Fancy a splurge: try a $10 million gaming chip

By Doug Young

LOS ANGELES, Aug 8 (Reuters) - High rollers, get ready: now you can bet $10 million at one time using just one chip.

A chip approved for use at the new $1 billion Aladdin Resort & Casino in Las Vegas will carry a face value of $10 million -- believed to be worth more than any other chip in the history of gambling -- when the famed Las Vegas Strip's newest monument to excess opens on Aug. 17.

The gimmick is the brainchild of London Clubs International (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: LCI.L), which owns 40 percent of the desert-themed resort and controls four of its seven board seats.

The chip, or plaque as it's formally called, is rather nondescript despite the astronomical sum attached to it, according to those who have seen it.

``It's a big black gaming plaque, six or seven inches long by four inches wide,'' said Aladdin President Bill Timmins, who learned on Monday that the chip's design was approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

``It's made of many different plastics,'' Timmins said. ``We'll have just one. No one has ever had a denomination for anything that high before.''

Timmins, who has worked at casinos in London, Monte Carlo, France, Lebanon, Egypt and South Africa, said he believes the $10 million denomination is the highest ever for any plaque in the world.

A spokesman for the Nevada Gaming Control Board confirmed the amount is the largest for the state in recent memory, and likely in Nevada history.

And was he surprised when Aladdin applied for the plaque?

``Yes and no,'' said the spokesman, who didn't want his name used. ``Everybody's looking for a gimmick. I've never seen any denomination that
high. They also submitted for a $5 million plaque, and that may be the second highest.''

In fact, the Aladdin must still provide the Control Board with a replica of the plaques before final approval is granted, according to the spokesman.

``But we don't anticipate any problems,'' he said. "We've already approved the artwork. It's nothing really fancy -- a rectangular piece of plastic about
the size of an eight-by-five photograph. It does say $10 million on it. The location of the casino and city will also be on it.

And does the Aladdin worry about forgeries?

``If this is given to somebody, we're going to know the name of the person, that's for sure,'' Timmins said. But that shouldn't be a problem, he added,
since only one plaque is being made.