Do you know when gaming regs mandated that all chips marked Baccarat be 43mm (or larger)? I'm presuming somewhere mid- to late 80s, since I think that's about when they started showing up.

Of course, when you said that you didn't know of any 39mm LV/NV chips marked Baccarat, you must have been referring to chips after that date, since there were a few that existed before then (i.e., Aladdin, MGM Grand, Dunes, etc.). Probably my favourite of them all is the 1/4 Pie Brown/Green Dunes $20, although this is my favourite of the ones I actually own:

After casinos switched to the larger chips for Baccarat (either by choice and then it became regulation, or it became regulation first-- I don't know), I also am not aware of any NV 39mm chips marked as such.

My own personal philosophy on why Baccarat chips are larger and/or distinctly marked would be to keep better track of the profit/loss of the particular game. Since Baccarat has a low house edge and many of the whales play it, it can be extremely volatile to a casino's earnings-- so much that on many casino financial statements they report the Baccarat drop separately from all other table games. Presumably if you can only use Baccarat chips in the Baccarat pit (and not vice versa? I don't know that for sure), it would give a better indication of the money in/chips out of that specific game.

Of course, probably the easiest explanation I heard was this: "Big money, big chips!"

Brent J. Jensen
R-8007
orbis non sufficit