|
|
|
Don, it's really strange how gaming control authorities view us and obsolete chips, isn't it? It's not just counterfeiting they're worried about though. As I recall, the incident that really initiated the "destruction-only" policy occurred in Las Vegas in the 1980's.
A casino closed (I think it was Suncance or Sundance West, but I'm not certain), and some enterprising employees used obsolete black chips to pay for the services of some "ceiling experts" around town. The ladies thought they were being paid in legitimate $100 chips, and cashed them in at cages around town. Most cage employees had no idea the chips were suddenly worthless, and paid the girls.
Gaming got upset because, since the chips were worthless, the ones cashed were written off by the casinos that cashed them, and Gaming missed out on its tax revenue for the transactions. NOW we're talkin' MONEY!
That situation resulted, as I recall, not only in the "destruction only" policy, but also the mandate that chips could be cashed only at the casinos that issued them. That had not been the rule before, and even now isn't stringently enforced, but any casino can justifiably point to the gaming regs if they don't feel like taking chips that were issued by a different casino.
Even on those few occasions where casinos will allow you to play "foreign" chips (and if you're a big enough player and the denominations of the chips are large enough, they sometimes will), you'll notice that they'll immediately exchange them for their own chips and drop the foreign chips into the drop box at the table rather than racking them. I know of no casino that will cash them at the cage, but on occasion you'll see a player get away with exchanging foreign chips for play at a table.
Michael
|
|
