Part III: Business & Regulation · Banking, Chips & Financial Operations

Dead Chip Program

Asia-Pacific VariationsREPORTED

A dead chip program is the system used in Macau and other Asian VIP gaming rooms in which players purchase non-negotiable chips that cannot be redeemed for cash and can only be used for wagering. The player receives dead chips based on their total buy-in, plays them at the table, and when they win a bet, receives regular cash chips as payout. When they lose, the dead chip is retained by the house. Once the player exhausts their dead chips, they can exchange accumulated cash chips for more dead chips to continue playing, or cash out the cash chips. The casino tracks the total dead chip turnover (all wagers placed) and pays a commission or rebate to the player or junket operator based on this volume.

In practice

Dead chip programs are almost exclusively used for Baccarat. The effective house edge is reduced by the commission/rebate paid to players. A typical junket commission of 1.1-1.25% effectively reduces the house edge on Banker bets from 1.06% to approximately 0.3-0.4%.

One entry from the Casino Industry Glossary, 1,090 terms written for surveillance, compliance and operations professionals rather than for players. Definitions describe industry usage; where a term carries a regulatory meaning, verify against the instrument that governs your jurisdiction.