[Poshua]

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Planning to go to Australia for the Aussie Millions in January. The US (and AUS) regs regarding exporting or importing more than 10K are pretty strict. What is the solution to bring some big bucks into Melbourne without violating any regs? Casino has not returned my emails, AMEX was pretty useless, HSBC with branches in the US and AUS fared no better. Anyone else bring large sums into other countries specifically for gambling...and then transferred it back out? Thanks.

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IANAL, but:

The US does not have a rule against importing or exporting more than $10,000. The rule is only that you have to declare your possession of such cash to customs when you take it into the country. Your transport of these funds will be recorded, but since you are not moving the money for an illegal purpose, that shouldn't pose a problem for you.

If you're going to go the route of using a bank with branches in the US and abroad, make sure you'll be able to access your account as normal there. My sister lived in England for a time, and my understanding is that you cannot use HSBC branches in the UK to do business on your US-based HSBC account. I'm not sure if that's true about all international banks.

I think Traveler's Checks are probably your easiest solution, assuming you prefer not to carry > $10,000 cash on your person, regardless of customs regulations. For note, Traveler's Checks, like cash, are financial instruments, and you'll have to declare them at U.S. Customs just as you would declare cash.