From Las Vegas Advisor question of the day
Q:
With Chinese Lunar New Year almost upon us again, can you give us your annual round-up of which casinos will be offering 'good luck' Year of the Monkey chips this year? Thank you!
A:
February 8 marks the beginning of the 2016 Chinese Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Monkey, and as usual some Las Vegas casinos will be pandering both to their Asian clientele, and to fans of casino collectibles, with some limited-edition casino chips to mark the occasion. As has been the case over recent years, however, the number of participating properties continues to dwindle amid awareness that the time-honored practice of effectively "selling" chips at the cashier's cage is a violation of Regulation 12 of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board (see
Question of the Day 1/21/15 for more details).
Here's the lowdown for 2016:
- Wynn/Encore had their request for 2016 $1-denomination Year of the Monkey chips approved by Gaming Control back in November (apparently they feature a watermelon-and-butterscotch color combination). However, there is a party for invited guests only on Friday, Feb. 12 and these chips will be offered to these VIP attendees first; if there are any left over (which last year there were not), they'll be available from both casino cages on Saturday, Feb. 13. We did learn, however, that some Chinese New Year chips from prior years are still available -- the helpful person we spoke with at the cage believed they still have some Year of the Rat, Pig, and Tiger collectibles available, if you ask for them.
- Palace Station will have $5 red-and-blue Year of the Monkey chips available at some point, but the cage has still not been informed on what date that will be.
- Gold Coast, which always goes BIG for Chinese New Year (we'll be posting our city-wide event guide any day now, with details of dragon dances, food festivals, holiday displays, and more) has had $25 Year of the Monkey chips approved, but currently only has commemorative 25- and 100-numeral NCV ("no cash value") ones available for VIPs and the cage doesn't know if/when the gaming chips will be released -- we suggest calling back every couple of days between now and Feb. 8 so you don't miss out.
- Palazzo and Venetian already have $25 Year of the Monkey Chips in circulation on their casino floors and when we called the cage(s) we were informed that (sticking to the letter of the law), they won't be offering them on request and it's the luck of the draw when you buy in if you happen to receive the commemorative chips or not. (We have a feeling that if you get a helpful employee at your window and ask nicely, they might just be able to rustle you up a Monkey chip, but we can't promise anything.) These two properties also have "lucky" numeral 8 NCV chips (distinct by their 43mm diameter and metallic gold with "blurple [sic] and lemon green" color scheme, but these will be distributed only to the chosen few.
- In one unusual twist this year, downtown's Golden Nugget is hosting a Chinese New Year commemorative $2 bill giveaway during the month of February. The bill features a picture of a monkey on both sides, we've been informed, so while our request for more information had not been responded to in time for this answer, these evidently are also NCV and purely commemorative in nature, since any currency that is over-printed with a graphic is not approved by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and is no longer worth its face value, only whatever its market value is deemed to be among collectors.
• February 3, 2016 11:59 QoD Update - Monkey Chips at Hard Rock!: An
LVA customer (and chipper!) just informed us that the Hard Rock will also have limited-edition $5-denomination chips in celebration of Chinese New Year, and a call to the casino's cage has confirmed this. Here's the skinny: Like Venetian/Palazzo, the casino will
not be offering these chips by request at the cashier's cage ("because that's a violation of Gaming regs") but the chips are due to be released at 10 a.m. specifically on the crap tables. Obviously once the chips are in circulation, they'll filter around the casino onto other gaming tables, but for the best chance of bagging these commemorative collectibles, you'd be advised to be in the crap pit at 10 a.m. Friday.
"go get em"
