If you look at Jonathan Danko Kielkowski pictures (from his book) of casino floor and it is completely trashed out! Almost every picture the ship is trashed out but the chips (next to the ship's grand piano) are in perfect shape (complete with cardboard boxes). If the grand piano looks like that the chips would be in the same condition.

I read that Jonathan Danko Kielkowski boarded the ship illegally and boarded the ship before they salvaged the ship....so the ship was cleared of all money and valuables before he was able to boarded the ship.

So a possible theory the salvage crew went though all the chip boxes looking for cash valued chips and tossed the generic chips on the floor.

After seeing the remains of casinos that were hit by Hurricane Katrina, those chips in the picture were not submerged in salt water for extended periods of time.