Buying Casino Chips?

When playing craps, I will sometimes save a dollar chip as a souvenir. Next time I go to Vegas, I'm thinking about getting a dollar chip from each casino I visit, regardless if I play craps at the casino or not.

Is it considered bad form to just walk up to a table game and purchase one chip and not play? Can you buy chips directly from the cashier window where you normally exchange your chips for cash?

I would walk up to the cashier and get a chip. I would say it is more discourteous to the other players to hold up the game for that purpose, but then again it is no different than the person who walks up, buys in and plays one hand before leaving! Just my thoughts!!

Yeah buy at the cage. People do this all the time, and often the cashier will dig through the drawer and try to find a really clean one for you.

It's also acceptable to purchase from a table where there are no players.

I did that once, and the dealer actually took two stacks of reds and spread them out so I can pick the one I wanted.

Quote: blount2000

When playing craps, I will sometimes save a dollar chip as a souvenir. Next time I go to Vegas, I'm thinking about getting a dollar chip from each casino I visit, regardless if I play craps at the casino or not.

Is it considered bad form to just walk up to a table game and purchase one chip and not play? Can you buy chips directly from the cashier window where you normally exchange your chips for cash?

Happens all the time. That's how we all put our chip collections together. Dealers are used to it. Just don't buy a stack of 20 whites and then sit there at the BJ table going through 'em looking for the cleanest, sharpest edged ones. Years ago many casinos used metal coins on table games (also used as dollar slot coins), the only game you could buy the clay chips was the crap table. I guess folks tossing the dollar coins for hardways bets ripped up the felt. Don't forget to put together complete roulette chip sets from each casino, and often baccarat uses different denoms, and sometimes larger, chips.

Commemorative chips are sometimes only available at the cage. Grand Opening chips after the casino's been open a few years, anniversary chips, WSOP chips at the Rio, concerts or other events at Hard Rock and Palms, boxing chips at MGM, etc won't be found out on the floor at all since people carry them home. On the wall by the cages at Harrahs and Palms are displays of all the commemorative chips still available at the cage. Palms seems to specialize in Playboy chips btw, many still out on the floor. You can buy in for $200 at a table game and literally receive 40 different redbirds.

Some places, like Mirage comes to mind, never do commemoratives. They advertise their headliners like Terry Fator right now, but you won't find the old Danny Gans or Siegfried & Roy chips anymore, 'cept on ebay.

Quote: blount2000

When playing craps, I will sometimes save a dollar chip as a souvenir. Next time I go to Vegas, I'm thinking about getting a dollar chip from each casino I visit, regardless if I play craps at the casino or not.

Is it considered bad form to just walk up to a table game and purchase one chip and not play? Can you buy chips directly from the cashier window where you normally exchange your chips for cash?

Calling Doc. Calling Doc. He collects $1 chips from every casino he's been to. I'm sure he will say it is fine and normal to buy just one $1 chip from a table for your collection. A friend of mine is a dealer and says he gets that request once in a while and will search through the rack for the cleanest chip.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

It's also acceptable to purchase from a table where there are no players.

I did that once, and the dealer actually took two stacks of reds and spread them out so I can pick the one I wanted.

I prefer to go to an empty Roulette table (which might be harder to find in Vegas than before). It can be fun to just place a 6/8 on a craps table, take one of the $1 and see if you can make your money back.

I have over 200 chips in my collection, if you are looking to buy a bulk amount of chips a good place to go to is Spinettis, near downtown. If you buy in bulk you can talk them into doing 1.80 I think per chip, it is a lot easier than driving around to each casino. Ill post pictures of my chip collection soon.

To tie this in with another recent thread: If the cashier won't/can't sell chips (some don't), buy one from an empty table. Three-Card Poker is usually completely vacant...

A woman asked a dice dealer for a chip and handed him a dollar, he selected a chip that had been in use but was quite new and gave it to her directly in her hand. There were no problems with any of this. Its one lousy buck and some woman who wants fond memories of the casino and may be back someday. They were perfectly happy and the table wasn't all that crowded or busy anyway.

I don't see why casinos are uptight about it. Its chip that will never be cashed so its pure profit for them and its going to be shown to friends and relatives... free advertising.