"Either way I thought I was getting the run-a-round and that I was being lied to. What is the deal? Has anyone had this problem or is it isolated?"

Yes you were getting the run around.

The deal is the casinos can make any rule they want. Somehow it comes out that "gaming rules don't allow it" seems to be the best way to pass the buck.

Yes, I've had that answer and I imagine that people who live in Nevada have it even more often.

When there were four casinos in Elko, with chips, NONE would sell chips from the cage, because it's "against the gaming laws".

Any casino could easily say, it's against their policy and it's a done deal. Simple enough to accept?

I took a copy of the gaming regulations with me on another trip but decided that it wasn't worth the trouble to point out the section that explains why it's not agains the law. (don't kick a sleeping dog applies) So I just begged and smiled and got a polite, smiling, NO at every cage as usual.

On the other point, after what we've been through, and NGC almost deciding to block all LEs and collectors chips, I wouldn't even identify myself as a collector, even if I had some reason to write or call.