Custom poker chips have become very sought after recently. With the glut of chips on the market, many players are looking for something different, and custom poker chips is the answer.

Custom poker chips can be done with hot gold stamping, paper labels, or using a more sophisticated vinyl substrate printing process. Hot gold stamping has its place. You can hot stamp initials or a logo in gold onto a poker chip. A custom poker chip done with gold hot stamping does not wear off to easily since it's stamped into the chip. The gold may get darker as time goes on, but it'll last.

Nothing fancy with hot gold stamping, it adds a nice touch, and generally cost about $.12 per chip. Just a little while ago, the only custom poker chips you could get were done with hot gold stamping. Times have changed quickly. Now many poker retailers are offering custom poker chips done with printed color paper labels.

DO NOT BUY CUSTOM POKER CHIPS MADE WITH PAPER LABELS!

Even if they tell you the paper is coated, do not buy them. You'll regret it. Paper labels are printed using basic inkjet printers. They look nice, but have very low durability. After just a month, custom poker chips done with paper labels begin to scuff and peel.

I've got a friend who had some paper labels put on a nice set of Nexgen's. Nexgens are a nice chip, but with the labels started to scuff and peel, it was ruined. Unlike the graceful wear a real clay chip goes through, wear on custom poker chips made with paper labels is like spoiled milk. You'll want to dump them in the garbage disposal.

Vinyl Printed/Heat Laminated Custom Poker Chips

The only way I would recommend making your custom poker chips are through vinyl substrate printing. The printing is done on vinyl and heat laminated to the chip. The vinyl becomes part of the chip and it simply does not wear off. You can scratch and pick at the printing and you will not be able to remove it.

I had my set of custom poker chips done this way and they are beautiful. The detail is incredible and the price is very reasonable for this level of craftsmanship. Cost is about $.50/chip. As of this writing, I have seen only one place that is doing custom poker chips  this way, and that's at pokerchiplounge.com.

Below is a short list of sites to avoid that use paper labels for their custom poker chips. I chose these sites right off of Google after typing in custom poker chips. I emailed them and got samples from each. Here are the results:

CUSTOM POKER CHIPS USING PAPER LABELS - AVOID:

Customcasinochips.com -

5stardeal.com -

Vegassuppliesandgifts.com -

CUSTOM POKER CHIPS USING VINYL PRINT/HEAT LAMINATION - RECOMMENDED:

Poker Chip Lounge -

If you have purchased custom poker chips or seen samples that are well done or poor, please email us and we will add them to the list. Sending us information about your experience with custom poker chips is helping others, so please don't hesitate.