Despite everybody here saying printing your own money seems to be legal, I’ve often heard this opposing tidbit: the casinos in Reno or Las Vegas insist on NON-chip payments for their restaurants or micro-breweries or shows (I usually see signs like this in the restaurants).
The explanation I’ve invariably heard is that the federal government has problems with the casino using their own token/chips in lieu of money for such transactions.
If this is the case, then it seems printing your own money wouldn’t be legal. On the other hand, if it IS, then why do casinos not accept chips in their own properties?
Offhand, Balthisar, I would think that casinos using their own chips for food purchases means that auditing for tax purposes would be well-nigh impossible. Given the past (and present?) unsavory nature of casino owners, that could potentially lead to dramatic underreporting of sales for sales tax purposes and income for income tax purposes.
The government has the same problems with barter transactions, and would with Candlemas transactions as well, except that the transactions aren’t as concentrated and as easy to prohibit. As noted above, these transactions are taxable. Whether they’re taxed or not is another question.