Tokens are poker chips employed for several reasons. They are more convenient to use than currency, and also make theft and counterfeiting more difficult. Because of the uniform size and regularity of stacks of chips, they are easier to count in stacks compared to paper currency when used on a table. This attribute also enables the pit boss or security to quickly verify the amount being paid, reducing the chance that a poker chips dealer might incorrectly pay a customer. The uniform weight of the casino's official tokens allows them to weigh large stacks or piles of chips rather poker chips than counting them (though counting aids such as chip trays are far more common) Furthermore, it is observed that consumers gamble more freely with replacement currencies than with cash.
Finally, the chips are considered to be an integral part of the casino environment, poker chips and replacing them with some alternate currency would be unpopular.
Many casinos are eliminating the use of metal tokens (and coins) in favor of paper poker chips receipts and/or pre-paid cards, which, while requiring heavy infrastructure costs to install, eliminate the coin handling expenses and jamming problems encountered in machines which take coins or tokens. While some casinos (such as the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas) which install the receipt system are keeping the $1 tokens to use in place of $1 chips, most other casinos using the receipts are scrapping the tokens entirely. Most casinos using receipts have automated machines at which poker chips customers may redeem receipts, eliminating the need for coin counting windows and decreasing labor costs.
Casino chip collecting is a part of numismatics, more specifically as specialized exonumia collecting. poker chips This hobby has become increasingly popular with the Casino Chips & Gaming Tokens Collectors Club formed in 1988. Some chips are worth up to $50,000 and the most popular way to collect and trade is on eBay. Several casinos sell custom-made poker chips sets of chips and one or two decks of cards stamped with the name of the casino on them. Each set is contained in a small briefcase or box. The photo at right is a fine example.
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