You're correct that casino chips should not be given as tips, or used for anything other than their purpose on the casino table, since they are the property of the casino and have no intrinsic value. It happens, of course, but technically it's against the rules.
As far as TITO (Ticket In-Ticket Out) vouchers are concerned, the main issue is not who they physically belong to -- although if you lose or forget one and the casino finds it, that money will revert to them. In this instance, it's more a case of what the property in question has in terms of a policy regarding its employees gambling on property.
As we've discussed in in a prior QoD (09/10/2005), a range of different rules are in place around town concerning casino policy in this area. Some locations, including Bellagio and the Venetian the last time we checked, have an outright ban on this practice across all departments. In these instances, giving a TITO slip in lieu of cash could put the member of staff in a difficult position: At the least, it would cause them the hassle of having to get a friend or relative who didn't work on property to cash it for them; in a worst-case scenario, it might actually get them into trouble if the item was found in their possession and they were suspected of having broken a house rule by gambling or, worse still, of having stolen the ticket.
We called the housekeeping department in several casinos to see if they had any specific policies in place and all expressed a preference for cash tips, not surprisingly particularly at Bellagio, where the no-gambling policy was reiterated. Some places we posed the question to said they'd never been asked before and had no experience of anyone ever having left a winning ticket instead of cash for the maid, but felt that the latter would always be preferable. The Four Queens expressed concern that the member of staff would come under suspicion of having stolen the ticket, while the Hard Rock thought that it would be fine to leave a cash equivalent as long as the value was $20 or less, but that anything higher might arouse suspicion. The Tuscany was the only property we spoke with where a supervisor confirmed that it was perfectly acceptable to leave a winning ticket for your maid.
As far as the going rate for tipping is concerned, each property we contacted said that between $1 and $5 per day was the norm, with the tips tending to be higher if you're aware that you've had the same maid each day and that she's done a good job. The housekeeping representative at one Strip casino we spoke to stated that she'd just returned from a vacation with her husband and had left $5 per day for their maid, plus a $10 tip when they checked-out, but that obviously tipping is entirely discretionary and up to the individual guest.
