Ken has most of it right, and when you look at the numbers you see why some casinos did pump out every possible LE that they could, But after some found that people didn't care much for the "chip of the day" club and the casino ended up with stacks of LEs they had to destroy the leftovers, so it's not all profit.

Part of the profit is getting peple in the door. If someone plays a game to harvest chips, then the casino makes more than just the markup on a chip.

Just about every roulette chip that I picked up myself cost about $20 to "steal" I had to play to get them.

As for Ken's theory on 25c to $1 chips, he's right again. The casino loses money, but if someone can't just buy them at the table, as many casinos do watch and make you color up, then they are a marketing tool to get people playing. The idea is get your money on the table abd take it. For the few thousand chip collectors there are hundreds of thousands of players who will use the chips over and over, and the casino will get their profit on them.

Last of all, make this just about any casino except Hard Rock and the problem almost disappears. They are a victim of their own popularty and people who want anything with the name Hard Rock on it.

Stockmen's in Elko had 25c craps. Limited hours and days, but they tried it. They also had a chip shortage and dropped the idea. Plain old HS H&C chips. When I played to get some, the dealers would only allow me to take four home and asked for the rest back. Still they ran out of chips and didn't see enough of a profit for their efforts.

$1 LEs? I love em. I guess if it brings people in the door who play the games and gets the name of the casino around as free advertising, there's some added value.

Ken you missed the profit on $25 and $100 LEs for the casino. Hypothetical 250 made of a $25 chip. Cost $750 (that includes design costs and chip costs, Est. $3 a chip) Sells for $6250 a cool $5500 profit. I guess making sets of designs makes it worthwhile and encourages people to buy the higher ones as well.

So the casino has a loss leader to get people in to play, just like stores do in their ads. They make money on the rest of the stuff.

The 50c chip is useful for 21 and for craps, so it's a necessary gaming device. Same for the $1 chips.

And I'll toss in one more way to look at it. Say someone plays and cashes in all their $1 chips. No profit at all. (no loss either) Say someone plays and the casino is breaking even on the cost of a $1 chip. That's $1 more, that the casino has in the bank, and one chip that they won't see being cashed in again. But since the person played the game, the chances are the casino made some money on the deal.