This has almost become an annual QoD tradition, as you allude to, and generally involves a little Googling and calling around to some 20-or-so casino cages to find out if they will be issuing commemorative chips, almost always in the denomination of "lucky" Asian number eight (some used to issue $25 chips too, but that seems to be a thing of the past), to celebrate the Chinese New Year. What could be simpler?
Not so this year.
We started out, as we normally do, calling all the usual suspects, and the first hurdle we encountered was the discovery that even now our calls were a little premature, even though Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 10 this year, which is less than two weeks away. So, some casino cages we contacted had not yet received any word one way or the other, or weren't entirely sure when the chips would be in-house and available.
Nevertheless, we were able to get what seemed to be solid information from most of the relevant properties and were progressing with our research, when things got weird.
The bad news, off the bat, is that the Palms will not be issuing any Year of the Snake chips, which is odd, since they always have in the past, as you note, often in more than one denomination. The chips issued for Chinese New Year aren't ever poker chips (which are different to those used for other table games), so that part of the response you received doesn't make sense. However, it is against the terms of Regulation 12, which governs the use of chips and tokens, to sell a casino chip as a souvenir, although all the casinos that issue these commemorative chips all sell them at the cage, in mint condition, without the chips ever having been in play in the casino, which is a definite no-no. According to the letter of the law, a chip is and remains the property of the casino that issued it and should never leave that property, although of course, they do all the time.
So, this is where we started to get curious as to whether the powers that be (i.e., the Gaming Control Board) had started to clamp down on this harmless if outlawed practice, a theory which started to gather some momentum as we dug around on some chip-collector message boards, where we read vague accounts of casinos like the Palms and M Resort suddenly changing their minds about issuing collectibles for Chinese New Year this time. (With its recent $1 million fine presumably still stinging, who can blame the Palms for opting to stick within the letter of the law?)
Meanwhile, another site called Marlow Chips, which deals in collectibles, has this emphatic statement posted: "There will be no chips released by Palms, M Resort or any of the Harrah's [sic] properties this year, as those were all turned down by the Gaming Control Board. As of now, only 8 casinos will release chips, as below, including for the very first time, a Hard Rock $8."
While our calls confirmed what was stated about the Palms and M opting out this year, although did not reveal the reason(s) why, several Caesars Entertainment (formerly Harrah's) properties confirmed that they would have $8 chips, including Bally's, Harrah's, and the Rio. Caesars Palace wasn't sure as yet. (Bally's also let on that they still have some chips left over from previous Years of the Rabbit, Pig, and Dragon, if anyone's interested.) There's much buzz online about the rumored Hard Rock chip, but the cage there said it still wasn't confirmed if they'd be having them or not. (Even if a casino issues them, sometimes they are distributed exclusively to high rollers, mainly Asian customers here to celebrate, and there may not be any made available to the general public.)
We then hopped over to thechipboard.com, a big message board for collectors, but all we found was a post by an employee of an undisclosed casino, who wrote: "Have you heard if anyone is going through with their Chinese New Year chip this year? After GCB came down with the new changes that they are intent on enforcing, a lot canceled their orders. Our rep said 8 casinos, including us (and ours was really cool), canceled. I forgot to ask him if that was everyone or not."
The plot was thickening, so we did what we always do in these kinds of situations, and placed a call to the Chief (i.e., Jerry Markling, who heads up the Enforcement Division at the Gaming Control Board). He put us straight on a number of things, including the fact that no casino this year had been "turned down" for approval by the GCB, contrary to that first report we read, and the only reason they might ever be was if the chips they proposed issuing violated the pretty strict rules about what's permitted in terms of dimensions, patterns, and so on.
Jerry Markling had no knowledge of any agents out there actively enforcing Regulation 12, but then again he seemed surprised when we informed him that a whole bunch of casinos sell these chips each Chinese New Year, often limiting the purchase to three per customer. This is absolutely against the terms of the regulation, which rules that chips have no cash value and cannot be used for any purpose other than to represent the amount that the player bought in for. It's not permitted for casinos to sell live chips as souvenirs, and it would appear that someone has started enforcing this rule, although the order evidently didn't come from the top.
While the mystery remains unsolved, we placed some more direct calls to cages around town, and as far as we know, have compiled a complete list of casinos that will be issuing Year of the Snake chips, either on Feb. 10 or 11, and often in pretty restricted quantities, so get their early if you want to avoid disappointment -- and make sure no one's watching!
Here's that list: Bally's, Bellagio, Encore, Harrah's, MGM Grand, Palace Station, Palazzo, Rio, Wynn, and Venetian.
Aria, Caesars Palace, and the Hard Rock, were still unknowns at the time we called. And M Resort and Palms are both definite nos, although as to why, your guess is as good as ours.
