Have you ever wondered about casino chips in games like blackjack and poker? Here, 10jili will explain in detail about casino chips.
Casino Chips
We are talking about the chips, the colorful discs that adorn the tables of our favorite casinos and are the object of desire for the most avid players.
Chips are the “money” of casinos, but it took some time for them to become an integral and indispensable part of casino operations. But why have chips been so successful as a form of payment in a casino? Well, for several reasons, most of which are eminently practical.
Chips are pieces made of plastic and other materials, manufactured in series in different colors or with some distinctive marks to denote numerical values and the currency they represent.
Since they are identical pieces, casinos can use various methods to calculate their value in volumes of chips, such as scales or specific counting machines. Additionally, they are much more durable than the paper used for bills, making them a great substitute.
Different materials can be used to manufacture chips, varying in quality and intended use:
- Standard plastic: Cheap but very low quality and little customization, intended for amateur players.
- ABS resin and ABS-PP: More durable and reliable compounds, scratch and impact resistant, used in many professional casinos.
- ABS composite and ceramic: A mix of greater resistance and weight, pleasant to the touch, and with a characteristic sound thanks to the ceramic.
- Pure ceramic casino chips: The highest quality, used in the best casinos, sensitive to scratches, and more expensive.
Moreover, color codes make counting much easier and therefore make the dealer’s job much simpler, preventing frequent errors that could upset customers.
Thus, chips have made life easier for dealers and accountants in casinos worldwide, and they also encourage players to gamble more freely (since they are not using real money, they may feel psychologically more inclined to bet).
Origin
Although casino chips have been around for several centuries, it wasn’t until the 19th century that chips began to be minted during the poker boom. Before that, any small item could be used, just like we have all done when playing board games at home (beans, stones, beads), although in high-stakes games, even precious metals or gems were used.
Clay has been one of the main ingredients in the “recipe” for making casino chips throughout history. However, it is not a simple process or a unique recipe; different manufacturers vary the mix of minerals or components until achieving the desired weight and consistency.
As a curiosity, you should know that chips are not “painted”; their popular stripes on the edge are a marquetry job. So, we can conclude that chips are not easy or cheap to manufacture.
Moreover, different casinos have different chips, even if they belong to the same business group. It is also not common for you to be able to use chips from one casino in another, although there are a few exceptions. They are also part of the charm of the game, so it is not surprising that casinos are keen on personalizing them.
But all this is not just a matter of aesthetics; it is also a way to ensure that the chips in circulation are yours and not introduced from outside.
Colors and Values
As for color codes, the truth is that from country to country and even from casino to casino, there is no agreement regarding their correspondence. The most common colors are red, white, blue, black, and green.
Although today there are chips in many more colors (there are even multicolored chips for high-stakes games), it is common for the regulations of a city or country to specify the values corresponding to the different colors.
In the United States, there is diversity in terms of regulation: curiously, in Nevada, where the large casinos of Las Vegas are located, the regulations do not specify the correspondence between chip colors and the amounts they represent. In other states, however, it is regulated. Traditionally, blue in the USA was reserved for high values.