Dirty casino chips (1 Viewer)

[RunawayCow]

I’ve got a theory….

So I’m new here, and while I’ve been impatiently waiting for my set of Tina’s to arrive, since I live in Las Vegas I decided to stop by the local casino to pocket a few chips to shuffle and play around with at my computer desk.

I played a few blackjack hands and would buy in for a $13 or $18 per hand, and slide the winnings into my pocket. After a few pocketed hands, I’d play a few more, color up and leave (usually with my original buy-in amount

I’ve always noticed the chips are sooooo grimy at the casino, sometimes they’d even stick together. I’m a clean freak so naturally I took a warm washcloth and cleaned up all the chips when I got home. Afterward the chips sounded MUCH differently, so much that it got me thinking, Do casinos add material to the outside of the chips to change the feel and sound?

I went back for a few more sessions and realized it was ALWAYS on the spot marks, and only on one side of the chip. It’s obviously rubbed around the chip and smudged on the backsides as well from stacking and shuffling. I also pick it off with my nail and it sticks under my fingernail like play dough.

Anybody have any idea if this is a thing? Does anyone know what it is or used something similar? I feel like this would be a great addition to Tina chips to make them feel more authentic.

I attached a photo for reference, a stack of chips (lightly cleaned) on top vs polished clean on bottom

 

[RocAFella1]

Hooker juice

 

[Okku]

Casinos don't add material or anything to the outside of the chip. It's the mold and the material that they use to make the chips that make the sound.

The dirt generally adds up in spots because its the oils, dirt and anything else that dirty just collects onto the chip. Super easy to clean with warm water, soap, or anything generally that cleans and a little bit of rubbing/scrubbing.

Newer Tina hybird ceramics will sound really close to an actual casino chip because they are made with an actual mold compared to a no mold chip.

 

[upNdown]

Yeah thats grime. Like genuine filth. The most horrific mix of DNA, food, and fecal matter imaginable. You did right by cleaning them off.

 

[calfdemon]

Do not embrace the hooker juice... clean it off every chance you get!

 

[ekricket]

I also pick it off with my nail and it sticks under my fingernail like play dough.

This stuff is really a nasty biohazard. I’ll never shake your hand now, no matter how many time you wash it.

It’s waxes and oils and bacteria from human bodies. Concentrated. If you gathered enough you could straight up hydrotreat it and produce hydrocarbons for cars.

 

[BPTDirector]

That stuff is made of despair and lost dreams! Leave it alone and do not scrape it off at the casino. Use rubber gloves and a hazmat suit when cleaning at home in a room sealed off from your living quarters.

 

[chippitydoodah]

Now you can add your own with...

 

[RunawayCow]

Omg guys! First, thanks for the replies. Second,

I swear, this crud is ONLY on the spot marks. I checked all the chips I got and played with. It’s very strange for sure. Maybe the white material just attracts the grime more.

So, where do I buy the hooker juice? Is there a group buy or….?

 

[upNdown]

this crud is ONLY on the spot marks

That's weird. It might be worth mentioning the way chips are made. They take a circle of base color clay, cut out spaces for the spots, then insert the differently colored clay into those areas, then put the thing in a mold, and compress and cook the whole thing. Nobody knows exactly what's in the clay, but we can observe that differently colored clays have different weights, so we know the color differences aren't just food coloring - they're different mixtures of whatever.
So am I saying that the clay that makes up the spots is so different that it actually attracts dirt more than the base color? No. But I’m not not saying that either. It’s a wild theory.

 

[demonnic]

Should "Hooker Juice" maybe be added to the PCF glossary? I've seen many references to it and just kind of guess that it's the colorful name for the grime on poker chips from context clues, but it's used enough perhaps it warrants a glossary entry.

 

[upNdown]

Should "Hooker Juice" maybe be added to the PCF glossary? I've seen many references to it and just kind of guess that it's the colorful name for the grime on poker chips from context clues, but it's used enough perhaps it warrants a glossary entry.

I’d vote that we just find a less crass term for it, but I have a feeling it’s a losing campaign.

 

[demonnic]

I mean, I wasn't aware that was an option but I'd throw my weight behind it. Perhaps "gambler goo"

 

[BPTDirector]

My vote is for spooge.

 

[UniLover]

Smegma?

 

[wickedwonka121]

It's interesting that you only see the grime on the spot marks. It seems to be a pattern, no idea why.

In most cases this grime happens because of how the oils and dirt build up on the mold edges (recessed areas on the chip). I would say less build up happens on the edges because of lack of recesses and constant handling sort of "rubs it away" as they are used.

After seeing this crap live, I always wondered why they don't run them through a sonic cleaner every so often as part of their maintenance, especially after the whole covid thing and people started carrying about hygiene again.

I'm shocked you scraped it with your nail. Hopefully you cleaned it off before it got on your food or anything like that.

 

[TheYeti]

Somebody here on PCF, can't remember who, once told a story of an Asian woman he was playing with at a casino who was scraping the gunk off of the chips with her nails, and then...eating it!

Don't know who that was, but this thread is giving me flashbacks of that thread and more than a little PTSD.

 

[RunawayCow]

That's weird. It might be worth mentioning the way chips are made. They take a circle of base color clay, cut out spaces for the spots, then insert the differently colored clay into those areas, then put the thing in a mold, and compress and cook the whole thing. Nobody knows exactly what's in the clay, but we can observe that differently colored clays have different weights, so we know the color differences aren't just food coloring - they're different mixtures of whatever.
So am I saying that the clay that makes up the spots is so different that it actually attracts dirt more than the base color? No. But I’m not not saying that either. It’s a wild theory.

See, the thing that gets me is the $1 gray chips have the same thing, the grime is only on the spot marks. Same with the $20. And it really comes off and feels like clay. Almost like it was marked with a crayon.

I guess we’ll see if they give me trouble when I return a few stacks of shiny clean chips

My initial thought was that it’s an anti-counterfeit security measure. Who knows, it’s probably just “the juice”

 

[btbmason]

There are two older gentlemen that I frequently play pai gow poker with who spend time during/between hands scraping visible gunk from the chips and putting it into the cup holders in front of them.

What I’ve never seen happen after that is anyone cleaning out the cup holders.

 

[WedgeRock]

it sticks under my fingernail like play dough.

 

[Taghkanic]

Yeah, don’t pick at the chip boogers with your own fingernails. Get a friend to do it

 

[Taghkanic]

But seriously, give them a brief soak in warm water with a little dish soap first. You may not need to scrub (as) much. Also search the site for the term “faux TSP.”

 

[wickedwonka121]

 

[Taghkanic]

I swear, this crud is ONLY on the spot marks. I checked all the chips I got and played with. It’s very strange for sure. Maybe the white material just attracts the grime more.

I’d guess that the inserts must have a slightly rougher texture than the base material.

Normally you find the crud accumulating where the mold is depressed into the chip.

 

[BGinGA]

Somebody here on PCF, can't remember who, once told a story of an Asian woman he was playing with at a casino who was scraping the gunk off of the chips with her nails, and then...eating it!

Don't know who that was, but this thread is giving me flashbacks of that thread and more than a little PTSD.

Can't verify, but it sounds like a @bergs casino tale. And probably true.

His casino noodle story is one of the best eva.

 

[allforcharity]

View attachment 1369688

Oh, that's so nasty....

 

[bergs]

Can't verify, but it sounds like a @bergs casino tale. And probably true.

His casino noodle story is one of the best eva.

Wasn’t me but I did see an Asian female dealer take a full rack of chips and throw them at a player at the Commerce 8/16 OE years ago. She got fired, he got kicked out, there was zero delay in getting another dealer in the box and the next hand getting dealt.

 

[bergs]

Shit, the noodle story was me, it was ~10 years ago at talking stick. I’ll share it when I’m done getting drunk tonight.

 

[upNdown]

I remember reading a story something like a guy stuffed a whole barrel of filthy $5 chips in his mouth to win a bet. Not worth $100 to me, but maybe in different times . . .

 

[chippitydoodah]

I’d vote that we just find a less crass term for it, but I have a feeling it’s a losing campaign.

Chip Jizz?