For one thing, there's the counterfeiting problem, on which there is scant data. The Nevada Gaming Commission gets about a dozen complaints every year related to counterfeit chips, said Keith Copher, the agency's chief of enforcement. Last year, a casino in Reno quickly lost $26,000 in such a scheme--one of the biggest hits reported to the commission in recent years.

Anyone know more about this?

The complaint way at the end about patrons being scanned for chips while walking down the street, so robbers could target them, is a bit far fetched at this point. Not that a scanner needs to be under each players seat, and it takes time to scan as well as $8000.

So who's going to spend $8000 for a scanner (probably more to make it portable) and take the time to stand close to a target, long enough to read how much they have in chips, on their person.

Where will they get the technology to read the chips identification? What size, at what cost.

I think the author needs to get back to reality instead of science future fiction.