Casino tokens (also known as chips, checks or cheques) are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines.
Some casinos also use gaming plaques for high stakes table games ($25,000 and above). Plaques differ from chips in that they are larger, usually rectangular in shape and contain serial numbers.
Money is exchanged for tokens in a casino at the casino cage, at the gaming tables, or at a cashier station. The tokens are interchangeable with money at the casino. They generally have no value outside out of the casino, though in Las Vegas, some casinos might honor chips from other casinos.
Tokens are employed for several reasons. They are more convenient to use than currency, and also make theft and counterfeiting more difficult. Because of the uniform size and regularity of stacks of chips, they are easier to count in stacks compared to paper currency when used on a table. This attribute also enables the pit boss or security to quickly verify the amount being paid, reducing the chance that a dealer might incorrectly pay a customer. The uniform weight of the casino's official tokens allows them to weigh large stacks or piles of chips rather than counting them (though counting aids such as chip trays are far more common) Furthermore, it is observed that consumers gamble more freely with replacement currencies than with cash.
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Many casinos are eliminating the use of metal tokens (and coins) in favor of paper receipts and/or pre-paid cards, which, while requiring heavy infrastructure costs to install, eliminate the coin handling expenses and jamming problems encountered in machines which take coins or tokens. While some casinos (such as the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas) which install the receipt system are keeping the $1 tokens to use in place of $1 chips, most other casinos using the receipts are scrapping the tokens entirely. Most casinos using receipts have automated machines at which customers may redeem receipts, eliminating the need for coin counting windows and decreasing labor costs.
Casino chip collecting is a part of numismatics, more specifically as specialized exonumia collecting. This hobby has become increasingly popular with the Casino Chips & Gaming Tokens Collectors Club formed in 1988. Some chips are worth up to $50,000 and the most popular way to collect and trade is on eBay. Several casinos sell custom-made sets of chips and one or two decks of cards stamped with the name of the casino on them. Each set is contained in a small briefcase or box.
Each casino has a unique set of chips, even if the casino is part of a larger company. This distinguishes a casino's chips from others, since each chip and token on the gaming floor has to be backed up with the appropriate amount of cash. In addition, with the exception of Nevada, casinos are not permitted to honor another casino's chips.
The security features of casino chips are numerous. Artwork is of a very high resolution or of photographic quality. Custom color combinations on the chip edge (edge spots) are usually distinctive to a particular casino. UV markings can be made on the inlay. Certain chips incorporate RFID technology, such as those at the new Wynn Casino in Las Vegas. Also, maker's marks are difficult to reproduce.
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Chip colors typically found in home sets include red, white, blue, and sometimes green and black; however, more recently a wide assortment of colors have become readily available, particularly in lower-cost ABS plastic chips. Common additional colors are pink, purple, yellow, orange and grey. Newer designs in home chips include "tri-color" designs where a three-step molding process creates a chip with unique base, secondary and detail colors. As chip sets are tailored to the buyer, the values of various colors vary widely, with less traditional colors either used as very high values ($500, $1000, $5000, etc, common in tournaments) or as special "in-between" values such as $2 or $.50 (common in low-limit games).
In casinos, uniform chip colors and sizes are sometimes specified by the Gaming Control Board for consistency. For example, regulations in New Jersey and Illinois specify similar uniform colors. Notably, Nevada has no regulations regarding color, which is why Nevada casinos may use white, blue, or gray as $1, though $5 and higher are almost always consistently colored. All states require that casino chips have a unique combination of edge spots for identification, the name and location of the casino and the chip's value, if any, impressed, printed, or molded onto the obverse and reverse of the token.
$2.50 chips are almost exclusively used for blackjack tables, since a "natural" (a 21 on the first two cards dealt to a player) typically pays 3:2 and most wagers are in increments of $5. However, the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey has used pink chips in $7.50-$15 and $10-$20 poker games.
$20 chips are used mostly at Baccarat, Pai Gow tiles and Pai gow poker because a 5% commission charged for all winning banker wagers at Baccarat and winning Pai Gow wagers converts evenly (a $20 wager has a $1 commission). $20 bets are not uncommon in traditional table games such as Craps and Roulette; a $20 chip, for example, places a $5 bet on each of the "hard ways" in Craps and is preferable to passing a stack of chips or making change.
Low-denomination yellow chips can vary in value: $20 in Atlantic City and Illinois (which also uses "mustard yellow" $0.50 chips); $5 at most Southern California poker rooms; $2 at Foxwoods' poker room in Ledyard, Connecticut and at Casino del Sol in Tucson, Arizona; and $0.50 at Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Blue chips are occasionally used for $10, most notably in Atlantic City. In Las Vegas and California, most casinos use blue or white for $1 chips, though many Las Vegas casinos now use $1 metal tokens in lieu of chips.
Chips are also available in larger denominations of $1,000 or more, depending on the wagering limits of the casino. Such chips are often yellow or orange and of a large size. Casinos in Nevada, Atlantic City, and other areas that permit high wagers typically have chips available in $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, and higher denominations; the colors for these vary widely.
Denominations above $5,000 are almost never encountered by the general public; their use is usually limited to "high limit rooms" where bet sizes are much larger than on the main floor. Casinos often use gaming plaques for these higher denominations - these plaques are about the size of a playing card, and must be marked with serial numbers. The largest value placed on a plaque to date is $10 million, used at the London Club in Las Vegas.
Televised poker tournaments and cash games often use bundled paper bills for high denominations, though the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour use round chips exclusively with denominations up to 250,000; these chips, however, are not redeemable for cash.
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