This is only a thought and just wanted to get some opinions:

My nearest casino is about 1hr 10 mins away and I had the thought of swapping some of my saved money into casino chips to keep at home. Whenever I play live I've always gone to the cashier to collect my money and have never brought chips home with me.

The reason I ask and originally thought about this is that I'm much more likely to spend any money I have laying around and I know having to make a trip to get that money means I'll save it.

Does anybody else do this? Or do you guys keep your chips just for efficiency when buying in live?

I keep my poker buy ins separate from my money. I don't look at them as money I look at them as leverage. As a mechanic would look at a set of tools.

While I like to play with people who are impulsive, poker is a game where self discipline pays off.

plus how clean do you think those chips are?

Don't do that.

A casino is just a company. Companies go bankrupt, get sold, close their doors... I don't know what sort of regulatory control they have in place on that side of the pond, but in Vegas if a casino goes belly up, or just puts a notice in the local paper saying they are canceling a set of chips, you get something like 90 or 120 days to convert 'em. If you don't hear about the event, and don't get your chips converted, they turn into useless disks.

Bellagio recently did that with their $25,000 chips after the Biker Bandit robberies. Venetian recently did that after a construction worker just walked in and pried open an unattended table game rack and helped himself. Sucks to be you if you're holding onto those chips now.

Agree with this, with one nitty exception:
They likely won't be completely useless. If you stick to $1 chips (or less) and they are Paulson and in decent condition, they will have some value.
Could be more, could be less.
Given that, and given that you may have some enjoyment out of having them (home game use), I think a rack or three of ones isn't a big thing.

Years ago I knew a prop that carried his chips in a shoe box. I don't know when he would cash out but he kept his money in white.

Since I only play at one casino most the time, I leave about 75% of my bankroll on deposit there. Means I am not holding a chunk of money everytime I travel, and keeps the cash from getting used at home for anything. The other 25% I can take to LV or AC if I want to take a trip, or have it for emergency loans to the household account.

I knew a dealer who would only cash out a portion of her tokes every night, while coloring up most of the amount into green, for the exact reason the OP describes (to keep from impulsively spending it). She took money very seriously, had a spotless credit report, etc.

It worked for her.

But she was in the casino every day. If there was ever a danger of the chips coming out of circulation or the business struggling financially, it wouldn't take her by surprise and leave her holding the bag.

I don't think it's worth the risk, which is the casino voiding the chips without you realizing in time, and losing all your money.

Depositing the money with the casino would be much safer. Depositing with a bank would be even better.

If you can't do that because of privacy concerns or whatever, and you really can't trust yourself to keep the cash without spending it impulsively, you could consider buying valuable items that don't depreciate, like firearms, mint condition Rolexes, etc. (I wouldn't go with gold/silver here simply because it's too volatile.)

Sounds a bit crazy but at the end of I definitely think it's better than holding thousands (or more) in casino chips if it comes down to it.

I keep a small portion of my buyin in chip form and pop it in a ceramic bank whenever I have a winning session. next time I'm busto I'm gonna smash it open.

Honestly, this sounds like a bankroll management issue. If you can't control spending, because you have cash, deposit it in a bank.

Deposit your money in the bank and invest it if you have too much of an issue spending your cash.

I strongly don't recommend holding onto casino chips for long periods of time. Easy to get lost and like others have mentioned, the casino could go bankrupt.

i'd say open up a savings account or a short term CD

I used to keep about $1000 in chips for my regular room (black $100's mostly), mostly because it saved a little bit of time cashing out and buying in. But it wasn't really worth the hassle or the pocket space.

I DO recommend keeping your poker money separate from your regular "life" money. A separate bank account without a check-card is probably best. Having a grand or two in cash for buy ins is also a good idea.

Get a separate bank account and some self-disclipline instead.

Keeping casino chips is a bad idea for innumerable reasons mentioned ITT.

they have this great concept of an idea where you put your money into a protected place i believe its called a BANK!

Or if you feel like you can't walk around with a Card then you should get a safety deposit box and put your money in there so that you would have to physically go to the bank to get money out. Thats what i do.

To each their own. The only time I keep casino chips is probably the most common reason anyone keeps them. Im getting ready to cash out, theres a long ass line, and Im coming back in the next day or two. Thats about it for me.

OP's idea sounds reasonable to me, so long as it's only (say) 10% of your bankroll in chips.

Yes, it will hurt if the casino goes bust and you lose it - as well as the loss, you now don't have anywhere to play. It will also hurt if your bank goes bust and you have to wait weeks or even months for the FSCS/FDIC insurance to pay up and you can't pay your rent. Or if you had your entire 'roll on Full Tilt because you were scared of the "cash-out curse". Or if you're holding cash which turns out to be counterfeit. There is no risk-free way to store money.

There are pros and cons to all approaches, and so a mix is probably the best choice, meaning that a disaster may be painful but isn't terminal.

One thing that is relevant to the UK is that most/all banks here have ATM limits. Typically £200/300 ($300-500) per day. At anything but the lowest limit games, that means you need some portion of your bankroll in liquid bearer instruments, cash or chips, just to cover losing a buy-in or two to variance.

We like to play games with ourselves sometimes. One of my favorites is to set my watch 15 minutes ahead. That way I'm actually five minutes early even if it feels like I'm 10 minutes late. That's right.

But seriously, I'll join the contingent that's voting for banks. If not that, then just keep your cash. Remember that if your thumb snags on the lip of your pocket while attempting to pull out your chips, you can drop them, and you'll find yourself groveling on a dimly lit and nasty casino floor. Paper money won't roll away.

The other danger is that it is easier to lose chips.

I play at Charlestown in WV, and had $400 in black chips that I had chosen not to cash out (long line) in my pants. I decided to golf on the way to my poker session and when I took my pants into the clubhouse to change, I dropped the chips.... After spending 20 minutes retracing my steps I decided this was a bad idea.

Now, I realize that this incident was me being an idiot and not careful, but it is easier to do with chips than with money.

[QUOTE=KingOfWrong;36618358]OP's idea sounds reasonable to me, so long as it's only (say) 10% of your bankroll in chips.

Yes, it will hurt if the casino goes bust and you lose it - as well as the loss, you now don't have anywhere to play. It will also hurt if your bank goes bust and you have to wait weeks or even months for the FSCS/FDIC insurance to pay up and you can't pay your rent. Or if you had your entire 'roll on Full Tilt because you were scared of the "cash-out curse". Or if you're holding cash which turns out to be counterfeit. There is no risk-free way to store money.

+1 this

What if you kept the cash at home and kept whatever denominations you have in certain paper-clipped bundles so you'd be less likely to break the bundle when you just want to grab some pizza money?

i travel to vegas several times a year. i always take $5k with me and most time come home with $5k+. i have thought about getting a $5k chip just for the novelty of it, and bringing it back with me on the next trip.

But then it occured to me:
-what if i never get back to vegas--anything could happen
-a single chip is WAY easier to lose than a $5k roll
-looks a tiny bit suspicious going through customs (i am in canada)
-no real advantage

so, i never did it. true story.

This is a pretty good easy idea. Keeping your poker cash in $100's also helps. Not many pizza delivery guys or fast food joints will accept large bills, which makes it a little harder to splurge with them.

this.

During my college days, I was making pretty good money playing poker at the nearby casino.

I had run my bankroll from $100 up to about $17,000 in a matter of months. But after running and playing bad, my bankroll was back down to around $10,000. I decided it would be devastating to graduate with nothing, so I went to the bank, and opened up a bank account.

I put $2,000 into a checking account, and $2,000 into a 6-month CD. I can't tell you how proud I felt walking out of that bank. I knew, with 100% certainty, that I would have at least $2,000 waiting for me upon graduation (you can't withdraw money from a CD until it expires).

So I left myself with something like $6,000 to keep building my bankroll.

oh, and don't keep chips... they're much easier to lose than bills. To my knowledge, I've never lost a $100 bill, but I've lost plenty of red chips and even a few green 25s.