How to Buy Chips at a Casino (and Cash Them Out)

By Felt Trainer Editorial · Last updated September 12, 2026

Lay your cash flat on the table in front of you, not in the dealer's hand, and say "change please." The dealer counts it out loud, the bills go into a slot in the table, and a stack of chips comes back across the felt. That's the whole transaction, about fifteen seconds. Everything below is the detail around those fifteen seconds, plus what to do with the chips when you're done.

Buying in, step by step

1. Wait for a pause. Between hands at blackjack, or right after a roll settles at craps. A dealer mid-hand can't stop to count your money. If you're not sure whether it's a good moment, "can I buy in?" gets you either a nod or a "one second."
2. Put the cash on the felt. Flat, outside the betting circle, where the dealer can reach it. Dealers aren't allowed to take money from your hand. The overhead cameras have to see every dollar and every chip that crosses the table, and a hand-to-hand exchange is exactly what they can't verify. It feels rude the first time. It's the opposite.
3. Say what you want, if asked. Most dealers will hand you a sensible mix without asking. At a $10 table, $100 usually comes back as a few $25 chips and a stack of $5 chips. If you'd rather have all small chips so you can bet the minimum longer, "all in fives" is enough.
4. Watch the count. The dealer spreads your bills so the camera can read them, counts out loud ("change one hundred"), a supervisor may glance over, and the cash goes into the drop box. Then the chips slide over to you. Pick them up, stack them in front of you, and you're in.

Do this once and the nerves are gone. It's the same script at every table.

Chip colors and what they're usually worth

Most US casinos use the same base colors. Treat these as convention, not law. Every chip has its value printed on it, so if a color ever surprises you, read the chip.

Black at $100 is close to universal. The $1 chip is the one that wanders most (white at some casinos, blue at others, and a few tables use metal tokens instead). Roulette is its own case: each player gets a private color, and those chips have to be traded back before you leave that wheel. The casino glossary covers the rest of the slang.

Where the chips live during play

Two piles. The stack in front of you is yours and not in play. Whatever sits inside the betting circle (or on the layout, at craps) is a bet. Once the cards are out, the bet is off limits: the dealer settles it, pays a win next to it, and you pull the winnings back. Hands stay off the bet for the same camera reason as the cash rule. The hand signals guide walks the rest of the hands-off habits at blackjack.

Buying more mid-session

Same move, same rule. Wait for the hand to finish, lay cash on the felt outside the circle, say "change." Nobody is keeping score on how many times you've done it; dealers make change dozens of times an hour. If you set a budget before you sat down (the how much to bring guide has a simple way to do that), a rebuy is just the second half of the plan. If you didn't set one, the rebuy is where the night tends to go sideways.

Leaving the table: color up first

When you're ready to go, push your chips toward the dealer and say "color up" (or "color me up"). The dealer swaps your pile of small chips for the fewest large chips that add up to the same amount: twenty reds become one black. Casinos care about this for two reasons. Small chips are the table's working inventory. And the cashier's cage wants to count a handful of chips, not a bucket; some cashiers will send you back to a table if you show up with a mound of $1s.

You don't have to ask; most dealers color you up automatically when they see you rack up to leave. Saying it first just sounds like you've been there.

One catch: chips only spend at the casino that issued them. A chip from one property is a souvenir at the next, so cash out before you leave the building. Keeping one $1 chip as a memento is normal.

Then the cage

The cage (the cashier's cage, or just "the cashier") is a windowed counter usually near the edge of the floor; any employee can point you to it. Slide your chips through, the cashier counts them, and you get cash. Larger cashouts may need ID: US casinos have to file a report on cash transactions over $10,000 in a day, and many ask for ID well below that. Carry your license and it's a non-event.

Can you buy chips with a card?

At the table, no. Tables are cash only at essentially every US casino; a handful of properties have tried card terminals, but plan on cash.

The card options that do exist all cost you something. The casino ATM charges a flat fee per withdrawal (often $5 to $10, on top of whatever your bank adds). A cash-advance kiosk is worse: a percentage fee, and your card issuer treats it as a cash advance with interest from day one. A marker is a casino credit line you apply for ahead of time, and it's not a first-trip thing.

To be fair, the ATM is convenient. That's the problem with it. The limit you set at home only holds if the card that could break it is in the hotel safe. Bring the cash you decided on and the decision is already made by the time the table gets cold.

Tipping on the way out

Tipping the dealer when you color up is common, not required. A chip or two for a normal session, more if they've been patient with you. The tipping guide covers how much, when, and the two ways to hand it over.

The craps quirk

Craps follows the same script with one twist: you're standing, the table's loud, and there's a crew of four instead of one dealer. Wait until the dice are sitting in the middle of the table (the stickperson has them), drop your cash on the layout in front of you, and say "change only." That phrase matters here because money on the layout can be read as a bet; "change only" means chips, not action. The dealer nearest you counts it and pushes chips into the rail, the grooved ledge in front of you, never into your hand. Don't reach for anything until the dealer's finished, and never toss cash down while the dice are out. The craps etiquette guide walks the whole approach to the table, and the first table rehearsal lets you practice the buy-in before you're standing at a real one.

If you get it wrong

You'll hand the dealer cash at some point. Everyone does once. They'll say "just set it down for me," you'll set it down, and the count proceeds. The buy-in isn't a test, it's a handshake.

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