I keep some chips for several reasons:

1) I immediately know how much I won/lost in a session without having to notate it right away (the amount of cash I carry varies from day to day).

2) I'm a super paranoid person and if I have money lieing around (if I haven't deposited or placed in safety deposit box/safe yet) then I risk someone I know stealing from me or me thinking they stole from me....the people I know are unlikely to take chips...as are the type of people that would break into a house in my neighborhood.

3) the main reason I use chips is a sort of mental trick I play on myself. By playing with chips rather than cash I can take losses much easier and I am less likely to go on a major tilt bender where I dig deep into my bankroll.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2

[QUOTE=Acezzzup;36646911] More like lol to this.

Of course there's no risk free way, but you may as well pick the lowest risk way.

That's like saying you can't cross a road in a risk free way, so you may as well run across with your eyes shut.

I lol'd - but I did state that the reason I consider this was because the casino is quite some distance away and isn't something I'd do crazy with without putting in a long drive but I do get the point you're making.

Thank you to everyone for their input - enjoyed reading all the responses.

The thing that hit home the most was if the casino went out of business.

I just googled this because i was concerned about the same thing, I just decided to start saving chips myself and thought this. I live in Las Vegas and am keeping chips from large casinos that have been around for several years, these strip casinos might out last the banks, so it is, at worst, just as risky as depositing into a bank or at best the safest thing ever lol. Outside of this town I wouldnt hold onto the chips longer than a week though. And based on this thread I wont keep anything bigger than a black chip ever ($100)

+1 to everyone who's warning against holding chips because the casino could bust or swap them out, or you could more easily lose them than paper money.

One comment I think didn't get enough credit was JTrout's suggestion that you could hang onto several racks of $1 chips, if your cardroom uses a good, pricey brand like Paulson.

New Paulsons sell for around $1 or more per chip. If you're going to hold onto chips anyway, and you ultimately get to cash them for face value, great. If the cardroom goes bust or stops honoring them, and you miss out, you still have a nice custom home-game set that cost less than buying it at retail. (Keep an eye on Chiproom after the chips are discontinued, and you may even be able to add some other denominations to that set at a deep discount.)

The last thing I will add is that you need to get more disciplined with your money. Cheap tricks like holding onto casino chips will not help you with this. If you know you will impulsively spend cash just because it's around, that's a huge "life leak" you need to get under control. If you have the ability not to see every flop in hold'em just because you have a big stack, then you have the ability not to blow through your cash on frivolous purchases.

Learn better self control, set up a poker roll and profit.

What if the Casino suddenly closed down?

I this. As someone with a man purse I'm going to start doing this every time.

Be careful. Someone might steal it. Then how will you ask the police for help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnKRbEPbItE#t=4m50s

4 min 50 sec

Dumb, invest it.

Snort.

Ha haha all these silly bank people, take your cash that you want to save put it in a Mason jar fill it with water, seal it and put it in your freezer..

No impulse spending there.....

Most places that I've seen (in the US) you can, you just incur a penalty for doing so (most commonly 90 days interest or all of it if it's less).

But yeah, solid advice itt.

Find a bank an hour away.

I know people that have had problems showing up at the cage to cash out a large amount of chips that the casino can't trace where they came from (i.e. a call to the poker room or craps pit, for instance).

Utilize a casino deposit box where available to store cash. Or, establish credit within a casino where you can wire money back and forth for no fee. Much better than taking money OR CHIPS back and forth when concerned about safety.

As far as saving money goes, anything not part of your bankroll belongs in a bank or other savings account. As was stated before, there is no risk-free way to save money aside from an FDIC insured bank deposit. Utilize this option and you won't have an issue.

FDIC insurance doesn't work if the US government collapses. Neither does cash. This isn't a political statement, it's pointing out that there literally is no risk-free way to save money. Not gold, not salt, not flocks of goats, not cash, not FDIC insured banks, not casino chips.

That isn't to say the risks are the same. People in many countries prefer US currency because it is more stable than local currency. Publicly-traded casinos will probably be more stable than privately-owned casinos.

Choose your risk carefully.

Canned food and shotgun shells.

I'll see that, and raise you heirloom seeds and rifle ammo.

I'm putting all my money in can openers.

Excellent level.

How can you be so cynical? Caesars Entertainment stock has a book value of only a negative $12.50 per share.

Who needs a can opener?

That's what the shotgun shells are for...

Open a savings account, separate from other savings if necessary to keep track. Just withdraw and deposit. If you can't even do that, then you don't have the discipline for cash/chips decisions to make a difference. The interest really pays off over time, especially given that you shouldn't risk a large portion of your payroll at a time, so most of the back-up bankroll will just be sitting inactive.

The people suggesting putting the money in the bank aren't factoring in how hard getting money out of the bank is. Many banks at least in the US have $300 limits for the amount you can take out per day from the ATM. If you're going to grind even at a 1/3 game you'll want to have $1000 or so with you and that's more than you usually can get from an ATM. Also if your typical game is 2/5 or bigger you're looking at having to carry a lot of hundreds around. I'd personally rather carry 5 $500 chips than $2500 in hundreds just strictly from a convience stand point. Get a back pack. Zip the chips in the backpack, and you won't lose them