The COVID-19 pandemic affected us in many ways. Although our health and safety remain a priority, we’re also suffering some consequences on the economy.
Most of these consequences are directly related to many businesses, including casinos, shutting down for a certain period. However, things that changed were difficult to anticipate, and one such thing is the shortage of US coins.
Namely, a lot of people changed their spending habits when the pandemic started. Most Americans didn’t use paper money or coins as an option but reverted to other payment methods. In other words, the cash circulation was somewhat disrupted, and this caused a problem nobody could have anticipated — a shortage of US coins.
The Federal Reserve addressed this issue on its official website. According to the press release, the pace of circulation of coins was significantly slowed down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply put, the “supply chain and circulation patterns” were disrupted by the virus as many non-essential businesses were closed for some time.
Many businesses still rely on coins and are looking for a way to have more of them in their banks. For example, Wawa offered a free sandwich to everyone who wanted to exchange $50 worth of coins for a bill.
An Impact on the Casino Industry — Is It Real?
One of the industries that still somewhat relies on coins is the casino industry. Although most of the games nowadays evolved, there are still some casinos that offer coin slots. In other words, some casinos, such as El Cortez Hotel & Casino.
Since many players want to play these slots, the casino held a reserve of $120,000 worth of coins. After the pandemic started, the officials decided to cash in $90,000 of them, with $30,000 remaining in the reserve.
Then July came, and the casinos were allowed to reopen their doors once again, so El Cortez sent a request to cash in the remaining $30,000 worth of coins, but this time, it wasn’t meant to be. Instead of the full sum, the casino only managed to cash $500 in coin.
According to El Cortez workers, the old-fashioned coin slots are still very popular among tourists, and that’s one of the main reasons this casino still has them. However, as long as there are not enough coins in circulation, the slots might be out of order for a while.
However, the employees of El Cortez will not give up easily, so they came up with a plan that should help them attract more tourists when the time comes. Namely, whenever tourists visit this casino, they have to pay a 5% exchange fee when they want to exchange their money for coins. However, the officials decided to remove this fee until further notice, hoping to attract more visitors in the future.
On the other hand, the Federal Reserves are minting new coins full steam ahead, hoping to meet the demand soon.
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