Casino workers usually allude to chips as "cheques," which is of French origin. Technically, there’s a difference between a chip and a cheque. A cheque is just a chip with a denomination printed on it and is forever worth the amount of the printed denomination. Chips, on the other hand, do not have denominations printed on them and the value is defined by the table. For instance, at a poker table, the casino may define white chips as $1 and blue chips as 10 dollars; at the same time, at a roulette game, the dealer might define white chips as twenty-five cents and blue chips as two dollars. Another example, the cheap red, white, and blue poker chips you purchase at the department store for your weekly poker game are called "chips" because they do not have values printed on them.
When you put your money on the table and hear the croupier say, "Cheque change only," he’s just telling the boxman that a new competitor wish to exchange cash for chips, and that the cash on the table is not in play. Cash plays in many casinos, so if you put a 5 dollar bill down on the Pass Line just prior to the player tosses the dice and the dealer does not change your cash for chips, your money is "live" and "in play."
Technically, in live craps games, we wager with with cheques, and not chips. Sometimes, a player will walk up to the the table, drop a $100 cheque, and tell the croupier, "Cheque change." It is a blast to act like an amateur and ask the dealer, "Hey, I am new to this game, what’s a cheque?" Most of the time, their crazy answers will amuse you.
January 28th, 2010
Lina
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