Gambling chips are getting a high-tech makeover

[arbycoffee]

Vegas casino bets on RFID
By Alorie Gilbert

Gambling chips are getting a high-tech makeover that could help casinos keep a better eye on patrons. Photos: Chips for cheaters

http://news.com.com/Vegas+casino+bet...?tag=sas.email

[wmas1960]

Here is another of my longer posts. Hopefully some will find it more interesting than my last couple.

These chips, I think, have been in development for some time. I also collect casino chips on a small time level and can recall talk on the chip collecting boards and groups about these chips for several years now. I have heard that part of it is to check and validate the authenticity of the chips. I suppose it could also be used to count chips quicker in larger quantities or to track or monitor how wagers are moved through the casino and more efficiently track the successes or failures of some games with the players interests. Think of the efficiency that could be improved upon with all the analysis that casinos due if computers could track the wagering and action around the casino. I am not sure though if the technology is intended to keep chips from "Walking" (the act of players taking chips out of the casino as souvenirs etc.).

I read an interesting article on a car board the other day. It was about a group of people who set out, for legitimate purposes, in this case, to defeat the chips that are in such things as car keys etc. It seems one of their motivations was to help secure and improve the technology as many new uses for the chips are on the horizon. Walmart for example has expressed great interest in using the technology. Possibly for price tagging, inventory and security of merchandise. Is this the same tagging technology that is used in some locations on luggage to track it through airports to the proper flights.... ? Maybe that is the technology being utilized in these chips.

I don't know how the casino chips work but it could be similar technology that would allow each chip to be counted and identified as it moves through the system.

Also, looking at the picture of the table, that you included, it looks like an automated table. Not sure of everything there but it could be that there is a slot for a slot card, so your play can be tracked like play through a slot machine. Also, there could be readers in the table that would read the amount of your bet by reading the denominations of the chips through these internal tags inside the chip. There appears to be a read out that could give the dealer or the pit crew information on your betting etc.

I just did a GOOGLE search on SafeChip and TableLink. It seems that they are two different technologies that are being brought together to automate the pits in casinos.

Progressive Gaming might be the developer of the "TableLink" system. Bourgogne Et Grasset is the developer of the "SafeChip". It seems that Progressive is turning to Mikohn to market the TableLink system. Also, looking up SafeChip, I got directed to Mikohn as well. I didn't read all the stuff right now as there is quite a bit out there. Search GOOGLE if you are interested. Look up combinations of SafeChip, TableLink, Progressive Gaming Bourgogne and Mikohn for info. Note also that Paulson, Ben Jones and Borgogne Et Grasset are all different product lines of the same company now.

What I did see while scanning the articles is that the system is in response to the slot tracking technologies, (Slot Card Readers) that are used in the electronic games like slot machines and video poker. The "TableLink" tables, in conjunction with "SafeChip" it seems, do have the ability to more accurately monitor your play and record that information to your comps accounts. It was mentioned that the technology will take away a lot of inaccuracies to the manual methods still used today. Instead of swiping your card and filling out a tracking card, then looking in on you every 15 minutes and recording your stack total and amount of your bet, and using a mathematical formula to PROJECT your betting and win or loss and thus calculate your comp level, the table will, it seems, be able to read the chips, and track, EXACTLY, what your wagers are, how much you have put in (Buy in) and how much you have taken out (WON) or how much you have lost and what level you have been betting. All that information, was mentioned, can be interfaced right into the casino's computers and recorded to your Slot Club Account for appropriate comp awards.

[arbycoffee]

WoW!

[wmas1960]

Should have read the attached article first, before sending the previous post. Doesn't say a lot different but some of what I said was mentioned. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification(???)) is the technology that I mentioned before. It is being used in things from your Tollway tag, (IPASS in Illinois) or some car keys to luggage tags etc.

A few things that were also mentioned in the article that I find interesting.

"Wynn plans to take note of the serial numbers of the chips they lend and of the name of players who cash them in. "

Could this be a way to track theft of chips if a player notices that a rail thief took some chips or to combat money laundering? They mention people using a credit line to extend loans to others. Never heard that before but I am not that big of a gambler. Interesting though...

Past Posting of bets can be spotted. If the table can read your bet at the dealing of a hand, and you try to add more chips when you are Dealt 2 10s against a six....

"For instance, an RFID reader might make a nifty tool for a thief, who could covertly scan people strolling along the Strip for his next hold-up victim. Could casinos be setting their patrons up for this kind of trouble?
"

Scary possibility. Should the system be wide spread enough, it would make sense not to carry large quantities of chips with you when you leave a casino. Lock them in a safe deposit box at your hotel or cash in when you leave.

[slotter]

Interesting! Thanks for posting this... 8-)

[Tulsa]

Maybe it's simply my love of cash in my hands, but I don't leave with their chips. I get da cash! :wink:

Also I wouldn't think with the investement they have to make in these chips they are going to let you out of the casino with them in your pocket. So someone scanning you on the streets wouldn't on the surface anyway, appear to be a very profitable vocation.

[wmas1960]

True, I can't see why anyone would walk with a large amount in a casino's chips. Unless it is where you are staying and you decide to leave and take a stroll on the strip and don't want to wait in a line and cash them right away. Like I said though. That might be where you would want to deposit them in a safe deposit box or hide them in your room. Incidentally, I usually carry my valuables when I leave the room in the morning. I carry a backpack with me and will keep my camera, extra money, etc. with me when I go down to breakfast etc. Then, when I go back to my room after eating and playing a little, if the room has been cleaned already, I usually feel comfortable leaving things there. At least, with the hotel that I usually stay at. I feel safe and comfortable there.

As a collector, I don't think the chips, themselves, would be that expensive that they would be that concerned. As it stands right now, chips cost the casinos, as I understand, around .50 to .75 ea. Possibly less. One reason that many casinos are reluctant to produce chips for less than a buck. People tend to take the low denomination chips. They have to keep the dollar value higher than the cost of the chip or they will loose money on walking chips. Otherwise they don't care. When the burden on the books gets large enough, they can issue a redemption notice. After a period of time dictated by gaming regs, if chips aren't turned in they become worthless. That is in NEVADA. New Jersey requires the casino to give the state an amount of cash to support outstanding chips, after an audit, when they discontinue an issue. That way the player can always send the chip to the state for redemption and the casino washes their hands of all burden. Other states may do things different altogether.

One casino I play at, they have $3 blackjack in the afternoons. You get Blackjack and they need to pay you $4.50. They usually give you 4 $1 slot tokens and a US .50 piece. Their chip rack consists of standard denominations of $1, $5, $25, $100, $500... I haven't had anything bigger than a $100 myself. They use $1 tokens mostly instead of the chips. I don't know why. They use $1 chips at the Craps table and at Roulette, I think. For Blackjack they use the tokens. Maybe it has to do with limiting the number of $1 chips that can possibly walk. And, tokens might be cheaper to mint. Further, the ugliest or simplest designs are the $1 chips. Casinos where I have seen $2.50, $5, $8, $10 chips are usually much nicer and sometimes special collector editions. Maybe marketing shows them that these chips are of denominations that would be popularly low to walk and by making them nicer they are encouraging some people to take them as collectibles or souvenirs. Many LE or limited edition chips will come out in $2.50, $5, $8, $10, $25 and/or $100 denominations. I have never seen a collectible or limited edition chip less than $2.50 or more than $100.

In closing, as for the issue of the RFID tags that might be inserted into the chips, they aren't supposed to be that expensive. The first casinos, like Wynn to use them might pay a lot because they are so few in production. But as more and more casinos order the chips, the price will probably be negligible. The article that I saw earlier of the people cracking the codes for the RFID tags stated that as more companies like Walmart and the Airlines and Shipping Companies start using these tags to track and secure merchandise, baggage, packages.... and as the government uses them more and more for licenses, IDs, passports, tollway tags like IPASS etc. Credit Card companies like Speedpass and so on, the price is supposed to be, I think it was, about a nickle each.

The bigger part of the cost of the the chips and all, to the casinos is going to be fitting the systems with the readers and scanners and computer interfaces and software, automated tables, antennae around wherever they want to track movement of chips... all to utilize the technology. For startups like Wynn that might not be as big of a concern because they are setting up all new. Take Mirage or MGM or Hard Rock that already has investments in systems that will have to be changed, replaced and refitted and it becomes a much more difficult issue to change over. But, reading the benefits of improvements in efficiency and security I don't know how they can afford not to change over in the long run.