These days, if you enter any casino or click on any online casino site, you will find various colored chips scattered across the gaming tables. A special experience is given by best online casinos Greece. It doesn’t matter which gambling platform you choose for your favorite game; you will still be given a stack of virtual chips representing your money.
Using something other than money to represent bets makes casino games more manageable and has helped immortalize the fun even more. Historians believe that using objects to represent currency in games dates back to the earliest figures of humankind playing dice-based games. So let’s dive into this topic and learn more about the origin of this essential casino attribute.
Going back, ancient Athens and Rome spent their days supposedly using gold and silver coins to represent their betting in the 5th century b.c.
Games involving cards gained popularity in Asia in the 600s (AD) – giving gambling a new look. This type of gambling continued to flourish during the Renaissance period. Almost all players could be seen using alternative items to represent their wager with a predetermined value back then.
Let’s move to 19th-century western America, where just about anything made of gold could be used as a stake counter, such as gold nuggets, coins, dust, and pieces. Gradually, gold was phased out, and tokens eventually emerged. These would be made of wood, ivory, bone, paper, or clay, with several hundred designs appearing.
As dedicated gaming houses and casinos appeared, it was soon discovered that round chips worked best and made gambling more accessible. But, as we are sure you will recognize, this soon became the standard design, with round chips implemented in games like poker.
In addition to representing your bet, the chips may represent your winnings. For example, when you finish your table games in a physical casino, you will usually need to go to a specified help desk to claim the cash equivalent of your tokens. Playing online is more straightforward as you click to withdraw your funds.
Over time and with technology touching virtually every aspect of our lives, casinos have incorporated technologies that make it almost impossible for chips to be used illegally. For example, the chips’ materials, weight, tactile details, and colors are aspects that staff and security personnel can quickly detect.
In addition, some chips already incorporate a specific chip in their manufacture that allows the casino’s sensors to identify or deactivate them in case someone wants to take a souvenir, thus losing their value.
In terms of materials, the chips are classified into four types:
Now, concerning the value, there are tokens whose denomination could go from 1 USD to 5,000 USD, identified by color. However, some tokens could reach higher amounts in games organized by big players. For those interested in trying out casino games with a head start, a 10€ no deposit bonus can be a perfect opportunity to experience the games without risking your own money.
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