I found that Las Vegas Hilton gives out very large demonination chips for
its free play. When I had $1000 in chips, the best I could get was 1 $500, 4
$100s and 4 25s. I took a gamble and piled them up on one bet and won $1000.
They took away the "free" chips and I ended up with $1000. This makes their
value equal to half the face value minus the house percentage. For most
"free play" chips and match plays, just figure roughly they are worth face
value. We find the best thing to play is craps for these, with a low 1.6
approximate house advantage on the pass line. While blackjack may have an overall
lower house percentage, this is dependent on playing a number of hands, because
you generally lose 60% of the time, and when you win 40% of the time you
will win more during double up, blackjack, and splitting opportunaties. This
means if you just have 1 match play, your odds of winning that 1 hand are
actually more likely to be only 40%, despite your overal expected return which
might be under 1%. While at craps your likelihood of winning 1 hand is more
like 49%. Obviously if you have a whole lot of match play or free play chips
to use, you can play an extended blackjack session, so your average win or
loss will come closer to the expected 1-2% loss rate - so under those conditions
you might choose to play BJ rather than craps.
In any case, after my 1 trip to LVH to use the special free play chips, I
decided it really wasn't that great of a promotion. I prefer a promotion where I
get a definite $400 in actual cash, or a $1000 in shopping spree (such as
Macy's certificates) to $1000 chips which can easily be lost in a couple of
hands.
And of course, that is why normally it is better to just get $500 in cash,
rather than $500 in "free play," which you can lose some or all of. (However
if you would just be going ahead and playing that $500 in cash and perhaps
more on that day, there is really no difference between cash and free play.)
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