Casino employees usually allude to chips as "cheques," which is of French ancestry. In reality, there is a distinction amidst a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a denomination imprinted on its face and is constantly worth the amount of the printed denomination. Chips, although, do not have denominations printed on them and any colour can be worth any cash amount as defined by the table. e.g., in a poker tournament, the croupier might define white chips as $1 and blue chips as 10 dollars; whereas, in a game of roulette, the house may define white chips as 25 cents and blue chips as two dollars. A different example, the cheap red, white, and blue poker chips you can get at Wal-Mart for your Friday-night poker game are considered "chips" because they don’t have denominations printed on them.
When you put your $$$$$ down on the craps table and hear the dealer say, "Cheque change only," she’s simply telling the boxman that a new gambler wants to exchange cash for chips (cheques), and that the $$$$$$ on the table is not part of the action. $$$$$ plays in most betting houses, so if you place a five dollar bill on the Pass Line just before the player throws the bones and the dealer doesn’t trade your $$$$$$ for cheques, your money is "part of the action." When the croupier states, "Cheque change only," the boxman knows that your $$$$$ isn’t in play.
Technically, in live craps rounds, we compete with cheques, not chips. Every now and then, a gambler will approach the table, drop a one hundred dollar cheque, and say to the croupier, "Cheque change." It’s entertaining to pretend to be a novice and ask the croupier, "Hey, I am new to Craps, what is a cheque?" Generally, their wacky responses will amuse you.
