Like I said before, part of the problem was that the chips used different dialects - commercial (business/financial), official, and ordinary Chinese (which is the same as Japanese). I am used to seeing "25" as "2 10 5" with the numbers 2 and 5 separated by + (which is ten in Chinese/Japanese). Sometimes it appears reversed as "5 10 2." (Japanese coins use both methods, and you have to do some calculations to figure out what is intended - for example, they don't generally used western dating systems, but rather designate the year of an emperor's reign, such as "Akahito Year 5.") So seeing the red chip as "2 5" kinda stumped me - especially since some suggested a decimal and I had nothing to challenge that because I've never seen a decimal in Chinese or Japanese, even though they must exist.

By the way, watching Chinese TV I've noticed that they are starting to use Roman numerals more, particularly with dates. You will see "15 [day symbol] 7 [month symbol] 2008 [year symbol]" scroll across the bottom of the screen.