How much do casinos pay for chips?

toad94 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 04:51 PM

I just got an advertisement from a casino chip re-seller who sells most $1 chips for $3. The email says "It used to be no problem for me to go into a casino and get $1 chips. Now that casinos pay over $1 for their chips they do not give them away that easy. It makes getting uncirculated chips very hard."

Do casinos really pay $1+ for chips?? Chipco charges 95 cents a chip to lowly civilians like me. At casino volumes, I imagine the chips are MUCH less. I doubt GPI (Paulson, Bud Jones, etc.) charges appreciably more than Chipco, especially at large quantities. Thoughts?

pokerplayingpisces · #2 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 05:13 PM

I've heard that casinos pay 35-45 cents a chip. I don't have any facts to back that up.

Gaming Ore · #3 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 05:15 PM

toad94,

There are a lot of variables at play here.

Is your re-seller a Las Vegas person, or someone trying to get chips from a local Indian casino or California card room? It can make a difference.

Generally speaking, and remember, we are talking $1 chips here, if they have an RFID load, then chances are they are more than $1 each to the casino. Without the RFID load, they are les than $1.

If they are a big operation, they may be getting a bulk discount, but at the same time, if they are smaller and have always been with a competitor chip maker, then maybe they got a discount!

As I said, there are a lot of variables.

Now, you also said "uncirculated" $1 chips. It seems to me that they are hard to get, only as a function of not being at the casino on the day they arrived, or the day that the casino put them into play and not a necessarilly a function of cost to the casino.

Anyway, my point here is that getting "uncirculated" chips is more a function of being at the right place at the right time. As for getting chips, especially $1 chips, all you have to do is buy-in to a game and leave for the cage. Along the way pocket the chips you want to keep.

If you want a rack of chips, then don't go to the craps, roulette or blackjack tables, as they will want to color you up. Don't go to the cage, as many will not even sell chips. The exception seems to be poker room cages, where it is customary to buy-in to the game for racks of chips, and , they provide the racks!

Does any of this help?

Jim (Gaming Ore) Follis

bmwguy525 · #4 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 05:37 PM

I've heard 50c-60c a chip from disreputable sources, my guess is that these are speculations anyways. I'd take what Jim says over anything else in this thread.

dimperdoo · #5 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 05:57 PM

My experience has been that the volume breakdowns provided by chip manufacturers are the same regardless of the purchaser. There are variables, as a casino may have contracts (they do draw this kind of stuff up) locking in rates for them as loyal, valued, high volume customers. Of course, everything gaming ore said is accurate. Smaller casinos most likely order significantly lower volumes and inherently pay higher per piece prices. Of course, it is highly likely that chips with more features will cost more than $1. Many smaller casinos don't bother with RFID and security measures on $1 chips. Bigger casinos will - as their costs are offset by their volume. Some regulatory agencies may require the individual casinos to have the security in place.

Derf Design · #6 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 06:10 PM

Chipco's are 65 cents each for the Casinos.

toad94 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 09:49 PM

Thanks for all the great info everybody. I was guessing 50 or 60 cents a chip on average (without RFID or special stuff like Gaming Ore pointed out). I know casinos frown on taking quarters due to the cost, but I didn't think they minded about the $1s yet.

About the email that got me thinking about this: it irritates me a bit with this company's mentality "all casinos pay a lot for chips, so they don't like to give out uncirculated ones, so we get to charge 3 or 4 times the face value--but don't blame us..." If a retailer wants to mark up chips a bunch for their gas money, extra time, etc.--fine, but don't lie to my face about the reasons. Just admit you're running a business and need to keep the doors open. (That, or charge $4 shipping on a single chip like some ebayers!)

Gaming Ore · #8 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 10:41 PM

toad...

The generally accepted retail price for a current, uncirculated, common $1 chip is $3.

A reasonable postage fee on top of that is also OK, however...

If you are buying more than one chip, then postage fee starts to approach actual cost to ship and once you start hitting around $50 or so (AGAIN, FOR MULTIPLE CHIPS) then getting a 10% discount is not unusual!

But this is the world of individual chip collectors and their dealers, NOT the world of large sets.

Jim

toad94 · #9 (**permalink**) 06-03-2008, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaming Ore

toad...

The generally accepted retail price for a current, uncirculated, common $1 chip is $3.

A reasonable postage fee on top of that is also OK, however...

If you are buying more than one chip, then postage fee starts to approach actual cost to ship and once you start hitting around $50 or so (AGAIN, FOR MULTIPLE CHIPS) then getting a 10% discount is not unusual!

But this is the world of individual chip collectors and their dealers, NOT the world of large sets.

Jim

Yes, $3 is fine. I've paid more for some $1s. Postage costs exist, yes, noted. My point is being missed.

I'm offended by people resorting to lies to sell their product. Saying the casinos pay over $1 for their chips (and their implication is that ALL chips now cost casinos over $1) when they don't is LYING to hype their chips. Also, unless the bubble mailer used to ship ONE chip is actually lined with gold foil and unless the chip is coming to the US from Fiji, $4 is not reasonable shipping.

And before someone says "well don't buy from the guy" and caveat emptor, I should note "well, duh" and I won't buy from sellers that pull this crap, but this was more of a public-service-type-thing. Besides being truly curious about how much casinos really do pay for their chips, I posted because I feel sorry for anybody who read the same email, fell for the "uncirculated chips will be SO hard to get" routine, and bought into the hype. That's all. Caveat Emptor, sure, but unethical practices even by one person can start to drag the whole hobby down.

You know, when I overpaid for a $25 Horseshoe arodie, I only wish I had been on CT at the time to read your warnings, Jim, about the Horeshoe chips. In those postings you could have just said "buyer beware," but you wanted to help people in the hobby you love. You were trying to help buyers be a little less wary. Me too.

Bottom line, given a choice, I prefer honest people.

Shoe · #10 (**permalink**) 06-04-2008, 02:16 AM

Well, priority mail is a minimum of $4.60 (I think they just raised it, so probably more now...)...

Although with just single chips I'd imagine first class would be fine...

Well, consider the costs... Bubble mailers are about a dollar each (though I've only bought the bigger ones so I'm not sure on the smaller ones), first class shipping ranges from 1.50-2.50 or so... That's not including any handling costs or if they have employees to pay that do there shipping.

I used to work for an ebay store (not related to poker chips at all), I did the packing and shipping, and we'd typically charge $7 to ship anything that weighed more then a pound, just because that's how much it costs to ship it priority...