{"id":4758,"date":"2023-01-06T10:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T10:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.com\/blog\/\/blog\/?p=4758"},"modified":"2025-03-20T07:59:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T07:59:39","slug":"how-are-casino-chips-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/06\/how-are-casino-chips-made\/","title":{"rendered":"How Are Casino Chips Made?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
Las Vegas legend \u201cBig Julie\u201d Weintraub famously once said: \u201cthe guy who invented poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Weintraub is one of the unsung heroes of Las Vegas. In the glory days of The Dunes, Weintraub was the man behind the junket business; organising VIP trips to Sin City for the rich and famous. In the early 1960s, the celebrity influx helped to put Las Vegas on the map.<\/p>\n
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Weintraub was right: the casino chip is a 39mm wide, 8 \u2013 16 gm, circular disc of genius. Traditionally made of clay, they are now constructed with a cocktail of ingredients, including sand, chalk, and the type of clay often found in cat litter. High-value casino chips will also often contain an extra secret ingredient in the form of an RFID tracker to prevent theft.<\/p>\n
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The exact process of chip production is a trade secret. The chips are numismatic tokens and have a real value. If it was easy to clone them, counterfeiters would have a field day at the casino.<\/p>\n
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So\u2026 where and when did the first casino chip appear? Let\u2019s wind back the roulette wheel, shuffle the deck of time, and work our way back to the very beginning\u2026<\/p>\n
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The precise origin of the casino chip remains a mystery. Gambling has been a human activity since records began. The oldest board games ever discovered date back to the Neolithic era and about 6,000 BC; the end of the Stone Age.<\/p>\n
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By the time they were planning where to build the Pyramids of Giza, betting was definitely part of every day life. In Ancient Egypt, dice and many other board games have been discovered, as well as papyri, dating back as far as 4,000BC, with laws banning gambling in the region.<\/p>\n
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As for the first betting chip. Again: hard to pin down. In ancient Rome, five hundred years before the birth of Christ, betting was illegal and popular. The use of tokens, enabling players to deny they were gambling, is documented. Chips had arrived.<\/p>\n
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For the next two millennia, chips would evolve into the form we see today. Highlights on the way include the highly sought after, and intricately carved, mother-of-pearl tokens of the Chinese Quin dynasty, dating back to the mid-18th century; to the first modern tokens \u2013 born of the Gold Rush.<\/p>\n
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In the mid-1800s Wild West, the explosion of unregulated gambling, combined with gold prospectors laden with gold, led to the evolution of the modern chip. Casinos had to weigh and assay gold. This process was time consuming and difficult. Not something to attempt in the middle of a frenetic craps or\u00a0blackjack game<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The gold was evaluated away from the table and chips were used; the early examples were made of bone, ivory, and clay. To prevent counterfeits, casinos would brand and uniquely design their own chips.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most chip manufacturers keep the process a secret, producing chips to order in either ceramic or clay. Opinions vary as to what is best. Plastic is definitely a non starter for the serious player.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Modern casino and poker chips are a combination of clay with more durable materials which are compression moulded. The exact process for making these chips is not shared with the public so as to counter the risk of fraud, and differs from one manufacturer to the next. The biggest of those manufacturers are Gaming Partners International, Matsui, GTI Gaming, and Abbiati, all of which produce chips for licensed casinos around the world. Casino and poker chips typically weigh around 10g in American casinos, but can range in weight between 8 and 16 grams. If you are buying chips for home use, then chances are they will be made entirely of plastic or else plastic covering a metal core.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While there is no fixed rule as to the colour of casino chips, most casinos follow a convention when it comes to the colours used for each denomination. Normally, the highest value casino chip you will find is for $1,000, although obviously these are for the high-rolling tables and not all of us are in a position to throw these around! It is possible to find high-end casinos offering $5,000 chips, but you won’t see these in your friendly neighbourhood casino.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here is the standard list of casino chips by colour and denomination (in US dollars):<\/p>\n <\/p>\nHow are Casino Chips Made Today?<\/h2>\n
Casino Chip Colours & Denominations<\/h2>\n