Question of the Day - 19 June 2025

Casino chips cannot double as instruments of currency. That's the law in Nevada (and most places). You can't use them to buy a Coke at the mini-mart, or pay the electric bill, or give them as tips to cocktail waitresses, or deposit them in the collection plate at church.

Of course, chips are used all the time as tips in the casino and the law isn't enforced to the extent that anyone, tipper or tippee, gets into trouble, at least not that we've ever heard about. And the same goes for donations during mass.

Back in the day when casino cheques were de facto legal tender throughout Nevada, chips were much more commonly used as donations. The Guardian Angel Cathedral, just off the Strip, was well known for accepting chips and it was the job of the so-called "chip monk" to go up and down the Strip and downtown, redeeming those that had found their way onto Sunday’s offering plate for cash.

We'd long heard a rumor that all the chips collected during services in Las Vegas were sent to a "nearby Franciscan monastery" to be sorted and cashed at the various casinos, but this has been debunked by several sources. Also, the nearest Franciscan monastery to Las Vegas, to our knowledge, is in Laveen Village, Arizona, in the south Phoenix area, a 300-mile drive each way, which argues against the rumor. There was a Franciscan-led ministry in Las Vegas that served the homeless, but that closed more than 10 years ago.

According to an acquaintance who attends Sunday mass at St. Anne's Catholic Church on Maryland Parkway, the law nothwithstanding, casino chips are occasionally seen in the offering plate. Presumably, they're collected until it's worth the time of one of the clergy or lay staff to take them around town and redeem them. She also tells us that slot TITOs and even sports book tickets are sometimes donated during mass. Presumably, they're winning tickets.