Craps Tips

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Casino personnel usually allude to chips as "cheques," which has its origins in France. Technically, there’s a difference between a cheque and a chip. A cheque is a chip with a value written on it and is always worth the value of the written on it. Chips, on the other hand, don’t have values printed on them and any color can be worth any amount as defined by the casino. For example, in a poker tournament, the casino may value white chips as $1 and blue chips as $10; at the same time, at a roulette game, the casino might define white chips as 25 cents and blue chips as two dollars. Another example, the inexpensive red, white, and blue poker chips you purchase at the department store for your weekend poker game are called "chips" because they do not have values imprinted on them.

When you plop your cash down and hear the dealer say, "Cheque change only," he’s basically informing the boxman that a new bettor wish to change money for chips, and that the cash on the table isn’t in play. Cash plays in most casinos, so if you put a 5 dollar bill on the Pass Line just before the shooter tosses the dice and the croupier doesn’t change your money for chips, your money is "live" and "in play."

In reality, in actual craps games, we gamble with with cheques, not chips. Sometimes, an individual will approach the table, drop a 100 dollar cheque, and inform the croupier, "Cheque change." It is fun to pretend to be a new player and ask the dealer, "Hey, I’m a brand-new to this game, what is a cheque?" Generally, their comical answers will amuse you.