Casino chips for miles/points?
 

I don't know that this is the right forum, and search is down, but here goes:

I am looking for any way to turn hotel points, Diners Club points or airline miles on DL, AA, UA, US or BA into Vegas casino chips. I'm coming up dry on the respective websites.

Any help?

Thanks.

Probably not what you're looking for, but Points.com offers a conversion feature from airline miles to Chance Rewards which appears to be some type of on-line gambling program.

I assume the conversion rate is not very favorable.

HHonors?
 

Hilton HHonors used to let you exchange their points for casino chips at the Las Vegas Hilton. Don't know if they still do. You can transfer AA miles to HHonors.

with amex membership rewards you could get gift/travlers checks and get cash....and cash certainly = chips in any casino in the world...right?

Ofcourse going the other direction is easy on a cruise ship...buy casino chips on ship charge account and trade chipss for cash before leavig ship and pay off ship charge act with mile/point card

Centurion - be careful when advising people to: "buy casino chips on ship charge account".... Many of the cruise lines are now adding on a surcharge for doing this (some still don't).

Your best bet is to check directly with the cruise line you are interested in sailing with and check their rules/regs.

Hilton HHonors Points for Chips
 

You can exchange 25,000 in Hilton HHonors points for $50 in gambling (oh, sorry, I mean "gaming") chips, or 40,000 for $100 in chips. The link is here:

http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/all_regions.jhtml#gaming_chip_rewards

You can convert miles from the following airlines into Hilton HHonors points:

American Airlines
Amtrak
Gulf Air
Hawaiian Airlines®
LAN
Mexicana Airlines®
Midwest Airlines
South African Airways
Virgin Atlantic Airways

THAT link is here:

http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/exchange.jhtml

As I understand it, the chips are currently good only at the Las Vegas Hilton. I'm not in love with the conversion rate on this award (years ago, they used to give $400 for 100,000 points, which was a much better deal), but there are worse things in life than free gambling money.

Thanks, BBRebozo. That's exactly what I was looking for.

That redemption rate is pretty poor.

A casino chip is the same as cash. You are really asking to redeem miles for cash.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

:D

There are "non-negotiable" chips out there...

What would be the point of those??? :confused: :confused: :confused:

Force you to bet them, and not just cash them out.

I got $10 free play at the Aladdin last week, and you can't cash them out, you have to play them

Although I have not seen chips like those

Non-negotiable chips have better exchange rates than negotiable chips. They are more commonly offered as a buy in option on casino bus trips.

Non-negotiable chips can't be cashed out when you want. But, on buying in, you'd get more to play with. Since, I'm there to play, you'd want more to play with.

If anyone ever needs to turn non-nego. chips into regular chips, with the lowest cost and risk possible, I suggest the craps table. Put half of the stack on Pass, the other half on Don't Pass. There is a 97.2% chance that you will lose on one stack and win on the other (any initial roll except 12). Yes, there is a 2.8% chance of a 12 on the initial roll, in which case the Pass loses and Don't Pass pushes (i.e., you lose half of your chips).

Better to bet less and then take full odds...

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:)

Credit Card in Casinos
 

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.