If a person is unable to prove the origin of the chips, the cage is allowed to refuse to cash them. When players cash in their chips, cashiers are required to ask the player for his or her card as proof that these chips were earned during the game. Under Regulation 12, casino chips can now only be used as a cash substitute during the game itself and not as currency away from the gambling tables. Some players were displeased with the new law, which prevented them from paying off debts with chips. Regulation 12 also helps prevent counterfeit chips from entering the casino building.

This law was instituted to help decrease the amount of fraud and theft in casinos. The law also required executives to destroy expired chips according to state specifications. Regulation 12 stated that poker chips were the property of casinos, thereby prohibiting gamblers from using the chips as currency. The state of Nevada issued Regulation 12 in 1987. However, the process is very different today.

Prior to 1987, nobody cared what casinos did with their chips. This law of face value loss for expired poker chips was instituted in the late 80s in an attempt to cut down on fraud and counterfeiting in the poker world. Because expired chips lose their face value, anyone who still has these chips in circulation after that date will be unable to use them in a game or unable to cash them in. The expiration date for poker chips is issued several months in advance. This date can be as short as a few months or as long as a decade or two after the chips are issued. This expiration date is determined not by freshness, as with food, but by the wishes of casino bosses. Did you know that poker chips expire? As with many other things in life, poker chips do in fact have an expiration date.

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