Segment Information (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended		6 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2016	Mar. 31, 2015	Mar. 31, 2016	Mar. 31, 2015
Revenues:
Merchandise sales	$ 109,343	$ 107,852	$ 217,927	$ 217,491
Jewelry scrapping sales	12,780	18,399	22,401	36,933
Pawn service charges	64,130	59,470	130,724	124,397
Consumer loan fees and interest	15,616	18,544	28,804	37,515
Other revenues	30	910	497	1,565
Total revenues	201,899	205,175	400,353	417,901
Merchandise cost of goods sold	68,332	72,492	134,591	144,970
Jewelry scrapping cost of goods sold	11,085	14,354	19,161	29,029
Consumer loan bad debt	8,683	4,761	21,286	13,276
Net revenues	113,799	113,568	225,315	230,626
Operations	80,282	77,190	165,888	157,277
Administrative	15,621	14,800	35,604	27,352
Depreciation and amortization	7,082	8,095	15,141	16,103
Loss on sale or disposal of assets	649	387	682	643
Restructuring	218	704	1,910	726
Interest expense	8,449	11,296	17,641	23,330
Interest income	(127)	(512)	(267)	(1,043)
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliate	(1,877)	3,678	(3,932)	1,484
Impairment of goodwill	73,921	0	73,921	0
Other expense	89	1,862	959	2,621
(Loss) income from continuing operations before income taxes	(70,508)	(3,932)	(82,232)	2,133
Segments
Revenues:
Merchandise sales	109,343	107,852	217,927	217,491
Jewelry scrapping sales	12,780	18,399	22,401	36,933
Pawn service charges	64,130	59,470	130,724	124,397
Consumer loan fees and interest	15,616	18,544	28,804	37,515
Other revenues	30	910	497	1,565
Total revenues	201,899	205,175	400,353	417,901
Merchandise cost of goods sold	68,332	72,492	134,591	144,970
Jewelry scrapping cost of goods sold	11,085	14,354	19,161	29,029
Consumer loan bad debt	8,683	4,761	21,286	13,276
Net revenues	113,799	113,568	225,315	230,626
Operations	80,282	77,190	165,888	157,277
Administrative	0	0	0	0
Depreciation and amortization	4,338	5,496	9,267	10,949
Loss on sale or disposal of assets	649	18	682	274
Restructuring	304	0	1,727	0
Interest expense	4,575	6,382	9,766	14,672
Interest income	(120)	(462)	(252)	(959)
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliate	(1,877)	3,678	(3,932)	1,484
Impairment of goodwill	73,921		73,921
Other expense	(197)	1,561	696	2,176
(Loss) income from continuing operations before income taxes	(48,076)	19,705	(32,448)	44,753
Segments | U.S. Pawn
Revenues:
Merchandise sales	94,740	92,472	186,734	181,914
Jewelry scrapping sales	11,599	17,391	21,199	34,398
Pawn service charges	56,614	52,317	115,235	109,352
Consumer loan fees and interest	0	0	0	0
Other revenues	49	224	242	408
Total revenues	163,002	162,404	323,410	326,072
Merchandise cost of goods sold	58,241	61,490	113,702	120,107
Jewelry scrapping cost of goods sold	10,128	13,463	18,188	26,796
Consumer loan bad debt	0	0	0	0
Net revenues	94,633	87,451	191,520	179,169
Operations	61,240	57,920	124,785	117,427
Administrative	0	0	0	0
Depreciation and amortization	3,042	3,607	6,602	7,059
Loss on sale or disposal of assets	546	17	553	17
Restructuring	91	0	982	0
Interest expense	39	5	125	13
Interest income	0	(15)	(1)	(31)
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliate	0	0	0	0
Impairment of goodwill	0		0
Other expense	0	0	0	0
(Loss) income from continuing operations before income taxes	29,675	25,917	58,474	54,684
Segments | Mexico Pawn
Revenues:
Merchandise sales	14,603	14,883	31,189	34,463
Jewelry scrapping sales	1,181	917	1,181	2,324
Pawn service charges	7,516	7,153	15,489	15,045
Consumer loan fees and interest	0	0	0	0
Other revenues	(117)	269	74	509
Total revenues	23,183	23,222	47,933	52,341
Merchandise cost of goods sold	10,090	10,680	20,888	24,164
Jewelry scrapping cost of goods sold	957	820	957	2,081
Consumer loan bad debt	0	0	0	0
Net revenues	12,136	11,722	26,088	26,096
Operations	9,024	10,406	20,217	20,926
Administrative	0	0	0	0
Depreciation and amortization	764	1,101	1,565	2,345
Loss on sale or disposal of assets	103	1	129	257
Restructuring	215	0	543	0
Interest expense	38	1	78	2
Interest income	0	(24)	0	(24)
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliate	0	0	0	0
Impairment of goodwill	0		0
Other expense	(79)	282	49	720
(Loss) income from continuing operations before income taxes	2,071	(45)	3,507	1,870
Segments | Grupo Finmart
Revenues:
Merchandise sales	0	0	0	0
Jewelry scrapping sales	0	0	0	0
Pawn service charges	0	0	0	0
Consumer loan fees and interest	13,589	16,391	24,403	32,706
Other revenues	98	49	181	105
Total revenues	13,687	16,440	24,584	32,811
Merchandise cost of goods sold	0	0	0	0
Jewelry scrapping cost of goods sold	0	0	0	0
Consumer loan bad debt	8,252	4,110	20,243	11,850
Net revenues	5,435	12,330	4,341	20,961
Operations	8,026	7,109	17,614	15,397
Administrative	0	0	0	0
Depreciation and amortization	476	626	993	1,192
Loss on sale or disposal of assets	0	0	0	0
Restructuring	0	0	0	0
Interest expense	4,498	6,376	9,563	14,657
Interest income	(120)	(423)	(251)	(904)
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliate	0	0	0	0
Impairment of goodwill	73,921		73,921
Other expense	(124)	1,272	644	1,446
(Loss) income from continuing operations before income taxes	(81,242)	(2,630)	(98,143)	(10,827)
Segments | Other International
Revenues:
Merchandise sales	0	497	4	1,114
Jewelry scrapping sales	0	91	21	211
Pawn service charges	0	0	0	0
Consumer loan fees and interest	2,027	2,153	4,401	4,809
Other revenues	0	368	0	543
Total revenues	2,027	3,109	4,426	6,677
Merchandise cost of goods sold	1	322	1	699
Jewelry scrapping cost of goods sold	0	71	16	152
Consumer loan bad debt	431	651	1,043	1,426
Net revenues	1,595	2,065	3,366	4,400
Operations	1,992	1,755	3,272	3,527
Administrative	0	0	0	0
Depreciation and amortization	56	162	107	353
Loss on sale or disposal of assets	0	0	0	0
Restructuring	(2)	0	202	0
Interest expense	0	0	0	0
Interest income	0	0	0	0
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliate	(1,877)	3,678	(3,932)	1,484
Impairment of goodwill	0		0
Other expense	6	7	3	10
(Loss) income from continuing operations before income taxes	1,420	(3,537)	3,714	(974)
Corporate, Non-Segment
Revenues:
Merchandise sales	0	0	0	0
Jewelry scrapping sales	0	0	0	0
Pawn service charges	0	0	0	0
Consumer loan fees and interest	0	0	0	0
Other revenues	0	0	0	0
Total revenues	0	0	0	0
Merchandise cost of goods sold	0	0	0	0
Jewelry scrapping cost of goods sold	0	0	0	0
Consumer loan bad debt	0	0	0	0
Net revenues	0	0	0	0
Operations	0	0	0	0
Administrative	15,621	14,800	35,604	27,352
Depreciation and amortization	2,744	2,599	5,874	5,154
Loss on sale or disposal of assets	0	369	0	369
Restructuring	(86)	704	183	726
Interest expense	3,874	4,914	7,875	8,658
Interest income	(7)	(50)	(15)	(84)
Equity in net (income) loss of unconsolidated affiliate	0	0	0	0
Impairment of goodwill	0		0
Other expense	286	301	263	445
(Loss) income from continuing operations before income taxes	$ (22,432)	$ (23,637)	$ (49,784)	$ (42,620)