Why Casino Uses Chips for Dealing

So why do casinos use chips and not money? What are the reasons? Let’s find out.

1-    Psychology:

The first and the foremost reason that the casino use chip and not direct cash is related to psychology. Chip creates a mental separation barrier between the player and the actual value of money that the player has invested. This mental separation of the player with the actual money helps the player bet more, and high. Logically, the player understands the value of the chip but since it is not actual cash it doesn’t inhibit him from spending more. The situation can be understood by a simple example. So, if you have to place a $2000 bet on a game, if you have actual cash and say you have $100 bills then you will count for 20 bills at least, while in a casino with the chips this might just be 2 chips. The value remains the same but it’s the enormousness of the cash that has been depleted. Counting the bills may take a minute or two but when dealing in chips it’s just a matter of seconds.

2-    Security:

Casinos deal with a lot of money during their game hours, and tracking all that money is not an easy task. There are a million ways in which the casino can be foiled for money, and hence by using chips the casinos add a layer of security to this scenario. Casinos control the chips in multiple ways and these casinos have their tips and tricks to make sure that the chips are not misused and can be tracked. One such example is from the Bellagio, where a man once on gunpoint robbed many chips worth approximately $1.5 million. It was noticed by the Bellagio that of all the chips stollen worth $1.5 million, most of the chips had the face value of $25,000. The Bellagio then announced to the world that it will soon be demonetizing all its $25,000 chips and had set a deadline for the chips to be encashed. This led the thief to start selling the chips and when it was seen that someone has tried to exchange the money for approximately the same amount as stolen the thief was caught.

So, in this way the casinos can have control over their local currency as then, it falls under their jurisdiction. Also. Some of the casinos use RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in their chip. This is used to check the authenticity of the chips. In this way, a person cannot forge his own chips and exchange the chips for money. Since each chip has a unique RFID, if chips are stolen then the casino can automatically deactivate the chips from their inventory.

3-    Convenience:

Casinos are places of high footfall and very fast games. The casinos don’t want that their games are being affected because someone on the table is waiting to count the bills before placing the bet. Casinos have standardized chips which are given values with respect to the games and the bets that are placed in those games. Also, it becomes easier for the casino to handle all the chips than the money. Handling for example $8000 can be a big mess given that in cash 10 players can give bills of different values, plus the bills can and cannot be in perfect condition, there could be a few bills which are folded, and may give an impression as if they are two bills, a few bills could have torn edges but on the table and the swiftness of the game, the dealer may not be able to identify these bills. To overcome this chaos the chips are used. They are convenient, color-coded, and easy to stack, unlike bills that can fly off.

4-    Data:

The ultimate objective of any business is to earn profit from it. Casinos are also businesses and hence have the ultimate aim of just earning a profit, but in the case of a casino, there are multiple ways in which the casino can be foiled off money. There can be dealers in the casino who might not be as trustworthy, who can easily tamper the balance sheet and make some money in cash with them because there is no tracking. Here is where the chips come in. Most of the casinos have now gone RFID. They have installed RFID in their chips, this helps them track the chips all over the casino, right from their inventory, to the person the chip was assigned, to tables that the chip had been to and games on which it had been bet upon to coming back to the inventory. This makes sure that no person – a player, visitor, or staff of the casino is not able to take any advantage of the vastness of the system.

The use of chips in the casino is to make sure that the players feel free while they play a game. Counting the bills each time to place a bet may just wander the player’s concentration away from the game which can lead to the player losing some money. Also, the casino uses chips as an opportunity to make sure that they make profits and at the same time be secure in all possible ways.