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I do not know if the practice of using 100 dollar bills in bigger games is, but definitely in the 1990s/early 2000s I was in a decent-sized NL game during the WSOP and I was involved in pots in which there were a mixture of chips and 100s. I was concerned at the time but there was nothing I could do. I ended up winning and went to the cashier as soon as I could to both cash in the chips and I think separately buy chips with the 100s. It turns out none of the 100s were counterfeit (or at least none were detected) but a 1000 chip was from another casino and Binion's would not cash it -- I had to take a cab to the Bellagio to cash it in and at least it turned out to be good.

But it sure seems like poker games would be a perfect place to pass counterfeit bills (if they still allow this) and counterfeit chips unless there are currently electronic counter measures taken.

In the case of the "foreign" chip, maybe I should have paid closer attention and rejected it but I sure don't recall noticing -- it was a pretty big pot and I was focusing on playing.

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35 years dealing, never found a counterfit chip, oncee found boogie bills 20;s saw one memo LVH late 80's about be on the lookout for boogey $500 chips. most large(100 and up) chips have rfid emebded in them making it very difficult to pass them without a high risk of arrest and you need to know some things that are not common knowledge to have any kind of chance to succeed. you would have better luck stealing drugs from a PD evidence locker. if you get a suspicous chip take it to cage asap and report it before you get nailed trying to cash it. poker cages generally do not have scanners.

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  • i notice starbucks checking even 20s (the largest bill they accept) closely and one of the people working there told me they get bad bills fairly often. as for chips, all i ever saw was the 1k chip from bellagio which fortunately turned out to be good but seems like using fake chips from the casino u are playing at is a great way to make money and i know people where doing this (not at the poker table afaik) -- it was in the news. bottom line, poker where u are not trying to cash them but just to play and potentially switch the chips for good ones seems like a likely place for phony chips.
    – releseabe
    Commented Mar 4, 2022 at 9:25
  • lots of regular players will not cash chips they prefer to color them up to larger chips and keep them in a box at the cage or in thier pocket. they believe it keeps them off the title 31 radar. unfortunately. casinos no longer will take larger chips from other casinos, so not cashing chips has become a little more complicated.as a dealer at the last place I worked I was not allowed to change 1K chips and up out of the rack. great way to put a player on tilt is to tell them you cant change a chip from the casino we were in.
    – Jon
    Commented Apr 3, 2022 at 18:18
  • yeah, i know people keep cash/chips at the cage and i sure would not want to walk out of a casino with any significant amount of money with people knowing about it. years ago, pai gow was introduced and the money people had at the table was in the tens of thousands which led in at least one case that i know of a fatal home invasion robbery. i know that i have played poker with ex-cons and i recall one player saying (in a town far from Vegas) that he was planning to fly there to buy some crypto -- how dumb i bet it would have been for anyone to say, well, i've got some to sell here...
    – releseabe
    Commented Apr 3, 2022 at 18:30

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