Counterfeit Chips

How Casinos Recognize Counterfeit Chips

Every casino has its own unique chips for games which are considered equivalent to the amount of currency used to buy them. These chips are highly unique and have various security measures to detect their authentication. If you have any plans of trying counterfeit chips in a casino, you will hardly have any luck as there are several measures to recognize the chips. Even a good dealer can tell between an authentic and a fake chip. Being caught with fake chips will invite a lot of questions and severe investigation, which can lead to big fines and up to 6 years of imprisonment on being guilty. Here are some of the properties of real casino chips which cannot be duplicated completely.

Weight

Casino chips are designed especially for an accurate weight. The usual casino chips were considered to weigh 11.5 grams. Many casinos try to keep their chip weights secretive about maintaining uniqueness but is usually between 8.5 grams and 10.6 grams.

Edge pattern

Edge pattern

Edge pattern or edge colour are also uniquely designed for every casino. Every casino has a unique engraving of their identity on their chips. The edge colour and design of chips differ in every casino. These markings distinguish the age of the chips as well as which casino they are from. No casino accepts chips from another casino. Some casinos do offer an exchange of chips if they are operated from a single operator. In any other case, the chips are flagged as counterfeit right away.

Colours

The colours of the chips are also unique and different for every casino. Even if two casinos use the same colour (for example green), they will be of different shades. The casinos also make sure that they remove any chips which fade away with time to make sure there is no counterfeiting activity going on using the same colour chips.

UV markings

 
Even if someone succeeds in fooling the casinos with all the above traits, there is one last unique trait about the chips which make them unique. It is the UV markings or the RFID markings. These markings are checked at the cash counters for authenticity, and any chips without the right markings will get rejected. If it is not your fault, then you will have to request the management, and they will try to help you in finding a solution.

In case you find fake chips and know that they are fake, the right thing to do is to return them to the management. Explain what happened and they respectfully accept the chips. Do not expect money for your honesty as the chips hold no value to the casinos, and they will probably throw them away. You may get a complimentary drink, but even that is not guaranteed.