I'd say these games were well beyond the means of most people! That $500 chip is spectacular!

If I had to guess, I'd doubt these were charity games, not back then. This is probably one of the super high stakes "private" games that only the rich can afford. In New York they would be "illegal", but I doubt any law enforcement would be getting involved unless there was a complaint, and those usually didn't happen as long as the games stayed between members. Problems start arising when you open the games to outsiders (I wrote an IOTD awhile back on a political private club in New York that got busted when they started allowing outsiders into their game.)

Great find and very cool chips!