Exchange and Redemption of Gaming Chips, Plaques and Coupons

(1) All wagering on authorized games, other than slot machines, in a gaming establishment shall be conducted with gaming chips or plaques; provided, however, that coupons shall be permitted for use in wagering at authorized games in accordance with 205 CMR 146.09. A gaming licensee shall submit to the Bureau a sample of its coupons. Value chips previously issued by a gaming licensee which are not in active use by that gaming licensee shall not be used for wagering at authorized table games and shall not be accepted or exchanged for any purpose. Such chips shall only be redeemed at the cashiers’ cage pursuant to 205 CMR 146.09(7). (2) Gaming chips or plaques shall be issued to a patron only at the request of such patron and shall not be given as change in any other but a gaming transaction. Unless otherwise authorized by 205 CMR 146.09, gaming chips and plaques shall be issued only by dealers to gaming patrons at gaming tables. Gaming chips may be issued by chip persons to patrons seated at a poker table at which a game is in progress or by general cashiers. Gaming plaques and value chips shall be redeemed by gaming patrons only at the cashiers’ cage; provided, however, that value chips may be: (a) Issued to a patron in payment of a manual slot machine jackpot; (b) Exchanged by a patron at the slot booths or with change persons for currency, coin or slot tokens to play the slot machines; (c) Exchanged for a gaming check upon a patron request to redeem value chips by mail in any amount. The chips shall be redeemed only by a cage supervisor, in accordance with internal controls which, at a minimum, shall detail procedures for the issuance of the gaming check and the transfer of the surrendered value chips to the chip bank in a transaction fully supported by proper documentation; and (d) Exchanged by a patron for a pit counter check redemption as permitted by 205 CMR 148.41(1). (3) Non-value chips shall be presented for redemption only at the gaming table from which they were issued and shall not be redeemed or exchanged at any other location within the gaming establishment. When non-value chips are presented for redemption, the dealer shall accept them in exchange for an equivalent amount of value chips which may then be used by the patron for gaming in the gaming establishment or redeemed in the same manner as any other value chip. (4) Each gaming licensee may permit, limit or prohibit the use of value chips in gaming at roulette, provided, however, that: (a) No person shall be permitted to wager a value chip with a match play coupon at any roulette table at which match play coupons are permitted to be used; and (b) When value chips are in use, it shall be the responsibility of the gaming licensee and its employees to keep an accurate account of the wagers being made at roulette with value chips so that the wagers made by one player are not confused with those made by another player at the table. (5) Each gaming chip and plaque is solely evidence of a debt that the issuing gaming licensee owes to the person legally in possession of the gaming chip or plaque, and shall remain the property of the issuing gaming licensee. Each gaming licensee shall have the right at any time to demand that the person in possession of the gaming chip or plaque surrender the item for redemption. (6) Each gaming licensee shall redeem promptly its own genuine gaming chips and gaming plaques presented by a patron in person, except when the gaming chips or plaques were obtained or being used unlawfully. A gaming licensee shall redeem its value chips or gaming plaques by accepting them in exchange for an equivalent amount of cash, except that: (a) Upon request by a patron who surrenders value chips or gaming plaques in any amount over $100.00, a gaming licensee shall exchange them for a gaming check of that gaming licensee in the amount of the value chips or gaming plaques surrendered and dated the day of such redemption; and (b) A gaming licensee may apply all or any part of the value chips or gaming plaques presented by a patron to the redemption of any Counter Check or Slot Counter Check drawn by the patron, or to the payment of any returned check, provided that the gaming licensee has given that patron prior written notice of such right of setoff and has obtained the patron’s written acknowledgment thereof. (7) Each gaming licensee shall accept, exchange, use or redeem only gaming chips or plaques that it has issued and shall not knowingly accept, exchange, use or redeem gaming chips or plaques, or objects purporting to be gaming chips or plaques, that have been issued by any other person, except that a gaming licensee may accept and redeem: (a) Gaming chips or plaques issued by another legally operated gaming licensee from a patron upon the patron’s representation that such chips or plaques had been purchased or received as payment in a gaming transaction from an employee of such licensee working on the premises; or (b) Gaming chips issued by any other legally operated gaming licensee from one of its employees who is authorized to receive gratuities, upon the employee’s representation that such chips were received as gratuities in the normal course of his or her duties while on the premises of the gaming licensee. (8) Employees of a gaming licensee who are authorized to receive gaming chips as personal gratuities may redeem the gaming chips at the cashier’s cage or at another secure location in the gaming establishment as approved by the Bureau. Gaming chips redeemed by employees at a non-cage employee redemption site shall be exchanged on a daily basis with the cashier’s cage in accordance with the gaming licensee’s internal control procedures. (9) Each gaming licensee shall redeem promptly its own genuine value chips and gaming plaques presented to it by any other legally operated gaming licensee upon the representation that such chips and plaques were received or accepted unknowingly, inadvertently or in error or were redeemed in accordance with the provisions of 205 CMR 146.09(8). Each gaming licensee shall submit to the Bureau a system for the exchange, with other legally operated gaming licensees, of value chips and gaming plaques that are in its possession and that have been issued by any other legally operated gaming licensee, or that it has issued and that are presented to it for redemption by any other legally operated gaming licensee. (10) Each gaming licensee shall cause to be posted and remain posted in a prominent place on the front of the cashiers’ cage and any satellite cage a sign that reads as follows: “By law, gaming chips or plaques issued by another gaming licensee may not be exchanged or redeemed in this gaming establishment.”