Chicago Sun-Times: Cashing in roulette chips can be unpleasant exchange

Q. 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 5-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.

A. I know how you feel, Mickey. It's like trying to return a hideous Christmas sweater 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 won't 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 cents a chip, while your father 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 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 your dad.

You will be 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 the kitchen, scrubbing the grill.

Mark Pilarski is a syndicated gaming writer.