Casino personnel normally reference chips as "cheques," which is of French ancestry. Technically, there’s a distinction amidst a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a amount printed on its face and is always worth the amount of the imprinted denomination. Chips, although, do not have denominations written on them and any color can be worth any cash amount as determined by the dealer. For example, in a poker tournament, the house might state that white chips as $1 and blue chips as ten dollars; whereas, in a game of roulette, the croupier may define white chips as $0.25 and blue chips as two dollars. A further example, the cheap red, white, and blue plastic chips you can get at Wal-Mart for your Friday-night poker get together are known as "chips" owing to the fact that they do not have denominations written on them.
When you put your cash down on the table and hear the croupier announce, "Cheque change only," she’s simply informing the box man that a new individual wants to change money for chips (cheques), and that the $$$$$ on the table isn’t in play. $$$$$ plays in almost all casinos, so if you lay a five dollar bill on the Pass Line just prior to the shooter rolling the bones and the dealer does not trade your $$$$$ for cheques, your $$$$$$ is "in play." When the dealer says, "Cheque change only," the boxman knows that your cash isn’t in play.
In reality, in live craps rounds, we gamble with cheques, and not chips. Every once in a while, a player will walk up to the the craps table, drop a one hundred dollar cheque, and inform the dealer, "Cheque change." It’s amusing to act like a newbie and ask the croupier, "Hey, I am new to this game, what is a cheque?" Frequently, their wacky answers will amuse you.