A No Cash Value (NCV) chip is one that can't be cashed in at the cage for real money. These come in lots of variations: match play, free play, tournament, junket, credit, and on and on. The match play and free play are often given away during promotions, or sold at a discount.

I will defer to one of the poker players on the board to discuss 'drop chips' as I must confess I don't understand them. They often come in odd values, like $3.50 so they must be calculated as a percentage of something (like the house commission?).

DonL