My Dad brought home two-dozen roulette chips from a casino on a recent gambling trip that he forgot to cash in. I was going there the following week and he asked me to exchange them for cash and use the money as I wish. He said they were worth $5 each.
When I presented them to the cashier’s cage, the girl informed me she could not give me any money for them and I should turn them in at the roulette table. When I presented them to the dealer he would not give me any money and called over the pit boss. The pit boss decision was to offer me 25 cents each ($6) instead of the $120 I believed I deserved. Is this 25 cents on the dollar exchanging a way of defrauding the players out their money? And what about the cashier, was she in cahoots with the pit? Mickey G.
I know how you feel, Mickey. Itıs like trying to return the hideous Christmas sweater from Aunt Scratchy to the store for its full tag value, without a receipt. The most a store can give you is the lowest sales price. In your case, you got clearance. So, was it fair? Step right up for an answer you wonıt like, but the pit boss did handle your exchange correctly. No hoodwinking here.
On a roulette game, each colored chip has several values over the course of a day because not all players play for the same amount. Cheapos like me play at 25˘ a chip, while your father, Mr. High-roller, uses those same chips once I’ve left to hunt up more quarters – for $5 each.
During play, the dealer identifies the value of each colored chip by placing the same-color Sbobet chip on the edge of the wheel with a marker on top of it showing its current value. The next player using the same color chips could very well assign them a different value – like a quarter apiece.
When your Dad left the roulette game, he should have exchanged the arbitrarily valued roulette chips with the dealer for an equivalent value in regular casino chips, which he could then have exchanged at the cashier’s cage for real money.
As for the cashier collaborating with the pit, hardly. Innocent of any clairvoyant skills, she had absolutely no idea how much those chips you presented had been worth at the table. That is why she marched you back to the roulette table.
Because the dealer and the pit boss had no idea who you are, or who your father is, they could redeem them only at the table minimum unless they could specifically remember you or Dad. (You will shocked to learn that on occasion unscrupulous players try to buy in or cash out for a few hundred at $5 a pop, using chips they had earlier purchased at 25 cents apiece. Dealers not alert to this ruse wind up in kitchen scrubbing the grill. Been there, done that.)
I recall an action with some similarity: a player spilled a 7-Eleven Super Big Gulp all over the table, delaying the game for a twenty-minute clean-up. During table-rescue-time, the players left, one with serious roulette chips in tow. When he came back hours later, I still remembered his action and accepted his chips for the full value of $5 each. My max short-term memory, 6.2 hours, would never have remembered your father’s play from a week before. The only thing competent casino employees remember long-term with certainty is payday and days off.
Gambling thought of the week: “Anybody who has spent much time around gamblers has seen the power of superstition up close.” – Barry Meadow
