What "mediums of exchange" do you take at your home game? (1 Viewer)

How do you take money at your game?

  • Cash ony

    Votes: 82 45.3%

  • Cash and Electronic (Venmo, Paypal, etc.)

    Votes: 90 49.7%

  • Electronic Only

    Votes: 9 5.0%
  • Total voters
    181
Usually get 1 player each game night that Venmos me instead of giving cash. I keep a lot of extra on hand for change making, so after they send it to me I just throw extra cash into the box.
 
Attached is a sign I have in the “buy in” area of my garage. A lot of times myself or others players will except Venmo etc. in exchange for cash from a player to rebuy with but I do cash only into and out of the bank
 

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I wonder if the results would change 2 years on from the original question. I just voted electronic only.

I started my league in April 2023. Before covid (the new BC) , I was the cashier in a live tourney league that only took cash. So, I know first hand the many challenges with cash.

During covid, that league went online and used Venmo exclusively. This really opened my eyes to the many advantages of Venmo.

When covid vaccines made live play possible again, I started my own tourney league in April 2023. I started with Venmo, which was easy because many of the players were from the online league!

So, from the player's perspective, I only accept venmo and pay out the prizes only with venmo. In a pinch I will accept cash but the player must be having a hopefully temporary problem with venmo!

Here's my list of the advantages over cash (all of which apply to Venmo, CashApp, Paypal, Zelle).

1. No money on site. This is especially emphasized to brand new players so there know without saying it "out loud" that there's no money to rob here!

2. no more counting money to make sure the pot and prize payouts are correct.

3. Payouts can be down to the cent without having to come up with change.

4 Occasionally (bad weather, host sick or out of town but able to play, guest host, etc.) my league game is online at PS (the show must go on!). Venmo makes this seamless with live games.

5. Complete record of who paid what and what was paid out! Priceless!!

#3 is the very applicable to cash games with stakes that are fractions of a dollar.

#3 came in very handy in my current season when I changed the payouts to be more fair (details here). Last game first place was $201.10 and second was $128.80.


Regarding the issue of being audited by venmo and getting your account locked out. While I'm not too worried about this because we only play once per week and max out at 22 buyins, this can be a very real issue. It did happen to a much bigger online league I played in during covid. Here are some tips (from someone who understands data mining inside and out):

1. This is critical - be sure people don't include a comment with their payment that gives away the purpose. the comment should simply be "gift" or "repayment" - one word, very generic.

2. Let players buy in a day or more before the event so that not all the transactions are on the same day. Likewise, payout the prizes the day after.

3. Reduce the number of transactions: One tourney league I know about takes payments after the event (one payment per player covering the entry and all owed rebuys). This league also subtracts buyins owed from prizes before paying the prizes. All to reduce the number of transactions. I don't have to go this far...yet.

In a nutshell I think Venmo rocks!
 
Taghkanic said:
The number of players wanting to use Venmo in my game has grown, and I’m kinda hating it.

1) My game plays pretty big. Often more than $10K in play, sometimes as much as $16K.

2) Most buyin, top off and rebuy with cash, but there are three regs in particular who more and more just want to settle with Venmo at the end. This is compounded by the fact that these three are among the looser players, often rebuying multiple times.

3) Problems arise because the cash-only guys don’t want Venmo, and also not everyone leaves at the same time.

4) So for example if several cash-only guys leave at (say) 1 am with big stacks while the Venmo guys are still playing… I essentially have to keep a lot of extra $$$ for the early cashouts, then get reimbursed when the Venmo crowd is done.

5) This means I’m accumulating a bunch of Venmo week over week. And have to transfer it to my bank to replenish my cash reserve.

It’s annoying, and also creates an online trail of large transactions from which I make zero profit but look like I’m moving tons of money around.

I’m thinking of just issuing a cash-only edict. I don’t think it will cause any regs to stop attending. But it may result in fewer rebuys.
Click to expand...
You have a legit situation not to use electronic.
 
Tight_Lay_DOWN said:
we use cash up to a certain amount, and anything over that, we use chips from a local card room that we all patron for buy-ins and cash outs.

If you are visiting from out of town from the West, this card room accepts ARIA, Bellagio and Wynn Chips, along with Seminole Hard Rock and CocoNut creek chips for those from the East.
They will convert those chips to their own card room chips, or cash.

Less bulky than cash. Semi safer than carrying cash, thieves are always looking for cash and not chips. Don’t know how much safer…depends on the criminal, or the cop that pulls you over and wants to perform “Asset Forfeiture”, they are less likely to seize chips, when all they want is cash as well. Interesting how the Criminal and the cop behave the same, the same action is considered a crime and legal, depending on who commits the actions, but that discussion is for another time.

Anyway, the chips from the local card room saves us time, tracking, etc. this might not be available to everyone.
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This is an interesting concept.

When I was a kid my grandfather and one uncle had pool tables. Each (pool playing) family member had a jar of change that resided at each location. and played pool for money - 5¢ a ball or something, nothing serous, but enough to be fun.

I could see a tight knit group of regulars buying in once a year or two (and again as necessary) and "letting it ride", tracked by plaques or something.
 
springbox said:
I keep a lot of extra on hand for change making, so after they send it to me I just throw extra cash into the box.
Click to expand...

I do too, but the transaction amounts and frequency have escalated to the point where I’m going to the bank to replenish the extra too often. And then I have the corresponding amount in Venmo, which I don’t normally use for day-to-day or other expenses. I just don't like having big numbers on record especially when those aren’t actual profits/income, just reimbursements.
 
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Taghkanic said:
I do too, but the transaction amounts and frequency have escalated to the point where I’m going to the bank to replenish the extra too often. And then I have the corresponding amount in Venmo, which I don’t normally use for day-to-day or other expenses. I just don't like having big numbers on record especially when those aren’t actual profits/income, just reimbursements.
Click to expand...
I suspect that for "mixed mediums of exchange" games, there will be a break-point where more players buy-in/cash out with Venmo that the bank may actually swell with paper currency.

@Eriks , I know Sweden is basically 100% electronic. Did you know of a time where it was a mix of cash and digital, or was it a more rapid switch?
 
Jimulacrum said:
What you're describing is floating short-term loans (get something now, settle up later) where you take all the risk and get no benefit. That might be fine here and there, but clearly you take issue with it becoming part of the fabric of the game.

Cash is the currency of the game. It's not that hard for them to bring it. I say issue the edict.

Start charging a 1% "service fee" for e-payments.
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I like this, but screw the 1% service fee. Make it 20%. He’s not trying to recover his costs; he’s trying to discourage Venmo use.
 
Poker Zombie said:
I suspect that for "mixed mediums of exchange" games, there will be a break-point where more players buy-in/cash out with Venmo that the bank may actually swell with paper currency.

@Eriks , I know Sweden is basically 100% electronic. Did you know of a time where it was a mix of cash and digital, or was it a more rapid switch?
Click to expand...
In my game it was literally from one to the next. I heard about the release of Swish (our Venmo), thought it sounded amazing and made every player get the app for the next game. We’ve never looked back. Prob 2013-2014ish.
 
Taghkanic said:
I do too, but the transaction amounts and frequency have escalated to the point where I’m going to the bank to replenish the extra too often. And then I have the corresponding amount in Venmo, which I don’t normally use for day-to-day or other expenses. I just don't like having big numbers on record especially when those aren’t actual profits/income, just reimbursements.
Click to expand...
Not just reimbursements, but reimbursements for something you wouldn't want to have to explain.
 
I surmised earlier that there is probably a generational divide on this. It seems there is definitely a $/€/£ divide. I'd hazard the dividing line for electronic shifts hard as the pool approaches $10K.
 
Taghkanic said:
I do too, but the transaction amounts and frequency have escalated to the point where I’m going to the bank to replenish the extra too often. And then I have the corresponding amount in Venmo, which I don’t normally use for day-to-day or other expenses. I just don't like having big numbers on record especially when those aren’t actual profits/income, just reimbursements.
Click to expand...
I bank in cash, and will sell cash to players if they need. I try to have cash on hand in case a player doesn't have time to run to the bank before the game. I do try to reminder players who have a bad tendency of bringing cash. It can be annoying going to the bank every once a while to get lower denominations or restock extra cash once a while. I don't mind the Venmo as I just transfer the amount the day after.
 
call me paranoid, but I never liked the idea of a bunch of transactions going in and out of my bank account for a poker game. So cash only, and I'm surprised to see so many doing that. That said, if a player busts all the cash they brought and people start EMT'ing each other to get back in, well that just means it was a great game...
 
donkSTRIKER said:
call me paranoid, but I never liked the idea of a bunch of transactions going in and out of my bank account for a poker game. So cash only, and I'm surprised to see so many doing that. That said, if a player busts all the cash they brought and people start EMT'ing each other to get back in, well that just means it was a great game...
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so in my case, I float a modest balance ($72 at the moment) in venmo and rarely have to "go to the bank" for to refill that balance (i win my fair share). So, for my stakes and number of players, Venmo works. I agree that for larger stakes and/or more transactions, there could be issues.
 

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