Any legal issues with receiving a large set of old casino chips from EU to USA? (1 Viewer)

kaimat

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A few weeks ago I purchased a large set of old casino and roulette chips from a seller in Germany. The chips are from a closed casino in the Czech Republic. The chips spent a week with ISC in New York and have now spent a few days at the "Foreign Center" in New Jersey.

I don't think I'm breaking any laws by purchasing these, and the casino is closed so they don't have any actual value aside from what I paid. I'm hoping it is just a standard customs search, but I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with this. It is a little over 2200 chips, so the weight is quite substantial which may have led to a more thorough search of what was being shipped.

Edit: Forgot the pr0n.

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There is no substitute for proper legal advice. International commerce is complicated and sometimes has obscure rules. I suspect this advice is too late if the crates are already sitting in a customs warehouse, though legal help might help resolve the issue(s)

We commonly ignore all of this as we ship "small" volumes of chips. The legal world largely ignores us in turn because the shipments are small, personal-use sized parcels. But huge transactions carry different risks. Even large transactions can garner attention. My TChan table got held in USA customs for weeks as the process evaluated the wood used in the build out. It seems there are extensive rules about wood from Canada that can become troublesome.

Importing a massive volume of chips, aka casino currency, might be an issue. There could be tariffs involved - like there are for playing cards sent to Canada from the United States. This is assuming the documents are in order. Often times international chip shipments are backed up with fraudulent statements of value or incorrect final destinations. Rather than gawk at this situation, perhaps we should marvel that there are so few problems shipping internationally.

DrStrange
 
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Importing into the U.S.pdf

Likely just held up in customs - I've personally had shipments site for a couple of weeks in customs before being processed and released, and I've read similar stories from PCFers stateside. I don't see anything explicitly related to obsolete casino chips in the above regulations. In any case, it's always good to know what the rules are for importing goods and ensure all the appropriate paperwork accompanies your shipment. Hopefully your chips aren't held up for too much longer!
 

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