Hi, Katie -- I extend my welcome to the chip collecting hobby too. As you have time to study about chips and gaming history, you may want to check out the club's library (of which I am the librarian). Contents of the library are listed on the club website, and books can be checked out thru the mail.

Just to add a bit to the answers given by Kerry and Archie, it depends on each jurisdiction as to chip destruction requirements. In Nevada, today's closed casinos normally destroy their chips after allowing the public 4 (or 6?) months to redeem any chips. However, a while back (10+ years ago and more) chips were not always destroyed. A lot of the Mapes and Money Tree (Reno) chips were sold at a bankruptcy sale; same for the Silverbird (Las Vegas) chips; and some others too. More than one casino buried their old chips in a foundation or parking lot, only to have them dug up years later when new construction found them. However, it's still somewhat rare to find below-face value chips around.

Atlantic City is the jurisdiction with the most strict rules on the "cashability" of chips. Their Gaming Control Board will cash any AC chip at face value, even for closed casinos (excluding notched chips). When a casino closes in Atlantic City, they require an accounting of all outstanding chips (i.e. in the hands of collectors, etc.) after existing chips are destroyed, then require the closed casino to deposit that amount of funds with the Gaming Control Board. Even today, you could cash a $5 Playboy-A.C. chip for $5...of course it's worth much more on the collector market! That's why you'll never find a below face value A.C. chip on the market, except in the rare event that someone's liquidating a chip far away from A.C. where it would be impractical to go there to cash it.