Cheques Please
At a casino poker game you hear the Dealer call for “cheques” when a player wants chips. Technically poker chips have no monetary value.
Casino cheques are used as actual currency. Cheques are used in cash poker games. Chips are used in poker tournaments. Is there a reason for this? The interpretations are many and it depends who you ask. Cheques or chips? Try figuring this out at the roulette or blackjack table.
RFID Tags
The newest wrinkle in cheque manufacturing is the embedding of radio-frequency-identification (RFID) tags. Wynn Las Vegas was the first casino to employ RFID chips, in 2005. Not only does this enable the house to monitor the movement of cheques across the casino floor, it can determine how much you buy in and where you play it off.
Bellagio used the technique to foil a chip scam after a helmeted gunman had robbed the casino floor of $1.5 million worth of cheques. To be extra careful, Bellagio retired the chips in use on the floor and replaced them with a "secondary set" a duplicate but distinct backup set that always exists for use in such scenarios.
Poker Origins