| If
you go into a Strip casino in Las Vegas and linger
cashier's cage, waiting to cash in some traveler's
casino chips, there's a sign posted nearby that's
sure to your eyes. It states, in words to this effect,
that " recent forgeries, chips of other casinos
will not be at this casino." And if you go
across the street to Strip casino, you'll see the
same sign posted at its cage.
The reason that casino chips can't be redeemed at
casino but the one issuing them has nothing at all
to do forgeries. Casinos will not honor chips issued
by other because most of the Strip clubs have a
secret pact to their bankrolls and to make certain
that players don't casino credit. That's the real
reason.
In the old days players with credit or those on
junkets go into Casino A on the Strip (at a time
when junket weren't carefully watched as they are
today), take a for $1,000, play for a few minutes,
then walk out of the go across the street to Casino
B, and cash Casino A's there.
This could occur in those years when casinos on
honored each other's chips and would happily redeem
for they figured that they were taking away a player
competing casino. Even today in downtown Vegas or
in the casinos in Reno and Lake Tahce a player can
hop from casino to casino and play at their tables
with other casinos' chips and even turn them in
at the cashier's cage.
This can be done because these casinos don't issue
credit the way the Strip hotels do, and if they
do, it will generally be for smaller amounts, to
allow a player to cash a check up to a few hundred
dollars, for example. Junkets are rarely, if ever,
arranged for these hotels, and for the most part
the play-as who wander into these casinos are known
as "grinds," or small players. The few
high rollers who try their luck usually bring cash
with them or have a credit line at some of the casinos,
but it really doesn't matter if they take the casino's
chips outside to another club. It won't hurt the
casino at all. It is only the Strip hotels and those
casinos that cater to junkets that worry about their
credit being abused. |
