Article on website suggests casino chips to be more counterfeit resistant than American currency.
The Truth About Counterfeiting Casino Chips
The history of poker chips involves a lot of counterfeiting. So if you’ve never wondered whether modern-day casino chips can be forged, you’re probably lying. It’s a fair question - and a common one. On the surface, poker chips and casino tokens look pretty simple. It’s a circular disc with a nice design on it. Figure out what the design is, replicate the disc, and you’re good to go, right?
Wrong. Casino chips are actually harder to forge than American currency. Casino owners know the history of poker chips and all the forgery that goes along with that history. The casino industry knows that there’s a huge market for their in-house currency, so they’ve taken all sorts of security measures to make sure that the chips can’t be forged. And if they can be forged, it’s easy for a cashier to spot a fake.
Each casino chip is designed to have a certain weight, texture, and feel. If you can replicate that, you still need to deal with things like microchips (many casinos embed their chips with them), serial numbers (yup, some casinos imprint their chips with individual numbers), and tons of other stuff that you have probably never thought of.
According to beautifulhustle.com:What Are Casino Chips Made From?
If you’ve got friends who are into holding home poker games with authentic poker chips, you’ve probably heard them boast about how they only want clay casino chips because they’re the most authentic. They’ll talk about how they feel realistic - and they’ll brag about how their casino tokens are identical to what the real deal uses.
After all, casinos only use clay poker chips, right? Actually, you'd be wrong. Poker tokens aren’t 100% clay - even the ones you find in the big casinos. They’re actually made from a composite that includes clay, but is much more durable than clay alone.
In addition to clay composite chips, you’ll also find ceramic chips at some Las Vegas casinos. Ceramic casino tokens are also popular for home poker games.
With casino chips security variations can be with respect to: Color, Graphics, Special Inks, Size, Shape, Markings, Weight, UV , Infrared Inks, RFID / Near Field Communications, Serial Numbers. With U.S. currency very few things are verifiable in real time. However, variations such as weight for coins, serial number for currency, unique inks, embedded strips (RFID some say) are available but hardly verifiable for the most part "in the wild".The range of security features for casino grade poker chips is simply amazing. New security features are always in development. However, some existing features are UV Pigment, Laser Lock Material, customized rim, Chipsoft, UV Ink, and Alpha Dot. UV Pigment is typically used in the edge spots and causes them to appear fluorescent under a UV light. Laser Lock Material is a patented product that is generally mixed with inks, and then the materials can be revealed as green by a special laser pen. Customized rims are created by making a custom chip mold for the casino. Chipsoft is a trademarked name of a technology that embeds RFID’s in value chips. This allows poker chip management to become a science with the proper software. UV ink is typically used on the inlays to create a logo that is invisible, except under a UV light. Alpha Dot is a very unique technology involving a microscopic dot which is embedded into the inlay on the poker chip. The tiny dot will have text written on it that can be viewed by a very special lens.
Weights for casino chips often vary between 8.3 grams and 12.3 grams. Some will even include metal inserts like many poker chips created for the home market. Some large chip manufacturers offer a variety of simpler roulette style chips and even solid color hot stamped chips. The solid color chips are generally used for the lower values in the casino.
Related: Chips no longer as good as cash.
P.S. Is it not ironic that the easiest bill to counterfeit in the USA is the $100 bill (the largest bill in general circulation)?
Related: http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Casino_20Chip_20Currency
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