinos in Osage and other counties in tiny towns that you wouldn't think could support a casino. Some of these casinos are in mobile buildings (trailers). There's even a casino in Arkansas now. It's in Pine Bluff, which is the armpit of the south, which makes it even worse. I wonder if Arkansas' second casino will be in West Memphis.

The reasons why casinos in general are not popular with me anymore:

"Penny Slots".  Nowadays most video penny slots require a minimum bet of dozens of lines, which means the slot actally costs 50 cents or more per spin. 

"Cash Out Slips".  In the days of coin payouys, I had a "system" in which I played x coins, one at a time, then I would cash out.  So for example, if I played 10 quarters:

• If I had more then 10 quarters, the "overage" went into a "profit bucket" and I cashed it all out on my way out, ensuring I left with something.

• Say, after the 10 quarters were played and the cash out only gave me 7 back, I would then play the 7 quarters, one at a time then cash out. Anything over the 7 coins was profit, anything less was the new starting level.  Lather, rinse, repeat until the original 10 quarters were spent.

Then I would repeat the process again with another 10 coins.

In most cases, I would get at least half of what I initially spent back, with occasionally making a full profit upon cash out.

The paper vouchers have pretty much killed my system as it is too complicated to continually cash out vouchers.

• You can also blame the real online casinos which play real money from wherever you are. I play the online casinos that give you free "just for fun" credits *without* paying for additional bulk fun credits if I run out.

[Rothman]

Gambling is too complicated.

[TheCatalyst31]

My problem with gambling is that I know enough about statistics to feel like I'm throwing away money just by doing it. In the long run, the house always wins, and in the games where it's possible to get an edge (e.g. by card counting in blackjack) they're allowed to ban you for it.

[Scott5114]

Boring and expensive.

Sounds like someone needs to clinch NV 612. Last time I was over there I saw someone get in a fistfight with a pizza. Free entertainment!

Crime and drugs are becoming even more prevalent issues with some areas just a little bit off the Strip/Fremont being places you don't really want to find yourself.

This is really more a geography issue than anything else—most cities are set up in such a way that there is a "good part" of town and a "bad part" of town. Las Vegas isn't like that—the good and the bad parts are intermixed, such that they often are localized to a block or two. For my first year here, I lived in an apartment at Rainbow and Charleston. If I went a half mile east and north along Torrey Pines, I was in the ghetto. If I went a half mile west and south along Tenaya, I was surrounded by eight-figure homes.

So yeah, you have the most expensive real estate in the state along Las Vegas Boulevard and then you hop a half-mile to the west to the Naked City area behind the Strat and are in the worst part of town. The second-worst area is Twain and Swenson—so bad that Swenson Street was renamed University Center—and Twain is the street the Sphere is on.

Vegas is just like that. Vegas people acknowledge this, and that it's odd, but I have yet to see an explanation for it that makes sense. I've seen it attributed to rapid growth and many new residents being more affluent than the existing populace, but that doesn't quite make sense to me.

(Also, it is sort of funny to be worried about crime and drugs in Vegas. Does the name Bugsy Siegel ring a bell?)

Vegas is whining that the number of tourists has been declining over the past several years. 
So what do they do?

• Eliminate Complimentary Parking.
• Add hidden "Resort Fees" to your final bill that are not part of your advertised room rate.
• Eliminate low pricing on food (buffet) and free (while you're gambling) drinks.

There's your problems right there.

Vegas employees are whining that the number of tourists have been declining. More tourists equals more tips. Vegas management is doing all of this as part of a deliberate strategy to price out all of the lower and middle class people.

It's simple math. A typical blackjack table seats seven people, so you have up to seven players per dealer. If every player is betting $1000, you have one dealer with a $7000 handle per hand for that table. If you have middle-class people betting $5, that's only a $35 handle, meaning you have to operate 200 tables (and thus pay 200 dealers, plus ~20 pit bosses, plus surveillance operators, plus cashiers) to reach the same $7000 handle. So you profit much more by running a $1000 game with only 7 rich people as customers than you do getting 1400 middle-class customers in the door.

(The math works the same for slot machines, except there the limiting factor is floor space, not employee overhead. There are only so many places to put slot machines, and you make five times more from them if they are set to require $1 minimum bet as opposed to 20¢. In Oklahoma casinos they can't do that because their customer base is lower income, so instead they pack the machines in like sardines.)

If you show up in Vegas to bet $1000/hand, you are not going to care about $100 buffets or $25/day parking fees or resort fees or drink prices. That is couch cushion money to you. And if you are a Warren Buffet type who sweats the details like that, the casino can just comp all of that stuff for you and still come out way, way ahead.

This is why we have Formula One on Las Vegas Boulevard now. The average American couldn't give two shits about F1, at least not to the extent that would justify fucking up the traffic on LVB for months at a time as they set up and tear down the track, to install a Bailey bridge over Koval every year, etc. But that's not for the average American—that's all to bait rich European travelers into coming in and paying $2000/night at Bellagio or whatever while they watch a race with their other rich friends.

This is why we have the Raiders and the Athletics, for the people who can afford to drop a bunch of money on major-league tickets in a city they don't live in and fly in to see their favorite team massacre the home team. (The Golden Knights are for the locals.)

Basically, Las Vegas has decided to cater to a certain club, and you ain't in it.

[Scott5114]

I guess it was probably how businesses quietly weaned off carrying fifty-cent pieces, but on a much smaller scale. They just stopped caring about it, and by 1987-88 I don't recall hearing much of a fuss over it, probably because there was an in-kind replacement. I'm sure more people preferred quarters by that time since you could much more easily use and carry it around.

Las Vegas also uses Kennedy half-dollars pretty heavily, because they make blackjack payouts much easier—a 3:2 payout on $25 is $37.50. (In Oklahoma they would use yellow 50¢ chips for this, but a casino-quality chip costs about $1 to "mint", so the amount lost to negative seigniorage from people not cashing the chips in is considerable. Las Vegas figured out if they just used half-dollar coins alongside the chips they could externalize the production cost to the US government.)

[formulanone]

I guess it was probably how businesses quietly weaned off carrying fifty-cent pieces, but on a much smaller scale. They just stopped caring about it, and by 1987-88 I don't recall hearing much of a fuss over it, probably because there was an in-kind replacement. I'm sure more people preferred quarters by that time since you could much more easily use and carry it around.

Las Vegas also uses Kennedy half-dollars pretty heavily, because they make blackjack payouts much easier—a 3:2 payout on $25 is $37.50. (In Oklahoma they would use yellow 50¢ chips for this, but a casino-quality chip costs about $1 to "mint", so the amount lost to negative seigniorage from people not cashing the chips in is considerable. Las Vegas figured out if they just used half-dollar coins alongside the chips they could externalize the production cost to the US government.)

I remember getting a fifty-cent chip once on blackjack split many, many moons ago. I looked it up and apparently the fifty cent piece (like the dollar coins and two dollar notes) gets minted at irregular intervals.

Sounds like the same problem we had the in educational supply business; the sack of 100 plastic pennies cost as much as that of any other denomination, so we didn't sell anywhere near as many. After all, a tight budget (or disbursed spending accounts) meant just using spare change at face value rather than spending $3-4 for the plastic equivalent. I would remind educators that the plastic stuff was less likely to magically disappear over time.