So I'm trying to gamble buying chips with other currency than caps and when I buy caps with NCR $ it only gives 2 chips for 5$....and I got [censored]loads of NCR cash.
Didn't yet check other currenices and other casinos (in Gomorrah currently) but it took quite a while to change ~300 NCR $ to chips

Oh the spam afterwards.... $5 NCR removed.....2 Gomorrah chip(s) added...

Yeah, I tried this too. What I usually do is simply sell the NCR/Legion money to vendors for caps. You might not get quite as much for it, but it's a heck of a lot quicker.

The number of chips varies depending on the value of the type of cash you're trying to exchange for them. If I remember correctly it's 1, 20, 50, 100 value NCR Bills, Likewise with legion Denarii (although with a different exchange rate) and 1:1 for Caps.

The exchange rate seems to be:

1 cap = 1 chip
$1 (NCR) = 0.4 chips
1 Legion Denarius = 4 chips

This exchange rate does carry over to caps but a merchant will always take a cut of the caps unless you have a sufficient Barter skill level.

1 cap = 1 cap
$1 (NCR) = 0.4 caps
1 Legion Denarius = 4 caps

Legion money and NCR money is always worth the same no matter what your barter score.

It's pretty much exactly the same as caps except the game doesn't move it around automatically like it does with caps.

So yes, it is much easier to sell it to merchants first, then exchange caps for chips. And you don't lose any value doing this.