☰
The information you read was correct, just out-of-date. Until a couple of years ago, the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer, located at 55 E. Reno Ave. just off the south Strip, sold souvenir chips. They sold for $5, featured an image of Jesus on one side and the name and address of the church on the other, and were, according to the helpful monk we spoke to in the gift shop, very popular, ranking as one of the top souvenirs to bring back from Las Vegas in the millennium year.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and eventually Gaming Control asked the Church to discontinue this particular line of souvenirs since they were real gaming chips and Regulation 12 of the Nevada Gaming Control Board requires that gaming chips are to be used for gambling purposes only and cannot be sold. This has elevated them to the status of collector's items. Although, according to the current edition of "The Chip Rack" (the leading source of valuation information for collectors of Nevada casino chips), the chips are only worth $8-$9, we've heard that they've been changing hands for $30.
Interestingly, the gift shop is not the only place at the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer where casino chips have been known to turn up: The collection plate has also seen some serious chip action, with denominations as high as $500 left over the years by the generous, desperate, and contrite. For a while so many chips were received that one of the priests was officially assigned the job of exchanging them for cash at the issuing casinos. He was known as the "chip monk."
These days, if you’d like to purchase a souvenir from your visit to the Shrine, you'll have to be satisfied with its more conventional line of pens, pins, magnets, prayer coins, religious cards, and angels.
