High Value Casino Chips

I'm a casual casino chip collector, and I've seen pictures of the (very) high value Aladdin chip rack (including the $10M plaque). I've seen $25K chips at the Bellagio and once at the MGM (high roller was making $10K pass line bets). Do most casinos cap their chips at $5k or $25K on the Strip, or do they go even higher? Are there any good sites with pictures of high-value chips?

Don't lots of high-end casinos use brown for 25K chips? I think they are fondly known as "chocolate chips." I've never heard of anything higher here. In Macau, they use the big European-style rectangular chips for very high values, up to the size of a pack of cigarettes.

Article of interest.

There is a 1200 page list of all the historical chip tokens here .

M RESORT has a chip worth $25,000.00 PRIMARY RACK LOGO CARROT W/ DARK BROWN, FUSCHIA,&GOLD BOTH SIDES

ARIA has a $25,000.00 LOGO PRIMARY RACK WATERMELON W/SKY BLUE & CHARCOAL (with RFID)

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Round Casino Chips Replacing Rectangular Plaques
Published April 01, 2008 by:
Timothy B. Benford

$25,000 Round Chip Makes Debut in Atlantic City

We've all seen those odd-looking rectangular casino chips called 'plaques' in just about every Hollywood movie involving a casino scene. Especially if it is the Monte Carlo Casino in a James Bond or Pink Panther movie and the casino game is baccarat or roulette. Round chips will not be in sight.

Even though such rectangular casino plaques exist, and can be found in any casino worldwide, chances are most people reading this have never actually seen rectangular plaques used in play at any casino. The reason is these strange and cumbersome rectangular gaming chips have values ranging from $25,000 to $100,000, which means if you see anybody using rectangular plaques in a casino then Mister, or Madam, you are in 'High Roller' country.

Rectangular casino plaques have long been the currency of the 'Whales,' the super-spenders that a casino will bend over backwards to romance. Yet somewhere along the way even the Whales have become frustrated with the rectangular plaques and have made their feelings known. Simply put, casino players today prefer round chips.

Your writer has learned that earlier this month, March, 2008, the New Jersey Casino Commission approved a request by Caesars in Atlantic City to begin using gold colored $25,000 round chips instead of plaques. Previously the highest denomination round chip remains $20,000.

The round $25,000 chip is already in use in Las Vegas with the Bellagio's chip being the status symbol among the high rollers in Sin City.

Now Atlantic City, where one can still walk the boardwalk and buy a box of saltwater taffy for $3.99, has joined the march to retire the rectangular gambling plaque.

A number of casinos are already preparing to phase out the rectangular plaques and you can find them offered on eBay and elsewhere for $10 and up. Naturally, those being sold for less than face value are generally from casinos that no longer exist.

Rectangular bakelite 1000 Franc gambling plaques from the Monte Carlo Casino can also be bought from a 136-page coins and collectibles catalog produced by Valley View Coins, 4525-A MacArthur Blvd. Newport Beach, CA.

The obsolete Monte Carlo bakelite versions were in play up till the 1940s but were replaced by plastic plaques. Bakelite plaques have a tendency to bend or warp somewhat after long use. The plastic ones do not.

Questions? Comments? Reach me directly at: TimothyBenford "at" aol "dot" com

I'm not sure about the colors, I think Bellagio's were fuchsia or hot pink but I only got a really distant glance...but that makes a lot of sense, since it's probably an issue of supply and demand. Even with the whales in Vegas, I doubt there are enough players who wager more than $25,000 a roll or hand to make it worth the casino's while to make chips worth more and having to inventory and store them.

i recall on PAD they wer calling 25k's cranberrys.

If you look at the list I posted earlier, there were actually a lot of $25K chips from different casinos.


The Swiss have neat currency including a banknote worth roughly $900. The Swiss use them as mini savings accounts.

In the Netherlands, the hightest value round chips are €100, anything higher is rectangular. There are pink €1000 chips called 'plakje' (meaning small plaque), that are slightly bigger than regular round chips. The €10,000 and €5,000 are a lot bigger, about 3 by 6 inch. There might be €25,000 ones as well, I'm not sure.

The rectangular chips are seldom used as a bet. I've only seen it happen in baccarat and on the even money bets in roulette. The plakjes are usually used for big payouts. The higher values are almost exclusively used by the casino's themselves. A dealer who's running low on chips will buy a stack of low value chips and 'pay' for it with a rectangular chip to keep the table balance accurate.

There are bankroll requirements for the casino listed on NGC website. For a small casino (less than $1 million a month in revenue the requirements are $5000 per table and $15000 for a craps table. So it may be $100,000 all together for a small 16 table pit. I assume that the casinos try to keep as close as possible to the legal minimum since the cost of money can be so high. I am told in the old days the casinos might make short term loans to each other when they were running low. I doubt that they do that today.

I am assuming that a small casino like this would not issue anything higher than $100 chip. I also presume that they only issue as many chips as they have cash.

Those are pretty cool bills! I actually own one of the $25K Dunes chips...it's definitely the largest casino chip I've ever seen, over-sized even relative to the "over-size" chips used in Vegas baccarat and the $1000/$5000 chips in Atlantic City.

Are the $25K DUne chips still valid? If so, assumed you "paid" $25K for it, but don't understand why you would not cash it in. If it is no longer used, then you probably paid much less for it.

Quote: PaiGowFan

Are the $25K DUne chips still valid? If so, assumed you "paid" $25K for it, but don't understand why you would not cash it in. If it is no longer used, then you probably paid much less for it.

The Dunes closed 17 years ago, it was demolished and replaced with the Bellagio. The chips are for collectors today.

There are a surprising number of $100,000 chips and plaques. Aria, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Bellagio, Mirage, Ceasars, Paris, Rio, Venetian, and Wynn.


Some that you wouldn't think of like Stratosphere, Hilton, and HARRAH'S LAKE TAHOE and even the Aladdin (closed).

Thanks. Makes much more sense now.

I bought several of those 25k Dunes chips for my son. I believe we got them down at the Gambler's General Store on Main, or the store directly behind them that also sells the chips. They were something like 50 cents each.

Are those that you found for sale the original chips from the Dunes or reproductions? I would have thought original chips would have higher market value today (higher than 50 cents, not higher than $25K), but pacomartin's image looks like a genuine chip.

Quote: Keyser

I bought several of those 25k Dunes chips for my son. I believe we got them down at the Gambler's General Store on Main, or the store directly behind them that also sells the chips. They were something like 50 cents each.

That would be a very mean birthday present.

"Here son, for your 21st birthday, I am giving you a $25,000 chip for the Dunes casino in Las Vegas! Have fun!"

It would probably be more realistic if you gave him ten $100 chips for the Dunes casino.

The original chips would be worth quite a bit. This old $1 chip is being sold for over $300.

This original chip is selling for $350.

The commemorative chips are $0.50 apiece.

Thanks for the clarification, Mr. Martin. The commemorative chips appear to be very well done. Just curious -- who owns the rights to the Dunes name, images, etc.? Do they make something off these commemorative chips?

Incidentally, your post appears to have intended to post images of perhaps two original chips selling at "over $300" and "for $350", but only one image appears, which I think is one of the commemoratives (right?). I followed your link and found an image of an original $1 Dunes chip. I was amused to find that it used the very common generic mold with the top hat and cane, rather than the one with a stylized "Dunes" font.

Actually my son is 11.

He has a pretty impressive chip collection though. lol.

He also has his own full sized 32" casino roulette wheel.

He's not your average 11 year old.

I got lucky...mine was considerably less than that at auction.

I think chocolate chips are 5k

i was playing craps at aria the other week and pretty surprised the 25k looks a lot like the $5. i wish a lazy dealer threw me one of those instead. if i recall usually they put a clear box on the high limit chips sometimes. they were just stacked in the front of the dealers bank.

Quote: jpprovance

they were just stacked in the front of the dealers bank.

In front of the dealers' bank or in front of the box man? Usually, the box man controls the vast majority of the chips on that side of the table and only lets the dealers to either side get their hands on the chips he thinks they really need. Unless there were high limits in effect and a high roller at the table, I would be very surprised to see a dealer having access to a stack of $25K chips. Was there someone making pass bets for $5K plus odds? Otherwise, these chips would be more likely to be used when a high roller was cashing out, I suspect.

not sure what youd call it they were just infront of the rows upon rows of chips you always see at the table.