Instead items like bones, wood and stones were used in the form of chips. Mass production of plastic chips was not used in those days yet. Those rooms used to collect the real currency from the players and charge them a small fee to provide them the chips for playing poker. There was also a need of standardizing the game and the currency so the card rooms and gambling houses began making use of poker chips. Introduction of all poker chipsĪ couple of centuries ago, in the US during the time of riverboats and small card rooms there was a need to safeguard real currency while playing the game. However, since the game had been so popular it was necessary to have a standard currency. Some players even put their cattle on stake while other traded for expensive food items.

Many players used gold nuggets, dust or any other type of expensive mineral, gems or ores which they had been able to find while working in the mines. In the earlier days all the players had different currencies and some used no paper currency at all. With this popularity came the need of keeping the track of the wins and losses during the game. In the 1800s gambling and poker especially gained much popularity in the US and especially in the west states of the country. All poker chips have existed since the game has been around though they were quite different in the earlier days.