Atlassino Academy · First visit · Lesson 4

Buying chips and cashing out

Cash into chips at the table, chips into money at the cashier — the part of a first visit with the most steps and the fewest signs.

  • About 22 minutes
  • Illustrated hosts: Leo and Maya
  • Last checked 26 October 2026

The fourth lesson of the first-visit track. It starts with notes in your hand at a roulette table and ends at the cashier with money back in your wallet. Choosing which table to sit at, and reading what is posted at it, come later in the first-visit track.

Before we start: you sit down at a roulette table with two notes in your hand, and the last spin has just been paid. Where do the two notes go?

  1. Onto a number on the cloth.
  2. On the table in front of the dealer, with a word about the chips you want.
  3. To the cashier, and you come back with chips.

Nothing is scored and nothing is sent anywhere. We come back to these three places at the end of the lesson.

The short answer

Buy chips at the table, between spins: the dealer takes your money, counts it out loud and hands the chips back. At the wheel you play the numbers with a colour of your own, good at that table only, and the chances with chips that are the same for everybody. Change your colour back at that table before you go. In the rules we read, value chips and slot tickets become money at the cashier — and above a federal threshold the cashier has to know who you are.

Leo and Maya at a cashier counter, its pass-through tray empty; nothing is on the counter and nothing is changing hands.
Leo smiling, explaining with an open hand.

Leoformer dealer · rules and maths

I dealt at a wheel for years, and the buy-in is the part of the evening people get wrong most often and worry about least. Money on the table, a word about what you want, and then you count what comes back.

After that there are two kinds of chip to keep apart, one call to respect, and one table to hand your colour back to.

Money becomes chips at the table

A chip is a small token that stands in for money and is what you bet with. To turn cash into chips you buy in (to change cash for chips at the table). In the rules we read it happens at the table, in front of the dealer, and the rules IPLyC Buenos Aires publishes for its casinos write the dealer’s side of it down step by step.

  1. The dealer confirms who is asking, and how muchBetween spins, you put the money on the table and say what you want. The dealer makes sure whose money it is and how much is to be changed.
  2. The money is spread out on the tableThe dealer takes the notes and spreads them out on the table, outside the dealer’s own stock of chips.
  3. The chips come back to you, with the amount said out loudThe dealer puts the chips within your reach and says the total — and, where it matters, which chips make it up.

The whole change is done out loud, so that it can be checked, and one change at a time. Count what comes back before you bet any of it: the dealer says the amount so that you can.

There is one place the cash must not go, and that is onto the cloth as a bet. A bet made in cash is void, and the money is handed back to you.

Some casinos sell chips at the cashier as well. One operator answers on its own questions page that its cashier takes credit cards for chips, and that it accepts dollars and euros. That is one operator’s page, not a rule for every casino — and a card at the cashier is exactly what the advice on money later in this track asks you to leave at home.

A poker table works differently from a wheel. Under the Lotería Nacional rules for Texas Hold’em, the game is played with value chips, and a player can buy them with cash or with special non-negotiable chips.

Colour chips and chance chips

At a roulette table there are two kinds of chip, and they do different jobs. To bet on the numbers you first buy, at that table, chips of a colour that nobody else at the table is playing — so that the dealer can tell at a glance whose bet is whose. Those are colour chips (chips of one colour used by one player at one roulette table, with no amount printed on them).

The chances — red, black, odd, even and the rest — are played with special chips that are the same for every player, called chance chips or change chips.

The two kinds of chip at a roulette table, asked the same questions
The questionColour chipsChance chips
What they are forBets on the numbersRed, black and the other chances
Whose they areYours alone: a colour nobody else at the table is playingEverybody’s: the same for every player
Where they can be playedOnly at the table where you bought themNot on the numbers
Who keeps an eye on the betThe dealer can tell it is yours by its colourYou do: the rules make it the player’s responsibility

A colour comes as a set. In the casinos IPLyC Buenos Aires runs, every colour has 100 chips, and that is the most that may be played.

Read the number, not the colour

A value chip has its amount printed on it — its denomination (the amount printed on a chip, which is what the chip is worth) — and that number is the only part of the chip you can trust. A colour chip has no number at all. What it is worth is a matter of rule: under the LOTBA rules a colour chip is worth the table’s smallest bet unless you give it a higher value, and never more than the table’s largest.

Three value-chip faces, drawn in the same colour on purpose. The 3 values drawn here are an example set, counted in betting units: the documents we read do not publish any casino’s chip values.

Two piles. The shorter one is worth more

A tall pile of small chips

  • 12 chips of 5 units

A short pile of large ones

  • 1 chip of 100 units
  • 2 chips of 25 units

The taller pile is the cheaper of the two: 60 units on the tall side against 150 units on the short side. Only the numbers printed on the chips tell you what a pile is worth.

What the chips at a table are worth, and the table’s smallest and largest bets, are posted in the gaming room — and the rules of IPLyC Buenos Aires treat them as known to you from the moment you bet. Reading what is posted at a table is a lesson of its own, later in this track.

Once the dealer calls

The dealer closes the betting for each spin with a call — in Spanish, «no va más». From that call no bet can be made, and no bet already made can be taken back or changed.

Between two spinsThe only part of a spin in which you move your own chips: money goes down on the table to be changed, chips go onto the cloth, chips come back off it.
The dealer calls «no va más»Betting for this spin is shut. Whatever is on the cloth at that second is the bet.
The ball runs and dropsNobody but the dealer touches anything on the cloth.
The dealer settles the spinLosing chips are swept in and the bets that came up are paid. The bet on the number stays where it is until it has been paid in full. Then the gap opens again.

The call shuts the betting. Whatever is on the cloth at that second is the bet.

A bet you call out but have not put down does not count: an announced bet whose chips are not on the cloth before «no va más» is not accepted.

And the chip goes down by hand, clearly: where a chip sits has to show your bet clearly and precisely, and throwing chips onto the cloth is not allowed.

After the spin, the bet on the number that came up stays where it is, untouched, until the dealer has finished paying it.

Leaving the wheel

Before you leave a roulette table, hand your colour chips back across that same table: the dealer counts them and gives you value chips for the same amount. Colour chips are bought and changed at the table they belong to, can be used only there, and are never exchanged for cash.

A value chip and a colour chip, side by side
The questionA value chipA roulette colour chip
Where one comes fromThe gaming tablesOne roulette table, and nowhere else
What one is worthThe number printed on itThe table’s smallest bet, unless you set it higher
Where it turns into moneyThe cashierNever directly: first into value chips at its own table

Do not walk away from your colour without a word. If you leave the table without telling the dealer you are carrying on — or let a spin go by without playing — the rules of IPLyC Buenos Aires let the bank dispose of the colour. A short break is fine; say so first, or change the colour back.

A change of chips — small ones for fewer large ones before you carry them to the cashier — is arithmetic and nothing else: the amount on both sides is the same, and nothing is rounded off in either direction.

What you hand over

  • 3 chips of 25 units
  • 7 chips of 5 units

What comes back

  • 1 chip of 100 units
  • 2 chips of 5 units

Both sides of the arrow are worth 110 units. 10 chips go over the table, and 3 come back. A change of chips moves chips and never money.

Chips back into money

At a table a chip only ever turns into other chips. Money comes from one counter, the cashier (the cage) (the window where chips and slot tickets become money): under the LOTBA rules, value chips are bought only at the gaming tables and exchanged for cash at the casino’s cash desks.

What turns into money, and where
What you are holdingWhere it becomes money
Value chips from a tableThe cashier
Roulette colour chipsValue chips at their own table first, and the cashier after that
A slot ticketAnother machine on the same validation system, or the cash desks

A slot machine pays in paper: you ask it to cash your credits and it prints a slot ticket.

  1. Ask the machine for a ticketWhatever credit is left on the machine is printed on a ticket at your request.
  2. Spend it or cash itAny machine connected to the same validation system takes the ticket — it checks the ticket before crediting anything — and the cash desks pay it too.
  3. A large payout is paid by a personWhen one game reaches the limit the room sets, that ticket can be paid only through a member of staff — not in another machine and not at a self-service kiosk.
Why the cashier may ask for your identity document

Casinos in Argentina — national, provincial, municipal, City or private — are bound by a federal anti-money-laundering rule of the UIF. It sets the amount from which the counter has to know who you are.

Where the counter has to know who you are
At the counterFrom
Prizes paid out, values converted, chips changed for moneyFifteen times the national minimum wage (the Salario Mínimo, Vital y Móvil)

If you decline, or do not have the information to hand, the payment waits until you give it. And the slip from a change of chips proves nothing about where money came from: the same rule says so in as many words. None of this is a rule about you: it is a rule about the casino, and the staff at the counter cannot make an exception to it for anybody. We print the threshold as the rule writes it, in minimum wages, and not as a sum: the sum changes whenever the minimum wage does.

Practice: buy in, change back

Moments from a visit, one run of them. Each one is a real step: notes in your hand at a wheel, a pile to count, a colour to hand back, a counter to find. Choose with the numbered buttons or the number keys. There is no money on this table and nothing adds up from one moment to the next — the amounts are examples in betting units, and only your decisions are counted.

Level 1 is buying in, and when its squares on the strip are full the next level begins by itself.

The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one moment from it, with the answer.

Level 1 · Buying in

Where you are
A roulette table with a free place
In your hand
Notes — an example amount
Right now
The last spin has just been paid

You have 40 units in notes, an example amount, and you want to play at this wheel. What do you do with the notes?

The answer: Put them on the table and ask the dealer for chips.

The table changes your money itself, in three steps the rules write down: the dealer confirms who is asking and how much, spreads the money out on the table, and passes the chips back within reach while saying the total. Cash put down as a bet is void and comes back to you.

Identificará al Apostador solicitante ratificado el importe a cambiar

Free translation: The dealer will identify the amount to be exchanged, as confirmed by the requesting Bettor.

Tomará y ubicará los valores a cambiar en la parte externa del límite de la Banca , extendiéndolos.

Free translation: The dealer will take the values to be exchanged and place them, spread out, on the outer side of the Bank's limit.

Hará entrega a Apostador de los valores requeridos situándolos en lo posible, a su cómodo alcance, anunciando su monto total y/o integración del mismo, según corresponda.

Free translation: The dealer will hand the Bettor the values requested, placing them, where possible, within easy reach, and announcing their total amount and/or its composition, as appropriate.

IPLyC Buenos Aires (Sistema de Normas) · Resolución 1452/12, Anexo I: Marco Normativo de los Juegos de Azar Artesanales y Electrónicos · section Capítulo 6, Ruleta Francesa — Reglamento Técnico Funcional: del Pagador (6.6.2.5, 6.6.2.9) · read
Serán declaradas nulas las apuestas en efectivo y /o valores no vigentes que se hubieren efectuado, siendo devueltas al Apostador.

Free translation: Bets made in cash and/or with values that are not valid shall be declared void and returned to the Bettor.

IPLyC Buenos Aires (Sistema de Normas) · Resolución 1452/12, Anexo I: Marco Normativo de los Juegos de Azar Artesanales y Electrónicos · section Capítulo 1, Ruleta Americana: de las fichas, las anomalías, las apuestas y el apostador (1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.9) · read

Level 2 · Leaving and cashing out

Where you are
Standing up from a roulette table
In your hand
18 colour chips of your colour
What they are worth
10 units each, an example value

You are leaving a roulette table with 18 colour chips worth 10 units each, an example value. What do you do with them?

The answer: Change them at this table for value chips.

18 chips at 10 units each is 180 units, and that is what you walk away with — in value chips, handed over at this table. Colour chips are bought and changed at the table they belong to, can be used only there, and are never exchanged for cash.

FICHAS DE COLOR. Se utilizan únicamente para realizar las apuestas a los números en las mesas de ruleta. Se adquieren o canjean en la mesa donde se va a realizar la apuesta, y únicamente se pueden utilizar en dicha mesa. Están identificadas con el número de la mesa a la cual pertenecen, o en su defecto, por un dibujo distintivo, el cual será diferente para cada una de las mesas. Su valor será el de la apuesta mínima para la mesa a la que pertenece, salvo en el caso de que el cliente que las utilice decida darles un valor mayor, que en ningún caso podrá ser mayor al de la apuesta máxima de dicha mesa. En ningún caso, podrán ser canjeadas por efectivo.

Free translation: COLOR CHIPS. They are used only to place bets on numbers at the roulette tables. They are bought or exchanged at the table where the bet is to be placed, and can only be used at that table. They are identified by the number of the table to which they belong or, failing that, by a distinctive design, which will be different for each table. Their value will be the minimum bet of the table to which they belong, unless the customer using them decides to give them a higher value, which in no case may be higher than the maximum bet of that table. In no case may they be exchanged for cash.

FICHAS DE VALOR. Son las que se utilizan para realizar las apuestas y efectuar el pago de los premios de todos los juegos de Casino. Únicamente se pueden adquirir en las mesas de juego. Se canjean por efectivo en las cajas de las salas de Casino habilitadas para tal fin.

Free translation: VALUE CHIPS. These are the chips used to place bets and to pay the prizes in all Casino games. They can only be bought at the gaming tables. They are exchanged for cash at the cashier's desks of the Casino rooms authorized for that purpose.

LOTBA (Boletín Oficial CABA) · Res. de Directorio 4/20, Anexo: Texto Ordenado de Control (art. 132, III. Cálculo de beneficio – mesa de paño: definiciones de fichas) · read
Entre las de “Color” hay de distintos colores y valores. Esto es para evitar confusiones, ya que cada apostador posee un color diferente, y sólopuede jugarlo en la mesa donde lo adquirió.

Free translation: The "Color" chips come in different colors and values. This is to avoid confusion, since each bettor has a different color and can only play it at the table where it was acquired.

IAFAS Entre Ríos · Ruleta / Juegos Tradicionales de Casinos (DOC-H8-GCA-CSJ-004 V00) · read
Al Apostador le será permitido jugar un color y/o valor por bola en la mesa que le fuera canjeado.

Free translation: The Bettor will be allowed to play one color and/or value per ball at the table where it was exchanged for them.

IPLyC Buenos Aires (Sistema de Normas) · Resolución 1452/12, Anexo I: Marco Normativo de los Juegos de Azar Artesanales y Electrónicos · section Capítulo 1, Ruleta Americana: de las fichas, las anomalías, las apuestas y el apostador (1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.9) · read

Level 3 · Counting the stack

The pile in front of you

  • 2 chips of 25 units
  • 3 chips of 5 units

How much is this pile of value chips worth?

The answer: 65 units.

two 25-unit chips and three 5-unit chips come to 65 units. There are 5 chips in the pile, and the number of chips is not the amount: the numbers printed on the chips are.

Realizará las operaciones de cambio en voz alta, facilitando su control e interpretación de la siguiente manera:

Free translation: The dealer will carry out exchange transactions aloud, to make them easier to check and interpret, as follows:

Hará entrega a Apostador de los valores requeridos situándolos en lo posible, a su cómodo alcance, anunciando su monto total y/o integración del mismo, según corresponda.

Free translation: The dealer will hand the Bettor the values requested, placing them, where possible, within easy reach, and announcing their total amount and/or its composition, as appropriate.

IPLyC Buenos Aires (Sistema de Normas) · Resolución 1452/12, Anexo I: Marco Normativo de los Juegos de Azar Artesanales y Electrónicos · section Capítulo 6, Ruleta Francesa — Reglamento Técnico Funcional: del Pagador (6.6.2.5, 6.6.2.9) · read
How the practice table works

Where the answers come from. Not one of the answers is written by hand. The arithmetic ones — what a pile comes to, the fewest chips an amount can be — are worked out by the same small engine that prints the numbers in the text above. The rule ones come from the published documents this page quotes, and the explanation carries the sentence it rests on, with the date we read it.

The amounts are examples. The chip values in the practice table — 5, 25 and 100 units — are an example set: the documents we read do not publish any casino’s chip values. A unit can stand for any amount, and the arithmetic is the same at any scale.

One strip, no rounds. Every square on the strip is one moment of this lesson, and they are all there from the start. Your first answer fills the square; when a level’s squares are full the next level begins by itself. Practising a mistake turns a cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count: only first answers do. Progress stays in this browser; nothing is sent anywhere.

Check yourself

Maya with a finger raised and a knowing look.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.

A question marked “New situation” asks you to use the lesson on a case it did not show.

1You sit down at a roulette table with notes in your hand and the last spin has just been paid. Where does the money go?

Show the answer

Answer: On the table in front of the dealer, and you ask for chips. On the table, for the dealer to change: confirmed, spread out, counted out loud and handed back as chips. Cash put down as a bet is void.

  • Onto a number, as your bet. A bet in cash is not a bet. It is declared void and the money comes back to you.
  • To the cashier, and you come back with chips. Your colour for this wheel is sold at this wheel and nowhere else.
  • On the table in front of the dealer, and you ask for chips. The dealer takes the money, spreads it out on the table and hands the chips back within your reach, saying the amount.
2You want one bet on number 17 and one on red. Which chips go where?

Show the answer

Answer: Your own colour on the number, chance chips on red. Your colour is how the dealer tells your number bets from everyone else’s, and the chances are played with chips that are the same for everybody.

  • Your own colour on the number, chance chips on red. The numbers take your colour; the chances take the chips that are the same for everybody.
  • Your own colour on both. Your colour is for the numbers. The chances are played with chance chips.
  • Chance chips on both. Chance chips are not played on the numbers.
3The dealer has called «no va más» and you change your mind about your bet.

Show the answer

Answer: Leave it where it is until the spin is settled. From the call, nothing goes down, nothing comes off and nothing moves.

  • Say the new number out loud instead. An announced bet is not accepted unless it is made in chips before the call.
  • Leave it where it is until the spin is settled. After «no va más» no bet can be made, taken back or changed.
  • Move it quickly — the ball has not dropped yet. The call closes the betting, whatever the ball is doing.
4You are getting up from a roulette table and you still have your colour chips.

Show the answer

Answer: Change them at that table for value chips. Colour chips are bought and changed at their own table, can be used only there, and never go to the cashier as they are.

  • Change them at that table for value chips. A colour chip turns into value chips at its own table, and only then into money at the cashier.
  • Use them at the next wheel along. A colour chip can be used only at the table it belongs to.
  • Take them to the cashier. A colour chip is never exchanged for cash.
5You hand the dealer seven 5-unit chips and three 25-unit chips and ask for larger chips. What does the dealer say the pile comes to? new situation

Show the answer

Answer: 110 units. Seven fives and three twenty-fives come to 110 units, and that is 10 chips — the count of the chips and the amount of the money are two different figures. The change hands back 3 chips worth exactly the same.

  • 110 units The three 25s and the seven 5s, added up by the numbers printed on them.
  • 100 units Nothing is rounded off at a change of chips, in either direction.
  • 10 units That is the number of chips lying in front of you, not the amount they come to.

The question we opened with. On the table in front of the dealer, with a word about the chips you want. A note put on a number is not a bet, and your colour for this wheel is sold at this wheel.

Where to check this

18+ under each province’s rules · Play responsibly · the helplines are at the end of this page

Further reading

Maya with an open hand held out to one side, pointing at a chart.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Chips are tonight’s money with a number printed on them, and the number is the whole point: count the pile in the units of your bet, not in stacks. A colour has no number at all, so know what you set it at.

And if you find yourself wanting a second buy-in, decide about it away from the table. The provincial advice we read puts it plainly: leave the cards at home, and do not use one to take out more than you meant to play.

If it stops being fun

If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. Minimum entry age: each province sets its own. Where we found the rule or regulator that sets it, we cite it on the page; those we found set it at 18. More on responsible gaming.

Show all provinces
0800-666-6006Buenos Aires City (CABA) · Línea de orientación por juego problemático (LOTBA) · Monday to Friday, 9 to 17
0800-444-4000Buenos Aires Province · Programa de Prevención y Asistencia al Juego Compulsivo (IPLyC)
0800-777-2983Cordoba · Línea 0800-777-AYUDA (Lotería de Córdoba) · 24 hours
0800-268-5640Santa Fe · Línea gratuita de la APRECOD (Santa Fe) · Every day, 8 to 24
0800-888-2202Entre Rios · Departamento Juego Responsable (IAFAS, PREVENJUEGO)
0261-424-7536Mendoza · Programa de Juego Responsable (IPJyC) · Monday to Friday, 8 to 14
0800-888-5836Misiones · Programa de Juego Responsable del IPLyC S.E. (0800-888-LUDO)
0800-888-2008Chaco · Línea de Juego Responsable (Lotería Chaqueña)
0299-403-8900Neuquen · Líneas de contacto, orientación y tratamiento (IJAN, juego responsable) · Monday to Friday, 8 to 15
0800-222-1700Rio Negro · Línea de Orientación al Jugador Problemático (Lotería de Río Negro)
02901-433515Tierra del Fuego · Departamento Juego Responsable (IPRA, Ushuaia)
0800-555-7678Tucuman · Juego Responsable, Ley 8986 (Caja Popular de Ahorros)
0800-999-1314San Juan · Línea gratuita del Programa Provincial de Juego Responsable (Caja de Acción Social) · Monday to Friday, 08 to 12

If you are thinking about suicide, call 135 or 0800 345 1435 from anywhere in the country

How it’s worked out

Sources, numbers and hosts

Sources. Every rule on this page is quoted from the document that states it, and the ⓘ beside it opens that sentence with its publisher and the date we read it: the roulette rules of Lotería de Córdoba, the rules IPLyC Buenos Aires publishes for its own casinos, the LOTBA conditions of operation, and the federal rule of the UIF for the identity check. Each rule binds the casinos of the body that wrote it; where only one body publishes a step, the page says whose rule it is rather than making it sound national. Quotes are printed in Spanish, as the publisher printed them.

Numbers. Every amount here is worked out when the page is built, by the same engine the practice table uses, and is counted in betting units rather than pesos: a unit can stand for any amount, and the arithmetic is the same at any scale. The chip values used throughout — 5, 25 and 100 units — are an example, and so is every smallest bet on this page.

What is deliberately absent. No table minimum on this page is taken from a real casino, and there is no word about tipping and no reading of the sign posted at a table; those have lessons of their own. There is nothing here about getting hold of more money once you are inside the building, and that absence is on purpose: this lesson is about the money you walked in with.

Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.

No promise. This lesson is about handling money at a casino, not about how an evening ends. Nothing on this page says an evening at a casino is a good idea for you.

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