Football players have the ball, swimmers have their pools, and most casino gamblers have the tokens and see them the same way. You just can’t imagine any game without them. Craps, poker, roulette, or blackjack just wouldn’t be the same without the chips. What’s your first association when you think of Las Vegas? Mine are the tokens most players, most tables, and all casinos have in them. Gamblers are basically addicted to them, holding them in their hands, parting ways on a bet, and then welcoming them back if they have a stroke of luck. It’s a love/hate relationship. There are millions of gamblers all over the world and probably a couple of billions of tokens. The numbers are not inflated, trust us.
People sometimes don’t even spend them but take them home as a souvenir from a casino. Gambling tokens simply have that charm to them; it can’t be denied. It is why gamblers so eagerly exchange their money for chips. They’re a vital part of any gambling enterprise; they’re to casinos what blood is to our organism. Once again, nothing is exaggerated here. Considering how essential they are for this business, we are here to give you the four interesting facts about casino tokens you didn’t know.
They Weren’t Always as we Know Them Today
Casino tokens have a long history, not as long as the first casinos but quite a picturesque one. It all started in France during the 18th century. This era is when the first gamblers, those that we could call modern, encountered the chips for the first time. The first game we can tie the usage of chips for gambling is the one called quadrille. We’re talking about a 40-card deck game that was quite tricky to comprehend and to play. Today this game is basically nonexistent, but it left a trace that can’t be forgotten. It was the first game that used tokens, and not only that, it had a fantastic set of rules on how to use them. These rules were later all explained by Q.
Quanti in his book Quadrille Elucidated. It’s quite a challenging read, so if you want to avoid it and avoid tokens as a whole, you might want to try out online gambling at PlayAmo. There’s no shame in it; we all went online in recent times. We can even claim this is the era of online casinos and gambling from home.
Once this system was established for the first time, everything went forward from there. It all led to the tokens we have today and are used to. But, it was a long way to go, don’t be fooled. Before what we know now as casino mainstay sundries, we have various things that were used instead. Among those most interesting, we would love to single out guns, knives, goats, other animals and pets, bullets, silver and gold coins, jewelry and other valuables, spices, clothes, swords, and many other things. You can say we’re lucky to have what we have today.
Colors and Denominations
Today, chips are all basically standardized. When a cashier hands out chips, you’ll receive $1 chips that come in blue and white color; crimson-colored $5 chips that are often referred to as redbirds; green ones that are worth $25 and $100 black ones. By using colors to know the value of their chips, players do not have to check them out every time they’re set to make a bet. This way is more comfortable with mitigating the risks involved with every game.
The diversification doesn’t stop here. Special 42.5 tokens are reserved for blackjack. This is done because of the dealers. Their job is made more comfortable when they need to pay out a $7.5 winner who bet $5 on a 3 to 2 odds. When it comes to poker, you’ll find a $10 brown chip, which comes in handy when there’s a stake set at $5/$10 and $10/$20. High-end gambling employs $500 purple chips and $5,000 tricolor ones, which combine red, white, and blue. These are also called flags. The ultimate chip is the so-called cranberries that are violet and are worth $25,000.
Tokens Can Get You Into Legal Trouble
Yes, you heard it right. In countries with gambling as a legal activity, it is not allowed to pick up a token from the ground and put it into your pocket. This is considered a crime, and it could have legal consequences if you pull it off. The good news is that Las Vegas has no traditional boundaries on this action.
The only law is finders keepers, and if you see a chip on the ground, feel free to claim it for yourself. The one thing you shouldn’t do is trying to poach one from another player or a dealer. This action will, without a doubt, be noticed by security, and this is a criminal offense that will get you into trouble.
Tokens Aren’t a Mirror of Hygiene
Casino tokens are as dirty as hell. Yes, they are, and we’re not kidding. Have you ever been to a casino and hold a token in your hands? It would be best if you had, and you also noticed they could get a bit brownish. This is not a fluke. It happens when dirt accumulates together with various types of bacteria, grime, and different other substances.
The good news is that modern casinos tend to these chips and clean them and replace them on a regular basis. The issue is small casinos that don’t pay too much attention to this so that you can come in contact with various substances. Unfortunately, there’s even a chance to get some virus or get sick after contact with a casino chip. All of us hold them in our hands, and then we touch our faces, and chips change hands. It is a nightmare for germophobes. You can see it as something terrifying yourself, considering our situation right now with the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.