I'm planning on travelling abroad to play blackjack with a partner. Our trip bankroll will be around $50K. We're travelling to an area with a high concentration of casinos so I'll need to have cash when I'm there so that I can freely move between them and be properly bankrolled.

But what's the best way to get cash there in the first place? Is it better to wire money to one of the casinos (presumably the most reputable and/or the one where we plan on spending more time) or to carry cash on the plane between us?

A few things to consider, though I'm not sure how to weigh them up

  • If you wire the money to the casino, they can potentially withhold your entire trip bankroll. Though this seems unlikely for legal and/or reputational reasons. But still, there's some credit risk and I know of some incidents where this has happened (though they got the money back in the end).
  • Carrying cash comes with risk of loss/theft
  • Carrying cash means extra declarations at various border controls
  • Wiring a lot of cash gives you immediate prestige at the casino which might increase comps etc.


I'm currently favouring the cage but I'm interested to hear some views on this. Risk of loss/theft seems to be the overriding reason to me...

Thanks in advance!