This is kind of a long post and may be of interest to only roulette collectors, but all chippers are welcome to read and respond. I keep seeing ads saying " Roulette chips only 300 made" As most of you know I specialize in collecting American style roulette chips from all areas. I wish there were only 300 roulette chips of each color made (this would make them more scarce than they already are) but I believe the number is some what higher. Here is my reasoning and I invite other opinions and or documentation to support your views. On a "normal" completely stocked roulette table there are usually 15 stacks of 20 chips for each color, that is a total of 300 chips.
These chips are usually arranged in 3 stacks across and 5 rows deep or in a triangle with 5 stacks at the base tapering down to 1 stack at the tip of the triangle. I know of numerous tables were more than 1 stack of roulettes has been harvested from a single color and there are still 300 chips on the table!!
Obvoiusly there had to be more than 300 chips to start with. But how many more? My educated guess is that there are probably 400 to 500 of each color ordered in anticipation of damage and loss.I don't believe a Casino would order more than 500 chips because this would be an unnecessary expense for chips that would never be used. This may seem like a very minor point but I believe the claims on roulette chip quanities probably should state "no more than 500 made". Even if there are 500 of each color made, roulettes are much rarer than most all regular rack chips or even LE's and Commeratives. You also have to remember that 500 OF ANY ONE COLOR OF ROULETTE CHIP ARE NOT GOING TO BE HARVESTED. The Casino would take that color out of play long before all 500 chips are gone. To look at it another way the roulettes ads should probably say for current roulette chips " Less than 100 available". The true number is probably between 40 or 60 chips or as low as 20(1 stack)or less. If any Casino personnel can shed any light on the number of roulette chips ordered per color please LMK. In any case roulette chips are rarer than you think.