Agency won’t push enforcement of casino chip ban

Robert Macy

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1998 | 4:35 a.m.

The tradition of contributing casino chips in church collection plates may be against the law, but the state's top gaming enforcement officer says his agency won't press the matter.

"This is not an issue with us," Steve DuCharme, chairman of the state Gaming Control Board, said Wednesday. "We don't plan on changing any of our enforcement efforts."

The use of gambling chips for cash was rampant here in the 1960s and early 1970s, when tokens were used at grocery stores, movie theaters, even to pay babysitters, said DuCharme.

A Las Vegas police officer before being appointed to the agency that regulates Nevada's lifeblood casino industry, DuCharme said the tradition changed when Uncle Sam became involved.

"The federal government came in and cracked down" when the use of the gambling chips gained widespread use as a second currency in Nevada, DuCharme recalled. "It's because the federal government is the only one who can legally mint coins or issue currency."

Now, signs are posted in casinos stating that federal and state law prohibit the use of gambling chips outside the establishment for any purpose.

Yet, casino chips continue to find their way into collection plates in lieu of cash, with some churches even announcing from the pulpit that the chips are acceptable as donations.

Some church personnel make regular runs to local casinos to convert chips to cash.

A few years ago, a monk from the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer, a Catholic church on the south end of the Strip, adopted the nickname "chip monk" because of his casino visits to change chips to cash.

The chip issue surfaced earlier this week when Binion's Horseshoe refused to cash $5,000 chips held by longtime gambling figure Bob Stupak. The Gaming Control Board ordered Binion's to pay Stupak.

A lawsuit filed by Stupak claimed that gamblers weren't being allowed to cash their $5,000 chips at Binion's without verification they won the money there.

Asked how a church could cash $1 or $10 chips without the same verification, DuCharme said the collection plate chips had been a custom for a long time and "it doesn't appear to be a big thing with the federal government."