MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment reported that chips from a number of their casinos will be taken out of circulation. The operators ran notices in newspapers and set a six-month redemption period.
After that period, such chips will no longer be redeemable at face value. For players and tourists, this is an important point, since chips often remain in wallets and suitcases as souvenirs and then end up as keepsakes with no cash value.
The lifespan of chips as part of casino policy
In the casino industry, each chip series has a circulation period. The operator itself decides when exactly a series becomes invalid, after which a redemption window is set during which the chips can be cashed in at the casino cage.
Gaming consultant and former chairman of the Gaming Control Board Mark Lipparelli describes this mechanism as a management policy. “It’s a discretionary decision,” he said, clarifying that the period can be months, years, or decades. In light of MGM’s and Caesars’ recent notices, the approach seems straightforward: the timing isn’t driven by wear and tear, but by a management decision formalized through procedure.
The cage may verify where the chips came from
Under Nevada law, chips are considered casino property. They can’t be used as currency outside gaming, and redemptions at the casino cage may be subject to verification of provenance.
In practice, a cashier may request a player’s card or other confirmation that the chips were obtained through play. The law allows a refusal if the casino “knows or reasonably should know” that the chips ended up with a person not obtained at a gaming table. According to MGM Resorts International Senior Vice President Tom Peterman, such situations occur regularly, “a couple of times a month.”
A typical set of rules chip holders encounter looks like this:
- chips function as a cash substitute only for gaming
- redemptions may be subject to verification, including a request for a player’s card
- if there are doubts about provenance, the cage may refuse to cash them out
Players note that in online casinos, cashing out is both simpler and more complicated than in land-based gambling venues. On the one hand, the absence of physical chips simplifies the process. On the other hand, verification in licensed casinos is always strict; it requires completing several steps, without which it will be impossible to withdraw funds.
There are several reasons for such strictness: regulator rules, preventing underage gambling, and combating fraud. Therefore, if a player chooses a licensed casino, they will definitely have to pass verification. This is particularly relevant for large casinos that offer the most popular games. To confirm this, we reviewed several thematic information sources from the top search results. The authors of a site about online casinos, where you can find here the Monopoly Big Baller game, emphasize that all gaming platforms on the list have international licenses, so there’s no getting around verification. It is also necessary to protect the player from criminals, because if chips can be counterfeited, an account can be stolen too.
From counterfeits to state regulation
The state’s interest in chips increased because of the risks that accompany any highly liquid, money-like item. Regulators were concerned about theft, fraud, and counterfeiting, as well as the likelihood that counterfeit chips would enter circulation and be presented for payment.
The turning point came in 1987, when Nevada introduced Regulation 12. The rule established several principles at once: chips were recognized as casino property, they cannot be used as money outside gaming, and series taken out of circulation must be destroyed under prescribed procedures. Casinos supported the approach not only for security reasons, but also from a tax-accounting standpoint: taxes can’t be assessed on unredeemed chips, which makes accounting more predictable for the operator.
Lake Mead and the concrete caches of old Vegas
Before strict procedures appeared, the state almost did not control what casinos did with retired chips. As a result, disposal methods emerged that today look like urban folklore and sometimes turn into tangible discoveries.
Player and chip expert Mike Spinetti, owner of one of the largest collections in Las Vegas, keeps rare pieces worth more than $15 million in a secure vault. At the Spinettis Gaming Supplies store, you can see fire-damaged chips, items from forgotten safes, and objects pulled from the bottom of bodies of water. He explains the past practice simply. “When chips became outdated, casinos didn’t know what to do with them,” Spinetti said, mentioning concrete and water as places old chip runs ended up.
Three telling stories from that era can be summed up briefly:
- about 20 years ago, a diver found white chips on the bottom of Lake Mead that turned out to be Las Vegas Club chips; they were in use in 1957, new series were introduced in 1963 and 1971, and the original color was gray; the water gradually leached the color from the edges
- Spinetti has chunks of concrete that are linked to the foundation of the New Frontier, demolished in 2007; inside, there are Sands chips and metal tokens embedded in it, including pieces from Laughlin
- during the demolition of the Dunes in 1993, workers discovered hundreds of $100 chips preserved in a crumbling foundation; MGM representative Alan Feldman recalled that management was brought “a 5-gallon bucket” of concrete slabs with chips in them, and one such slab still sits on his desk today
The motives for this kind of “burial” are still debated. Some versions cite superstition and a bet on luck; others point to a more down-to-earth disposal logic, when old series needed to be quickly removed from circulation and physically taken out of circulation.
How chips are destroyed today
Today, design changes are now tightly managed. When issuing a new series, a casino submits a plan to the Gaming Control Board describing the appearance, security features, and a disposal plan for old chips, to prevent multiple issues from circulating in parallel without oversight.
As protection, hidden authenticity features are used, including ultraviolet markers and RFID tags that can be checked at the cage. Destruction is carried out by a regulator-approved company; sometimes it is the same manufacturer, for example Gaming Partners International. The chips are loaded into a special drum machine where they are ground into small fragments, and regulators are on site to observe, audit the process, and document that the destruction took place.
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