Well before we had blue chip stocks or companies we had the simple blue chips that were used for betting in card games like poker and faro. As the blue chips were typically assigned the highest value in these games, the term became extended to refer to other financial matters which were thought likely to be profitable. The red chips in card games are generally less valuable than the blue, and red chip may also be found referring to stocks (those which are viewed as less desirable investments than blue chips).
Languidly and with a becoming blase air he would walk up to the faro table of a gaming room, and invest a few hundreds in “blue chips” just as a starting “stake.” He was a marvel at the “call” of the “deal.”
— The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (Wheeling, WV), 18 Jan. 1866
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