Las Vegas: Golden Nugget’s new ATM dispenses the real thing [Updated]

The Golden Nugget hotel in downtown Las Vegas is living up to its name with the installation of an ATM that dispenses gold instead of cash.

Beginning Wednesday, visitors will be able to buy gold coins and 24-karat “bars” weighing from 1 gram to 1 ounce at the new Gold to Go machine, the hotel said in a news release. Each purchase will be dispensed in a gift box. Buyers can use cash or credit cards, according to the website of the machines’ developer, Ex Oriente Lux AG.

At current prices, a 250-gram “bar” is worth about $11,000. The machine’s prices are regularly updated, based on spot prices on world markets.

[For the Record, at 12:10 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the weight of the gold bars that will be sold as 1 to 250 grams.]

The Golden Nugget’s ATM is the second such machine in the U.S.; the other is at a mall in Boca Raton, Fla. Worldwide, there are just 16 dispensers, 11 of which are in Germany, where they originated, according to Ex Oriente Lux AG. Among other hotels with the machines is the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which installed it last year.

The Las Vegas hotel, fittingly, also is home to what it claims is the largest gold nugget in existence. Discovered in 1980 in Australia, the “Hand of Faith” weighs 61 pounds, 11 ounces.

Both the nugget and the new ATM machine are located behind the hotel’s VIP Lounge, near the main lobby of the Gold Tower.