Years ago I talked with a various casino personel who absolutely railed on chippers for bleeding the roulette tables clean. They couldn't understand how the club not only was silent about it, but allowed active roulette chips to be bought and sold at the show (I had invited them because they were interested in the hobby - before I know about this). In their minds, the club was condoning the sale of "stolen items". I assume they would think the same about tournament chips.

I used to justify harvesting and collecting roulettes/tournament chips as something which doesn't hurt anyone, but there is a cost both to the casinos and the club's reputation. This is the main reason why I stopped collecting active chips. Frankly, I'm surprised ANY casino allows a chipper tournament to be played with their chips. It's like attending a convention of pickpockets and being surprised whenyur wallet disappears.

Hopefully you will get it back, but odds are it'll just be another blemish on the hobby as a whole.