So why do casinos use chips?įor starters, chips are easier to store, rack, clean, and calculate than cash and coins. Most of them already have cash in their wallets or can easily get some cash from an ATM or a bank. Presumably, casino customers have access to cash. Various state and federal laws over the years reinforce this idea, with the Nevada State Gaming Control Board (for example) saying “chips and tokens are solely representatives of value … and are not the property of anyone other than. It’s not even clear that gamblers ever own the chips they but in any meaningful way. I’ve seen plenty of people giving tips in chips, and the employees are happy to accept them.Ĭhips are a symbol, a representation of currency, and not a currency in and of themselves. Also, if you’ve spent much time in Vegas or Atlantic City, you know that people very much do treat casino chips as currency. It doesn’t seem like an issue that any government takes all that seriously. I can’t find a single example of a person prosecuted for using a casino chip as legal tender or in place of currency. These days, Federal law prohibits the use of casino chips as “instruments of currency.” In layman’s terms, which means you can’t use a casino chip to pay for a good or service. Old-timers tell stories about gamblers putting chips in the collection plate at their churches on Sunday mornings, with priests and nuns trudging up and down the Strip redeeming them for cash on Monday mornings.

Once upon a time, casino chips and other gambling tokens were legal tender in Nevada. You can’t use chips as cash – that means no tipping your waitress with casino chips. It’s important to check and make sure you know the values of the various chips at the casino where you gamble since there’s no legal standard or requirement that casinos use a particular color scheme. I know that the Wynn has $3 chips that are a sort of peach color, and I remember seeing chips worth $2.50 (for blackjack play) that were a unique shade of hot pink in different parts of Vegas. You’ll sometimes find casinos that use their own color scheme. With some exceptions, the chip colors and values below are standard across the American gambling industry: Chips are color-coded to help dealers and floor staff calculate value at a glance.

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