I remember that rack (value) chips are technically iou's. Thus, you do not buy them or own them. They always belong to the casinos as gaming equipment. While still active you can turn your chips in for payment of the value on the chip, like cashing in an iou. I believe that is the explanation.

BTW, it's discussions like this one that make me really love this board. Really interesting stuff comes out. I am also happy to see that this set of threads never devolved into name calling, etc.

Michael Siskin