Craps Tips

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Casino staff usually allude to chips as "cheques," being of French ancestry. Technically, there’s a difference between a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a amount imprinted on it and is constantly worth the value of the imprinted denomination. Chips, however, don’t have values printed on them and any colour can be worth any cash amount as determined by the dealer. e.g., in a poker tournament, the dealer may define white chips as one dollar and blue chips as $10; while, in a game of roulette, the croupier might define white chips as twenty-five cents and blue chips as 2 dollars. An additional instance, the inexpensive red, white, and blue poker chips you buy at the department store for your weekend poker get together are referred to as "chips" owing to the fact that they don’t have denominations imprinted on them.

When you plop your $$$$$ down on the table and hear the croupier announce, "Cheque change only," she’s merely telling the boxman that a new patron would like to exchange money for chips (cheques), and that the $$$$$ on the craps table isn’t part of the action. $$$$$ plays in almost all casinos, so if you put a $5 bill on the Pass Line just prior to the tosser rolling the dice and the dealer does not change your money for cheques, your cash is "part of the action." When the dealer indicates, "Cheque change only," the boxman knows that your $$$$$ is not part of the action.

Technically, in live craps rounds, we play with cheques, and not chips. Every once in a while, a gambler will walk up to the the craps table, drop a one hundred dollar cheque, and say to the croupier, "Cheque change." It’s entertaining to act like a beginner and ask the croupier, "Hey, I’m new to this game, what is a cheque?" Most of the time, their crazy responses will amuse you.