Vegas Q&A: Could I Counterfeit Gaming Chips?
UPDATED: 11:06 a.m. EDT October 13, 2003
Question: While in Vegas last week, I was impressed by all the extraordinary security everywhere to prevent cheating. However, I did notice what appears to be one gaping hole in the security grid: How do casinos protect against counterfeit gaming chips? They look like they'd be relatively easy to copy.
Harry in Manchester, N.H.
Answer: Interestingly, casino chips used to be made of ivory, and it turns out that was much easier to counterfeit than the current plastic ones are.
These days, each chip is specially designed, molded and poured in a process that can cost tens of thousands of dollars to set up. Therefore, creating an exact duplicate would be next to impossible and require a lot of high-tech equipment that most people don't have.
Casino personnel are trained to spot real from fake, and you'd be surprised at how good they are at it. But on top of the eyeball method, casino chips have entered the 21st century, with everything from UV pigments (special colors that show up when viewed through a filter) to laser pigments (viewable when passed under a laser), to holograms built into the chip that allow the people watching the games to instantly recognize whether a chip is real or not.
Even more remarkably, many new chips come with a second chip -- a computer chip, that is -- embedded inside. These interact with an electronic reader on the gaming table that will tell the dealer or pit personnel if they chip is valid or not.
And you thought they were just little hunks of plastic!
