Casino employees usually reference chips as "cheques," which is of French ancestry. Technically, there’s a difference amidst a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a denomination printed on its face and is constantly valued at the amount of the printed number. Chips, although, do not have denominations printed on them and any color can be worth any amt. as determined by the dealer. e.g., in a poker tournament, the croupier may state that white chips as $1 and blue chips as 10 dollars; at the same time, in a game of roulette, the house may value white chips as $0.25 and blue chips as 2 dollars. Another example, the cheap red, white, and blue plastic chips you buy at Wal-Mart for your weekly poker game are known as "chips" seeing as they do not have values written on them.
When you plop your $$$$$ down on the craps table and hear the dealer say, "Cheque change only," she’s just informing the box man that a new individual would like to change $$$$$$ for chips (cheques), and that the $$$$$$ on the craps table isn’t in play. $$$$$$ plays in most casinos, so if you place a 5 dollar bill on the Pass Line just before the player throws the dice and the dealer does not exchange your cash for chips, your cash is "in play." When the croupier indicates, "Cheque change only," the boxman knows that your $$$$$$ isn’t part of the action.
Technically, in in real life craps games, we wager with cheques, not chips. Occasionally, a player will walk up to the the craps table, drop a $100 cheque, and say to the croupier, "Cheque change." It is entertaining to act like a novice and ask the croupier, "Hey, I am new to Craps, what is a cheque?" Generally, their comical responses will entertain you.