How to Use Fake Money at a Casino Party | Fun Casino, Blackjack & Roulette Hire London

How is Fun Money Used at a Casino Party?

Like a lot of things, it’s simple when you know how. After decades in real casinos and running fun casino hire events, I can tell you it will make your event run a lot smoother. It’s actually rare for an event not to use fun money and for good reason. Fun money is a good method to moderate players at the tables, without it some guests will make themselves at home on a table leaving other guests frustrated, unable to find a space to play.

Fun money keeps the evening organised, makes it easy for guests to understand how the fun casino works and adds to the realism and excitement. Over the years, I’ve refined a simple, proven system that works smoothly whether you’re hosting a corporate event in London, a private party in the South East or a large-scale celebration anywhere in southern England

How Can I Give Out the Fun Money?

There are several ways to distribute your fun money and the best option depends on your event style. Popular options are at the place settings at a formal dinner, or they can be handed out with welcome drinks, or given out just before the casino opens, or included in goody bags.

Our goal is to ensure every guest starts with the same amount so the evening is a friendly competition - who can be the luckiest with their fun money?

Giving out chips does not work as well because they are easily lost. If dropped they roll deep under tables or get kicked across the floor. Even if they are put away in a bag or pocket they are small and there is a little fuss while guests try to remember what they did with it.

A fun money note, on the other hand gets treated like real cash. It’s larger, easier to keep safe and gets stored like real money in a wallet, a zip pocket in a handbag or inside a phone cover.

A fun money note includes helpful instructions. We always include “To play exchange at table for chips” and “Please cash in your chips before leaving any table” because guests do not always know what to do.

Here’s the system we use at Mock Vegas — refined over hundreds of events:

Guests receive their notes before the casino starts.

Once the casino opens for play, guests approach any table and exchange their fun money for chips.

They play and enjoy the games for as long as they wish with the croupiers guiding them.

If they wish to leave a table, we request they ‘Cash in’. They will receive a cheque for the value of their chips. This means they can move freely, grab another drink, have a dance, socialise, then return and use their cheque at any table to play again.

Different games use different chips, for instance roulette chips cannot be used on blackjack. This is another reason the cheque system works so well.

You can organise your own fun money but please be aware that printing notes like “10,000” sounds fun but it breaks the system and confuses guests. Notes marked 50 or 100 works much better. It calibrates with the chip values on the tables.

Fun money keeps things fair, fun and social. A Mock Vegas casino night isn’t about serious competition, it’s about atmosphere. We keep things fair by giving everyone equal starting fun money, guests play how and where they want. Some guests may play cautiously, some may go all-in, some may need to leave early and give their fun money to friends. That’s absolutely fine.

How Winners Are Decided

There’s absolutely no need to overcomplicate things with a leaderboard and tracking scores throughout the night. It just adds pressure, slows things down and takes away from the fun and there really is no point to this approach as players luck can change every minute!

Part of the job of a professional croupier is to keep an eye out for big winners and losers. With guests cashing out when they leave a table notes are taken of names and amounts of the bigger winners. At the end of the casino there is a short conversation between the croupiers, “A lady on blackjack cashed out 600”, “Yes, but she came over to roulette and lost the lot!” Once we’ve whittled it down we will have the name(s) of your luckiest player(s).

Custom Fun Money  - A Brilliant Touch

One of the most popular upgrades and an affordable one is bespoke fun money. You can include a company logo, event branding, personal messages like ‘Happy Anniversary!’, even photos of your loved one or boss. Corporate branding for client events, a company logo with snow on it for a Christmas party, give us your theme and we can create something special.

At one Christmas party, a company surprised their boss with custom notes featuring the company logo, their office building and a photo of him wearing a Santa hat. He loved it and took most of the notes home to show his family.

Suggestions for your fun money is to use realistic denominations calibrated to the casino chips, have helpful instructions to guide guests, start the process early if customising because design, approval and printing all takes time, supply a couple of good images (head-and-shoulder shots work best for personal notes).

Ready to Plan Your Casino Night?

If you’re thinking about fun casino hire in London or the South East, I’m happy to help you get it exactly right.

Call: 0800 612 7737 or use the contact page.

Let’s create a casino night your guests will never forget.