Melbourne’s Crown Casino has detected a fake chip scam that has put all casinos in Australia on alert. The scam involved fake AUD 1,000 chips and Crown officials say they have no idea how much money was lost in the scam.

Yesterday, an employee at the casino detected the fake chips, which were remarkably similar to the real chips. The casino then started changing the chips they were using to a new set that was a darker blue. Early indications are that at least thirty-six of the fake chips were found.

„We don’t know how long they have been in circulation on the floor,“ said Crown Casino Spokesman Gary O’Neill, „As a consequence of that, we recalled all of the AUD 1,000 chips from the tables. We have checked all of them and found thirty-six fakes.“

The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation and local authorities have began the search for the person or persons responsible for creating the scam. Other casinos are also concerned that the scam may have spread to their locations.

„We’ll have discussions with Crown to see what the problem was and make sure it doesn’t happen to us,“ said Star City Casino Spokesman, Peter Grimshaw. He alluded to the fact that the casino has checked its chips and found no irregularities.

Chips scams are nothing new to casinos. In Australia, every once in a while a scam pops up. Star City has not had the fake chip problem in the past decade, but has had to deal with the problem in the past.