# Counterfeit Casino Chips **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-casino-chips/202109 "2003-09-17T11:54:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sailorbychance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sailorbychance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailorbychance)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-casino-chips/202109/1 "2003-09-17T11:54:35Z")
Why do we never hear about counterfeit casino chips? It would seem to me that it would be much easier to counterfeit chips vs. dollars. I can see someone easily cashing in $500 a day and living very comfortably. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-casino-chips/202109/2 "2003-09-17T12:00:57Z")
Casinos have tight $ecurity. Making passable fake chips would be expensive. Attempting to cash them in would result in possible arrest, getting bounced at least. They have better $ecurity than most gov’t facilities. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-casino-chips/202109/3 "2003-09-17T12:09:45Z")
There was a thread on this topic recently. Check out Counterfeit Casino Chips ---
**Author:** ![sailorbychance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sailorbychance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailorbychance)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-casino-chips/202109/4 "2003-09-17T12:18:55Z")
Sure it might be expensive, you’d have to expect that you can recoup your investment. Let’s also assume that you’re willing to risk arrest and prosecution. I’m wondering if there is some physical property of the chip itself that makes it difficult/impossible to duplicate. For some reason I’m thinking of some kind of watermark visible with ultraviolet…? Even still, I’ve cashed many many chips and never seen the cashier pay any particular attention to the chips themselves. ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-casino-chips/202109/5 "2003-09-17T13:46:06Z")
**sailor** , every move you make in a casino is available to the security team from video footage, pit bosses, etc. If you were to suddenly show up at the cashier’s cage with $1000 in chips that they know you didn’t buy or win, don’t you think that that would set off some alarms in people’s heads? You’d have to use small amounts to stay off of security’s radar, and even then you’d probably have to do actual gambling with the chip or else they’d still notice “hey, this guy comes in every day with a new $20 chip and never stops and plays”. And once you play, they’re tracking your winnings/losings and your buy-ins, and those better add up. You might have more luck as a supplier, selling $20 chips to people for $5 or something, but it’d take a big operation to cover your start-up costs, and the chances of one of your customers not ratting you out for a better deal from the casino (or a plea bargain) is slim. Basically, you might be able to eck out a small profit, but the risk/reward ratio is very high. Maybe not “day trading” high, but certainly higher than counterfitting money. -lv ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counterfeit-casino-chips/202109/6 "2003-09-17T16:51:22Z")
Despite security measures, it does happen, however: > [@](#): > > Investigators From Asiavest Investigative Services co-ordinated international efforts in the investigation and seizure of $4 mil worth of counterfeit gaming chips, the largest such seizure to date. The investigation led investigators from Atlantic City New Jersey, to Las Vegas, Nevada, to New York, to Hong Kong, and ultimately to the underground manufacturing facility in Taiwan. With the support of the Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), and the Taiwan Foreign Affairs Police, Asiavest was successful in locating the illicit factory, seizing chip molds, recovering samples of various casinos’ chips, and recovering more than $4 mil worth of completed counterfeit gaming chips, ready for shipment to organized crime members in New York. The four month undercover operation by Asiavest investigators led to the arrest of fifteen persons, seizure of the chip molds and closure of the illicit factory. Investigators noted that the gaming chips were near perfect copies. The original counterfeit chips had been detected by an alert casino cashier, with twenty years of experience. The casino cashier stated that, “the chips just didnt feel right, as they were being racked”. The chips were then calibrated and noted to be a fraction of a millimeter, off the original chip size. That night $10,000 worth of counterfeit chips were found to have been passed at gaming tables, by unknown parties. Asiavest was immediately contacted, and initiated an investigation, along with local regulatory agencies. Asiavest has conducted private and governmental investigations in South Asia for the past twenty five years , with unparalled results. “Because of our expertise and high level contacts in Asia, we are able to not only conduct investigations, we also co-ordinate raids, assist in arrest and apprehension, and initiate court proceedings”, noted Asiavests’ Managing Director. From [this page](http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/asiavest/news.html)