58 Pa. Code § 603a.10 - Permissible wagering; exchange and redemption of gaming chips and plaques

(a) Wagering at table games in a licensed facility shall be conducted with gaming chips, plaques, electronic wagering credits or gaming vouchers, provided that noncashable promotional or free-play credits on a gaming voucher may be used only for the purpose of slot machine gaming, match play coupons and other wagering instruments approved by the Board.

(b) Value chips previously issued by a certificate holder, which are not in active use by that certificate holder, may not be used for wagering or any other purpose in a licensed facility and shall be redeemed only at the cage as provided in subsection (i).

(c) Gaming chips or plaques shall be issued to a patron only at the request of the patron and may not be given as change in any transaction other than a gaming transaction. Gaming chips and plaques shall be issued to patrons by:

(1) Dealers at a banking or nonbanking table game.

(2) The Poker room cage or the Poker window cashier at the main cage.

(3) Chip runners to patrons seated at a Poker table at which a game is in progress.

(d) Plaques and value chips shall be redeemed by patrons only at the cage.

(e) Except as provided in subsections (k) and (l), and as otherwise may be specifically approved by the Board, each certificate holder shall redeem its gaming chips and plaques only from patrons and may not knowingly redeem gaming chips and plaques from any nonpatron source.

(f) Roulette chips shall be presented for redemption only at the Roulette table from which they were issued and may not be redeemed or exchanged at any other Roulette table or any other location within a licensed facility. When Roulette chips are presented for redemption, the dealer shall accept them in exchange for an equivalent amount of value chips.

(g) A certificate holder shall have the discretion to permit, limit or prohibit the use of value chips in gaming at Roulette in accordance with its Rules Submission submitted under § 601a.2 (relating to table games Rules Submissions). When value chips are in use at Roulette, it shall be the responsibility of the certificate holder and its employees to keep accurate account of the wagers being made with value chips so that the wagers made by one player are not confused with the wagers made by another player at the table.

(h) Each gaming chip and plaque is solely evidence of a debt that the issuing certificate holder owes to the person legally in possession of the gaming chip or plaque, and shall remain the property of the issuing certificate holder. A certificate holder shall have the right at any time to demand that a person in possession of a gaming chip or plaque surrender the gaming chip or plaque for redemption in accordance with subsection (i).

(i) A certificate holder shall redeem promptly its own genuine gaming chips and plaques presented by a patron in person, unless the gaming chips or plaques were obtained or are being used unlawfully. A certificate holder shall redeem its value chips or plaques by:

(1) Exchanging the value chips or plaques for an equivalent amount of cash.

(2) Exchanging the value chips or plaques for a check issued by the certificate holder in the amount of the value chips or plaques surrendered and dated the day of the redemption upon request by a patron.

(j) Notwithstanding subsection (i), if a patron requests by mail to redeem value chips in any amount, a certificate holder may effectuate the redemption in accordance with internal controls approved in accordance with § 465a.2 (relating to internal control systems and audit protocols), which, at a minimum, must detail procedures for the issuance of a check from the certificate holder and the transfer of the surrendered value chips to the chip bank in a transaction supported by proper documentation.

(k) A certificate holder shall accept, exchange, use or redeem only gaming chips or plaques that the certificate holder has issued and may 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 certificate holder.

(l) Notwithstanding subsection (k), a certificate holder may accept and redeem:

(1) Value chips issued by another certificate holder from a patron upon the patron's representation that the value chips had been purchased or received as payment in a gaming transaction from an employee of the certificate holder working on the premises of the certificate holder.

(2) Value chips issued by any other certificate holder from one of the certificate holder's employees who is authorized to receive gratuities, upon the employee's representation that the chips were received as gratuities in the normal course of his duties while on the premises of the certificate holder.

(m) Employees of a certificate holder may be authorized to receive value chips as personal gratuities. Additionally, cocktail servers and other employees who are on the gaming floor may be authorized to receive value chips in exchange for food and beverage purchased and served to patrons on the gaming floor. Employees of a certificate holder who are authorized to receive value chips as personal gratuities or in exchange for food and beverage shall redeem the value chips at the cage or at another secure location, as approved by the Board's Executive Director, prior to leaving the licensed facility. Value chips redeemed at a noncage employee redemption site shall be exchanged on a daily basis with the cage. Each certificate holder shall submit internal controls, in accordance with § 465a.2, to ensure the proper exchange and accounting of the value chips received as personal gratuities or for the purchase of food and beverage on the gaming floor.

(n) A certificate holder shall redeem promptly its own genuine value chips presented to it by any other legally operated certificate holder upon the representation that the value chips were received or accepted unknowingly, inadvertently or in error or were redeemed in accordance with subsection (l). Each certificate holder shall submit for approval as part of the certificate holder's internal controls a system for the exchange, with other legally operated certificate holders, of value chips:

(1) In the certificate holder's possession that have been issued by any other legally operated certificate holder.

(2) The certificate holder has issued that are presented to it for redemption by any other legally operated certificate holder.

(o) Each certificate holder shall post, in a prominent place on the front of the main cage, any satellite cage and the Poker room cage, a sign that reads as follows: "Gaming chips or plaques issued by another licensed facility may not be used, exchanged or redeemed in this licensed facility."

Notes

58 Pa. Code § 603a.10

The provisons of this § 603a.10 amended January 31, 2014, effective 2/1/2014, 44 Pa.B. 619.

The provisions of this § 603a.10 amended under 4 Pa.C.S. §§ 1202(b)(30), 1207(3) and (9) and 13A02(1), (2) and (4).

This section cited in 58 Pa. Code § 663a.7 (relating to wagers).