Budget & Cash for your Vegas Trip

It's often asked how much to budget for a trip to Vegas, with accurate answers given between $300 & $100K. The days of super cheap Vegas are gone, but there are deals to be found and if you aren't gambling, drinking & hitting up clubs it can be a relatively cheap site seeing trip. On the other end there are folks who will gamble more in a hand than you spent on your car & won't think twice about spending your mortage payment on a bottle of wine.

We will focus on how you can decide your budget and be prepared vs how much to plan for exactly. For sake of this blog let's assume your airfare & hotel are covered so you are only planning for spending money while in Vegas. To help decide your budget you should first spend some time familiarizing yourself with the costs of things in Vegas. Our list of casual restaurants on the Strip includes a few sample menu items from each location. This should help you get an idea what a middle ground Vegas Strip meal will cost you. If these prices are out of your range, check out some happy hours, off strip options or consider more counter service fast food meals for your trip.

Be sure when considering the costs of meals to factor in tap & an appropriate tip. We might do a tipping blog later, so won't dive into that here, but just plan to tip well. We know some disagree with tipping, or think holding back a tip sends a message. It only impacts the server who relies on the tips in reality, so put politics / opinions aside and factor tipping appropriately into your budget. Also that 8.375% tax on food & drink adds a not insignificant amount to your bill. We did a sample day in Vegas & calculated all the actual costs including tax and a proper tip to give you a real sense of the total cost of a drink or meal.

Now let's talk about how to access your money & spend your budget. We suggest a gambling specific budget which you will need cash for, while the rest (meals, drinks while not gambling, shows, attractions etc) can be charged to room or a credit card. Charging to room is always our first option as it's convenient and there is a chance some will be comped off bill at end of stay if you do a good amount of gambling. Before your trip be sure to check if your cards require a travel advisory to avoid any issues.

Now onto how to get cash, which will primarily be for gambling plus when cash tips are needed. Key to being ready to get cash in Vegas is checking your personal withdrawal limit for your ATM cards which can usually be changed to up to $2,000. If you plan to gamble less than your daily limit, we suggest you plan to visit a ATM daily. If you need access to more cash than your ATM will allow its best to contact the casino of the hotel you chose and set up an advance marker to get access to cash directly from the casino cage.

Vegas Starter Cash: Initial Gambling Money + Small Bills for Tips

A few tips on cash & ATMs:

• Bring your starter gambling cash: A usually unrealistic goal of a Vegas gambling trip is to not have to hit an ATM. We don't suggest brining a huge amount of cash with you, but bring enough that you can get a couple rounds of gambling in & if you hit with that, maybe it keeps your bankroll going & the rest of this blog is irrelevant.

• Get tipping cash before your trip: You will be (or at least should be) tipping quite often in Vegas and having $1's and $5's at hand makes that more convenient. We suggest always get a couple hundred dollars in small bills before trips to avoid having to ask for change or take time to break larger bills constantly. Keep this tipping money in its own pocket, outside of your wallet for easy access so you can get back to gambling & drinking.

• ATMs are everywhere, but plan ahead: There are ATMs in every casino and at all the CVS & Walgreens on the Strip. The ones at casinos will have a fee of $10 - $15 to use and they will charge you to check balance. You need to be careful on these as they will try to get you to do everything except a cash withdrawal from your checking account. Be sure you are not taking the cash as a credit card advance & check your balance from your phone before using the machine.

Despite the silly high charges of casino ATMs we find the $10 - $15 an acceptable convenience fee that also can help folks budget. Set your ATM daily limit to your gambling budget per day (with a little emergency buffer) & you limit the chance of bad late night decisions.