Luck Karma

Luck or fortuity is good or bad fortune in life caused by accident or chance, and attributed by some to reasons of faith or superstition, which happens beyond a person's control. The term luck is pervasive in common speech. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the proscriptive sense and the descriptive sense. In the proscriptive sense, luck is the supernatural and deterministic concept that there is a force. This Force proscribes that certain events occur very much the way the laws of physics will proscribe that certain events occur. It is the proscriptive sense that people mean when they state that they do not believe in luck. In the descriptive sense, luck is merely a descriptive name we give to events after they occur which we find to be fortuitous. Cultural views of luck vary from perceiving luck as a matter of random chance to attributing to luck explanations of faith or superstition. For example, the Romans believed in the embodiment of luck as the goddess Fortuna, while the atheist and philosopher Daniel Dennett believes that luck is mere luck rather than a property of a person or thing. Lucky symbols have widespread global appeal. They are always meaning a form of superstition. There is also a series of spiritual or supernatural beliefs regarding fortune. These beliefs vary widely from one to another, but most agree that luck can be through spiritual means by performing certain rituals or by avoiding certain circumstances. One such activity is prayer, a religious practice in which this belief is particularly strong. Many cultures and religions worldwide place a strong emphasis on a person's ability to influence their fortune by ritualistic means, sometimes involving sacrifice, omens or spells. Others associate luck with a strong sense of superstition, that is, a belief that certain taboo or blessed actions will influence how fortune favors them for the future. Luck can also be a belief in an organization of fortunate and unfortunate events. Luck is a form of superstition, which is differently by different individuals. Famous Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, who founded analytical psychology, coined the term synchronicity, which he described as a meaningful coincidence. Christianity and Islam believe in the will of a supreme being rather than luck as the primary influence in future events. The degrees of this Divine Providence vary greatly from one person to another; however, most acknowledge providence as at least a partial, if not complete influence on luck. Christianity, in its early development, accommodated many traditional practices which at different times, accepted omens and practiced forms of ritual sacrifice in order to divine the will of their supreme being or to influence divine favoritism. The concept of Divine Grace as believers describe it closely resembles what others refer to as luck. Mesoamerican religions, such as the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas, had particularly strong beliefs regarding the relationship between rituals and luck. The Mayans also believed in blood offerings, where men or women wanting to earn favor with the gods, to bring about good luck, would cut themselves and bleed on the gods' altar. Many traditional African practices, such as voodoo and hoodoo, have a strong belief in superstition. Some of these religions include a belief that third parties can influence an individual's luck. Shamans and witches are both respected and feared, based on their ability to cause good or bad fortune for those in villages near them.

Casino Tokens

Casino tokens are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal, injection molded plastic or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines. Casino tokens are also widely used as play money in casual or tournament games.

Some casinos also use gaming plaques for high stakes table games $25,000 and above. Plaques differ from chips in that they are larger, usually rectangular in shape and contain serial numbers.

Money is exchanged for tokens in a casino at the casino cage, at the gaming tables, or at a cashier station. The tokens are interchangeable with money at the casino. They generally have no value outside of the casino, though in Las Vegas, some casinos might honor chips from other casinos and certain businesses such as taxis or waiters—especially for tips in gambling towns may honor them informally.

Tokens are employed for several reasons. Because of the uniform size, shape, and patterns of stacks of chips, they are easier to tally compared to currency. This attribute also enables the pit boss or security to quickly verify the amount being paid, reducing the chance that a dealer might incorrectly pay a customer. The uniform weight of the casino's official tokens allows them to weigh great stacks or heaps of chips rather than tally them. Though aids such as chip trays are far more common. Furthermore, it is observed that consumers gamble more freely with replacement currencies than with cash. Lastly, the chips are considered to be an integral part of the casino environment, and replacing them with some alternate currency would be unpopular.

Many casinos have eliminated the use of metal tokens and coins, in their slot machines, in favor of paper receipts or pre-paid cards, which, while requiring heavy infrastructure costs to install, eliminate the coin handling expenses, jamming problems encountered in machines which took coins or tokens and can allow more game-specific technology in the space of a machine which would usually be dedicated to coin mechanisms. Whiles some casinos such as the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas which installed the receipt system had kept the $1 tokens around for use as $1 chips, most other casinos using the receipts had simply scrapped the tokens entirely. Most casinos using receipts have automated machines at which customers may redeem receipts, eliminating the need for coin counting windows and decreasing labor costs.

A standard 300 piece set of Plastic Injection chips often sold as clay composite chips

Casino chip collecting is a part of numismatics, more specifically as specialized exonumia collecting. This hobby has become increasingly popular with the Casino Chips & Gaming Tokens Collectors Club formed in 1988. Some chips are worth up to $100,000 and the most popular way to collect and trade is on eBay. Several casinos sell custom-made sets of chips and one or two decks of cards stamped with the name of the casino on them. Each set is contained in a small briefcase or box.