Let's see - 25,000 points for $50 is the same rate as 10,000 points for $20. 10,000 points will get you 1,500 miles on many airlines. $20 for 1,500 miles is 1.33 cents per mile. Ok for some, I guess, but not a very great deal.

Just a tip in case anyone else reads this and thinks they will be able to place non-negotiable chips half on pass/don't pass, half on black/red, half on player/banker, etc at any casino:

Some casinos would disallow these bets with non-negotiable chips. Although the house has an advantage on these bets, the house wants people to sit and play conventionally (and stupidly), enabling the house to make more than what they would get from these bets.

Actually, to reduce your risk of ruin (i.e., chance of losing everything), you should make multiple minimum bets. For example, if you have $1000 in non-negotiable chips and the minimum bet is $5, instead of placing two $500 bets (with a 1/36 chance of losing half your chips), you should place two $5 bets and repeat 100 times. On average, you'd win $972 back after betting your $1000.

Also, as someone else pointed out, casinos typically will not let you hedge your bet like this. You will need an accomplice to place the second bet. However, it may become obvious what you are doing if you and your accomplice are always placing offsetting bets.

This "hedged" conversion of non-negot. chips can also be accomplished using Roulette -- preferably European Roulette (single zero). The house edge in European Roulette is about 2.7%. If you place two offsetting bets (e.g., red & black, or even and odd), the chance of losing is 1/37.

Notably, with Roulette, you could split your bet 3 ways on a single spin of the wheel and guarantee that you'd end up with most of your money back. For example, if you had $1000 in non-negotiable chips, you should bet $30 on zero, $485 on odd and $485 on even. If odd or even come up, you end up with $970. If ball lands on zero, it pays 35 to 1 and you get $1050. Again, you may need an accomplice to place the offsetting bets.

I note that I am not advocating that anyone do this. Just pointing out a riskless way to convert non-negot chips to real chips.

True, but minimally. The question then becomes is it worth it to explain (and learn) the odds bet in order to shave that 2.8% house edge in half.

I was an active user of the gambling (oops, sorry, "gaming") chip awards for several years, but quit when Hilton sharply scaled back the awards levels, so this information may be obsolete. In my past experience, the chips that you got for HHonors points were negotiable, which means that they could be turned in for cash. However, the Las Vegas Hilton made you (a) exchange the award certificate for chips, (b) walk away with the chips for a while, then (c) come back and cash them in. Whether or not you gambled with them was up to you. (The Flamingo used to let you trade the award certificate directly for cash, bypassing the chips, but I'm not sure they participate in this award any more.) Anyway, if this is still true, you don't have to play the "bet the pass line and take the odds" game with these chips. Here's what I used to do:

1. Ask the cashier if you can trade the award certificate directly for cash. At the Flamingo, the answer was almost always yes. At the Las Vegas Hilton, the answer was almost always no.

2. If the answer is no, then cash in the certificate, put the chips in your pocket, take a stroll through the casino, maybe have a seat in the sports book and watch TV for a while, then come back to the cage and cash the chips in. It's usually a good idea to wait until the cashier who gave you the chips steps out for her cigarette break.

Can you use your credit card for credit in a casino, on slot machines or at the tables? More specifically, I'll be at the Aladdin. Is there an extra charge for doing so?

Thanks

You can't use a credit card directly, but every casino has a kind of ATM machine where you can request an advance. The trouble is that you have to pay a really high commission to the service, plus a cash advance fee for your card. IIRC, your advance will cost more than 10%. Considering that all casion bets, with the exception of skilled blackjack and poke players, have negative expectations, I don't think it's a good idea to use your credit card.

BTW, considering that you can get a week at the Waikaloa Village for 175k HHonors points, the gaming chip redemption is a complete rip-off. Of course, the redemption for Hawaii used to be 100k points. I had 95k when it switched to 175k...

Indeed, using a credit card for a cash advance at a casino makes is pretty unlikely the venture will be a profitable one. Make sure the steep fees/interest would be offset by the entertainment value of your experience.