That's an interesting question, only in light of the fact that that this seems to be one of the few commodities in life that's actually gone down in price since we last checked (like gold!)
The principal supplier of gaming equipment to casinos around the world is a company called Gaming Partners International (GPI), whose head office is actually located here in town, on Industrial Road. Several years ago, GPI took over another local firm, Paulson, which was the leading casino source for playing cards, and today (well, last year, to be more accurate), according to GPI's 2013 10-K playing cards accounted for 8.8% of their total sales.
Interestingly, we can't find a sale-price per-deck in that Form 10-K, but for the previous year, on the same form the company stated that: "A deck of cards typically sells within a price range between $0.65 and $1.25. Based on casino controls and practices, cards, which are consumable products, are generally replaced at least every 24 hours. A casino typically enters into a one- or two-year purchase commitment with a supplier to supply its cards at regular intervals, generally monthly." (From a previous QoD we learned, courtesy of the buyer at Bellagio, which has around 150 table games (excluding the poker room), that he has a weekly standing order for 60 cases of cards, or 8,640 new decks.)
That 2012/13 price of $0.65 to $1.25 compares to a price-per-deck range of between $0.80 and $1.65, back in 2009.
A couple of other interesting tidbits:
