Shopping for real casino quality chips is a frustrating and confusing pursuit. The vast majority of so called “casino-grade”, “casino-style”, or “clay composite” poker chips you see on the market are nothing close to the actual chips they are using in Las Vegas casinos today. The majority of these chips (which come in hundreds of styles and colors) are nothing more than injection-molded plastic poker chips. You can find different varieties of these chips pretty much everywhere online and in regular retail stores. Some have metal inserts. Some do not. Some weight 8 grams. Some weigh 11.5 grams. Some weight more and some weigh less. All of them claim to be “just like the casinos”, yet almost none are.

In reality, there are only a handful of stores (online and offline) in the world where one can purchase chips identical to the ones used in Las Vegas today. The primary reason is that there are only four manufacturers that outfit all of the casino chips for Las Vegas casinos (and most of the other casinos in the world), and one of these only outfits a few of the smaller clubs. Combine that with the fact that they essentially print currency for a highly regulated industry in a town with historical connections to the mafia, and you have the makings of a very tightly held industry. In fact, they’d prefer most people don’t even know who they are. I don’t blame them.

We utilize two of the three major manufacturers exclusively for both of our high-end poker chip lines including the Archetype, the Protege.