As noted in Gene's reply post to Pam Holmgren in one of the splinter threads to this overall thread, the Palms Smarty Jones chips will be released the Thursday before the Derby and the Thursday before the Preakness. Here is the link to that message:
http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcb/tcb.pl?read=409591

As for how to go about acquiring chips when you don't have access to the casino... This is where the New Issue Service people come into play. A New Issue Service is a business activity that has an individual(s) running around to all the casinos picking up new realeases and then re-selling those chips to a customer base or offering them for sale on the various message boards of this hobby and eBay.

New Issue Service providers will be happy to add you to their customer lists, just post a new message on the board here asking for New Issue Service providers to contact you.

Again, welcome to chip collecting.

Jim Follis