Let’s take a look at some facts and solutions.

First, may I state that I totally agree it was really bad for those chips to be harvested from our club event. Period! However....can we really be all that surprised?

I'm a person who fully understands who and what we are. We, as a whole, are consumed, obsessed, and addicted to casino chips. Vast numbers of our members are known to harvest chips from roulette tables and various tournaments. To us, no cash value chips have very real value. This goes without saying. Our history is undeniable.

Next we have a situation where a tournament is using a beautiful, uncommon set of chips that is only brought out and used for free roll tournaments and special events. The aforementioned chips are not the usual hot stamp chips, but rather super nice inlay chips, in minty condition that can only be seen if you are a local playing in the other events and happen to make it into the free roll event, or lucky enough to get into a special event where they are used. I have never seen those chips before and I know most other people haven't either.
So now we have placed Adam and Eve right in the midst of an apple orchard at peak harvest time during a bumper crop! Can you say TEMPTATION?

Whoever the harvesters were, they were weak. I think it only right to now refer to that person as "Adam". Adam cared more about the fruit of the harvest then they did about our club's relationship with the South Point casino's poker room. I, like everyone else, said to myself, "wow! These chips are NICE! I would LOVE to have a few of these babies!" But I was strong. I resisted the temptation to harvest any because it was not the right time, or the right place. It was a club event, with strict instructions, and repercussions that could have numerous significant rippling effects.

Most certainly, with 20/20 hindsight, I can say the South Point should not have used those chips for our tournament. You don't serve a dinner to an ex-con support group using solid gold flatware and then be surprised when half of them disappear.

Considerations for the future:

It would be prudent for the club to address the future and try to remove some of the temptation. Temptations can be reduced by both potential repercussions to the offender, i.e. punishments if caught, and by reducing the value of the prize. The club might toy with some of these ideas:

1. We could have the club purchase a large set of chips that we would for this event. The particular chips should be such that nobody would want to harvest them. They could be a generic ugly type of chip....or better yet, something like a hot stamped set from a closed casino and we have a huge nasty over stamp cancelation on them.

2. Not as dramatic or expensive; We could have the South Point only use the regular set of tourney chips, or at the least....a set of really worn chips.

3. We as the club, should have a set of spelled out, clear instructions that each of our players sign: Let it be known to all what will happen if you are caught harvesting club event chips.

4. We could discuss with the casino tournament manager the potential for theft ahead of time. Shouldn't the caterer be informed ahead of time that the banquet is for ex-cons, so they know not to use the solid gold flatware?

Those four are obviously just a start. I’m sure many of our members will have additional ideas that the club can entertain.

As for what will happen from here in regards to catching Adam, only time will tell. Should the club press the tourney director to pursue reviewing the security tapes, or should we just let it go and move on? We do need to remember....if we keep doing what we've done, we'll keep getting what we got.