"Being licensed as a physician is just as much a privillege as being licensed to operate a casino."

Not in Nevada!!!

To understand the power behind GCB, one must look at the history.

In the beginning (1931), the responsibility for enforcement of gaming rested with local authorities. Beginning in 1945, gaming control and enforcement belonged to the State Tax Commission. It was in 1950, during hearings for the US Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce that things changed. The final report issued by the committee, which was chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver from Tennessee, was highly critical of Nevada's regulatory environment and stated the following: "The licensing system which is in effect in the state has not resulted in excluding undesirables from the state, but has merely served to give their activities a seeming cloak of respectability." In testimony before the committee, Nevada's lieutenant governor admitted that little or no effort had been made to screen applicants. The publicity of the hearings was an embarassment to the State of Nevada. Nevada's legislature realized that if gaming was to continue to prosper, changes had to be made to clean up the industry.

So, in a nutshell, an entire industry and an entire State needed an agency that was powerful enough to get rid of the undesirables. The Gaming Control Board was created in 1955. In 1959, the current Gaming Control Act was passed, which relieved the Tax Commission of any authority concerning gaming and established a Gaming Commission that was to act in unison with the GCB.

The gaming industry is unique in many ways. One of those ways is that it was born and raised from a world of organized crime. No other legitimate industry evolved this way. In the early days, almost all of the operators were considered undesirable because of their connection to organized crime. This is gambling - the only schooling for the industry was conducted in sawdust joints around the country. The only way to transform into gaming was to have a powerful state agency that was capable of taking the industry out of the hands of those considered undesirable.

So what does all this have to do with chip collecting? Not much really, but it does backup the reason the GCB is powerful enough to tell casinos not to release chips that have our name on them and we have to accept it.

I agree with Michael that it is a bureaucratic decision that is probably too strict. But I also can see that it is possible to work together so GCB understands our history and reason for existence. I will NEVER accept that we should run and hide from Gaming because they are an enforcement agency. Call me naive and foolish.

As much as I liked digging out my class notes and reviewing our State's history, I must decline any further debate on this at this time. I've got a full agenda coming up and I need to get ready. I'll be happy to debate this at the convention over a beer or two dozen!

Just to clarify my position: I'm dispappointed that GCB has cracked down on LE chips that involve collecting, but I don't consider them the enemy that's out to get us. I honestly believe that they are open to hearing our collective voice as an organized hobby. I'm very happy that a live chip from the Trop was approved celebrating our 11th annual convention.

-Tyrus