In the UK, chips from £1 to £100 almost always have the same colors.
It’s a bit like banknotes — colors help you recognize their value instantly. So all denominations always have the same color.
For lower denomination chips, expect different colors depending on where you play. Same for higher denomination chips and plaques.
Here are the colors I’ve seen as a dealer and customer:
- 25p — white
- 50p — green, brown, blue, or yellow
- £1 — yellow, pink (rare), or blue (rare)
- £5 — red
- £25 — black
- £100 — bright pink
- £1,000 — white or green
To make it 100 percent clear, chips from different UK casinos are not interchangeable unless it’s casinos of the same company.
But the colors of the chips tend to be the same all over the UK.
Poker chip values (UK)
For cash games, expect to use the same exact chips used on blackjack and all other casino games. So yellow, blue, or pink chips valued at £1, red fivers, black £25 chips, and bright pink hundreds.
For poker tournament chips, there are no standard colors.
Casino chip nicknames (UK)
- £25 chips are called ponies
- £100 are called ladies or simply pinks
- £500 are monkeys
- £1,000 are biscuits
Roulette chip colors and values
As for roulette, cash chips will be the same used on all other games while color chips will have random colors.
This is because roulette color chips have no inherent value. It is the customer who decides the value of the chips before their session.
If you ask the dealer to give you a stack of chips valued at £25 each, it doesn’t matter whether the chips are purple or green. Each will be worth £25 regardless.
This is true for all roulette tables in all casinos worldwide.
Hippodrome casino chips
The Hippodrome is one of the most iconic casinos in London. Six floors, eight bars, and one of the best poker rooms in London, as well as a real dice table (rare in the UK).
Even if you don’t like to play, I would encourage you to visit if you ever get the chance because it’s truly spectacular.
As of February 2022, here are the colors and values of the chips at the Hippodrome:
- £1 — blue
- £5 — red
- £10 — light blue (never seen 10s anywhere else)
- £25 — black
- £100 — bright pink
- £500 — green/gray, oversized
- £1,000 — yellow/purple, oversized
You can have a look at the actual design of the chips here.
The Hippodrome even has a store, on the ground floor, where you can buy merchandise such as T-shirts, caps, and… even their limited edition £5 chips.
Casino chips weight and size
Standard casino chips are 39mm and weight usually ranges from 8 to 16 grams per chip.
Roulette color chips have the same diameter and thickness but they are usually not as heavy, just because the material is different.
Then there’s oversized casino chips, which usually measure 43mm. Typically, oversized chips are used for higher denominations or a specific game e.g. baccarat.
The WSOP (World Series of Poker) now uses oversized chips from the main event as well, and those are even bigger — 50mm.
You can probably find 50mm chips in some casinos around the world but I’ve never seen them in the UK.
Casino plaques
Typically, for really high denominations, casinos don’t use regular chips, and not even oversized chips, but plaques.
These are rectangular plastic chips, about the size of a credit card or larger, although in some casinos it’s more of an oval shape.
So if a customer wants to place a single bet, or single series of bets, that’s close to £5,000, £10,000, or £25,000, they can use plaques instead of chips.
I’ve heard some clubs in the UK use £500,000 plaques, and according to Wikipedia, the London Club in Vegas used to have $10,000,000 black plaques.
If you’ve seen or heard of unusual, or unusually large, casino chip denominations or colors, then please leave a comment below 👇
