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Casino employees normally reference chips as "cheques," which is of French background. Technically, there’s a difference between a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a value written on its face and is constantly worth the amount of the written amount. Chips, although, do not have denominations imprinted on them and any colour can be worth any amount as defined by the croupier. For instance, in a poker tournament, the house might define white chips as $1 and blue chips as 10 dollars; at the same time, in a roulette game, the house may state that white chips as 25 cents and blue chips as two dollars. A different example, the cheap red, white, and blue plastic chips you can get at Wal-Mart for your weekly poker get together are called "chips" seeing as they don’t have values written on them.

When you put your $$$$ down on the table and hear the croupier announce, "Cheque change only," he’s simply advising the boxman that a new patron wishes to change $$$$$$ for chips (cheques), and that the $$$$$$ on the craps table is not part of the action. Cash plays in almost all betting houses, so if you place a five dollar bill on the Pass Line just before the hurler throws the bones and the croupier doesn’t exchange your cash for chips, your cash is "part of the action." When the croupier indicates, "Cheque change only," the boxman knows that your cash isn’t in play.

Technically, in land based craps rounds, we wager with cheques, and not chips. Occasionally, a gambler will walk up to the the table, put down a 100 dollar cheque, and say to the croupier, "Cheque change." It is entertaining to act like a beginner and say to the croupier, "Hey, I am new to this game, what’s a cheque?" Frequently, their wacky answers will entertain you.