As some of you know, I work at a convenience store. It is close to a major casino, the largest and most fancy in the city. A customer said something once about getting half dollars at the casino, so apparently one of the machines there accepts half dollars. Or maybe they give them out for some card game. I don't gamble so I wouldn't know. Has anybody ever been to the Hard Rock casino in Tulsa and can you verify that there are machines or games that take half dollars? If so, this is likely the source of the 4 Franklin halves that have been spent at the store in the year that I've worked there. If this is true, I'm going to go there and buy some halves some time.
I believe that all of the Hard Rock casinos, excluding the one in Las Vegas, are owned by the Seminole Indians. It was only a few years ago that they started the conversion from Class 3 to Class 4 gaming and the gradual conversion to ticket in/ticket out technology. It's possible that they may still have some machines using half dollars, but don't expect them to be around for too, too long. Chris
I went to Las Vegas in 2000 as a 14 year old, security wasn't as tight then as it is now and I got away with playing a 50-cent slot machine for a good 20 minutes before I was approached by the security officers. I just played dumb. They let me cash out the $40 in credits and out poured 80 halves, clinking into the tray. I took them back to the room and sifted through them all, and lo and behold I found a 1964 and 1966 Kennedy, both of which I still have today. Circulated and nicked-up, but a rare find in circulation nonetheless. I think with the sheer volume of coins and machines in use, casinos sometimes have no way of recovering the silver coins before they're spit back out to a winner. But as was mentioned before, casinos that still use coins are few and far between.
That stinks . Even though the only gambling I do is poker . I like playing for coins . One night we set up an all silver game , the best part was seeing what you won when the night was through .
Forgot to add, I don't condone youth gambling! Haha. It was really more about the Kennedy halves to me than pulling the arm, as it was next to impossible to find them in quantity at home in New York without driving tellers crazy. My Mom actually got a kick out of how long it was taking security to notice a teenager at the machine.
theres an arcade/pizza place near me that has some games that take halves. right next to the quarter machine they have a machine that says "CHANGE for $1, $2, $5, and $10 BILLS" with a picture of a 1964 kennedy half on it, but its always out of order and has been for about 8-9 years. not sure about casinos, never actually been to one (im only 15 )
The casino near us has a boat load of half dollars. They use to pay out in the 50 cent machines and also were used in the poker rooms. I went in a few months ago and asked to buy some, they said they don't sell coinage.... I know they keep all the coins and bills they consider to have any additional value above face. The cashier told me they had a large amount of(some letters were used- don't remember) old bills and silver coinage that they kept in the vault. Talk about a dream job to go through all the stuff those people had to throw into a slot machine or onto a table! Maybe it's just this casino, but most of the ones that deal with tickets don't mess with the change. Good luck to you though! On a side note, my aunt said she just got 4 unc 1928 funny back $1's at a basketball game..... said she would show them to me. Hopefully show means sell
The casino near me is coinless, but they still end up with one heck of a pile of coin that patrons bring in - so they call me when the halves come in in quantity. I know there are some casinos up north that are still playing and paying in coins - even the dollar tokens.
At the blackjack table the payoff for a two card 21 on the initial deal is 1.5 to one. In many cases this will mean a half dollar is needed for the payout as most if not all of the casinos do not have a fifty cent chip. For that reason they tend to have a supply of half dollars.
I have goten many silver halfs from the slot machine, I would put in a $100 and cash out, look thruough them keep the silver and spend the rest, when I had the hunderd dollars back, I would do it again. Usally I just broke even but I ended up with 57 silver halves. That was around 2000, in Pascagoula, MS at the Grand Casino.
