History of the Poker Chip

I found this article a long time ago (origin unknown) and originally posted it on my forum. I found it interesting and thought it was worth sharing here.

History of the Poker Chip

Poker chips, also known as cheques, have been around as long as the game of poker itself. In the beginning, poker chips were introduced as a way to keep track of the money in the game instead of using real coins which were confusing for the players. These first chips were made out of ivory, bone, and wood and each represented a real money equivalent. As the popularity of poker began to rise, these chips soon became a problem as the materials they were made of allowed shady characters to sneak their own "chips" into the game.

In order to prevent counterfeit chips from entering play, establishments began to develop their own chips with custom designs, weights, and special inlays that made them hard to duplicate. In the late 1800's to the mid 1900's these chips were made from clay. In the 1940's the plastic poker chip was developed and popularized in home games. Today, the best poker chips are found in the casinos, and while they are still called clay chips, they aren't actually made of clay. Instead they are made out of clay composite material such as clay, sand, and chalk.

Even with custom designs and weights, poker chips are still a security concern. Recently, casinos began to place RFID microchips inside their poker chips. This technology makes it very difficult for counterfeiters to duplicate the chips and has the benefit of being able to track where the physical location of the chip as well as the betting patterns of gamblers. However, these types of chips are very expensive to produce thus limiting the number of casinos using these new poker chips.