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Bowl Streaker!

Casino personnel frequently refer to chips as "cheques," which is of French ancestry. In reality, there is a difference between a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a value printed on it and is forever worth the value of the printed on it. Chips, however, don’t have values written on them and any color can be worth any amount as determined by the casino. For instance, in a poker table, the dealer might value white chips as $1 and blue chips as $10; at the same time, in a roulette game, the dealer might define white chips as 25 cents and blue chips as two dollars. A different example, the inexpensive red, white, and blue poker chips you buy at the department store for your weekend poker game are referred to as "chips" because they don’t have values written on them.

When you plop your money on the table and hear the croupier say, "Cheque change only," he’s basically telling the boxman that a new bettor wish to exchange money for chips, and that the money on the table isn’t in play. Cash plays in most betting houses, so if you place a five dollar bill on the Pass Line just before the player rolls the dice and the dealer does not change your cash for chips, your cash is "live" and "in play."

In reality, in actual craps games, we compete with with cheques, not chips. Occasionally, a player will walk up to the the table, put down a $100 cheque, and instruct the croupier, "Cheque change." It’s amusing to pretend to be a newbie and ask the dealer, "Hey, I’m new to this game, what is a cheque?" Generally, their crazy answers will amuse you.

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