I always understood it that in LV the casinos carried a cash balance for all chips in circulation and that when they got to the point where that balance was too burdensome with inactive or missing chips, they could replace the missing chips and retire and replace them with a new rack of chips (new design etc.) and issue a recall notice. Once a recall is issued you would have a set amount of time to redeem your chips before they no longer have any face value. Other times that redemption notices might be issued would be when ownership changes or when a casino for whatever reason ceases operations. Actually I think a casino might be able to replace their chips for any reason including changes in themes or image... Probably with gaming approval of course.

It appears from what Gene posted that this assumption is, at least in part, untrue. I suppose it is logical that when chips go inactive on the books there might be other ways, other than cash, that a casino could handle the liability of those chips. While there is still an accounting for them, I suppose there could be a point where they could be assumed lost, taken as souveniers, destroyed... Of course the final way to eliminate their potential liability from the books, in Las Vegas or Nevada, is a recall notice.

As for AC, I may be wrong also but my understanding is that when a casino closes or changes hands, the books are closed and balanced and the value, or at least a percentage of the value, for all the outstanding chips goes to gaming who holds it in the event that the chips are at some time presented for redemption. I would be interested in knowing whether New Jersey Gaming has some formula that considers the possibility that some casino patron might have taken the chips as souveniers or thrown away a stack with their lunch tray or accidently droped them while walking the boardwalk... It seems inevitable that some chips will always dissappear for various reasons never to be presented for cash.