Feb 252010
Casino employees normally reference chips as "cheques," which is of French ancestry. In reality, there’s a distinction between a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a amount printed on it and is constantly worth the value of the written amount. Chips, although, don’t have denominations written on them and any colour can be worth any dollar value as defined by the casino. e.g., in a poker tournament, the croupier might define white chips as $1 and blue chips as ten dollars; whereas, in a game of roulette, the croupier may value white chips as 25 cents and blue chips as two dollars. A further example, the inexpensive red, white, and blue plastic chips you purchase at Target for your weekly poker game are known as "chips" owing to the fact that they don’t have values imprinted on them.
When you put your $$$$$ down on the table and hear the croupier announce, "Cheque change only," she’s simply telling the box man that a new gambler would like to trade money for chips (cheques), and that the money on the table is not in play. $$$$$ plays in a majority of casinos, so if you put a five dollar bill on the Pass Line just prior to the tosser rolling the bones and the dealer doesn’t trade your money for chips, your $$$$$ is "part of the action." When the dealer states, "Cheque change only," the boxman understands that your money is not in play.
In reality, in land based craps rounds, we play with cheques, not chips. Occasionally, a gambler will walk up to the the table, put down a $100 cheque, and inform the dealer, "Cheque change." It’s amusing to pretend to be a novice and ask the dealer, "Hey, I am new to this game, what is a cheque?" Generally, their comical answers will amuse you.
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