What’s a quarter chip?

Casinos are there to make money. Yeah, thanks for the news flash. But my point is, every little thing they do, down – literally – to the quarter, is based off making money. And it’s for this reason that it surprises me whenever they make a rule or policy that’s to the benefit of the gambling public. It’s not that I think casinos don’t actively try to help you have a good time, if that’s your thing. It’s more of a feeling that if they can do both, greath, but if they have to choose, money is money. But what about trivial little things here and there. Truth is, they might seem small to you, but you can bet they add up to the casinos. And there’s an interesting one regarding blackjack I want to mention.

Almost every casino at which you’re going to gamble, either online or in a building, is giving you 3/2 on blackjack. And if you’re playing the table minimum, which is also almost always going to be $5 outside of Freemont Street, then a blackjack offers you a fraction of a dollar as part of your winnings. Well, online that’s no big deal. We’re all just dealing in virtual tallies of dollars and cents anyway, but in an actual casino, 50 cent or quarter chips aren’t as common as a scotch on the rocks these days.

And, if you let a $7.50 bet ride and hit another blackjack, you’re almost certainly going to put the casino in a situation where they’re going to have to round up or down when they pay out your winnings. Which was is fair? Depends, obviously, on which perspective you see it from. Casinos will rarely hand out free money, but some do round up. Most, though, will round down. And you might not think 25 cents makes a difference when you’re already up or down $200, but to the casino, if you take a wild guess that they go through 500 blackjacks a day, you can see why they’d be reluctant to take the charitable route there.

Fair? Debatable. If you know what the rule is before you play and still play, then it’s fair. And since no casino hides its rules, it’s up to you to make sure you’ve studied up.

Could casinos have quarter chips on hand for such situations? Yeah, they could, but from what I understand the average chip costs about 35 cents to make, so they’re probably not going to start cranking these out on a loss just to appeal to the tiny minority who takes offense to being shortchanged on a blackjack bet.
But in this market, where casinos are struggling big time, you might see more rolling the change your way in the next year.