California Casinos to Use Lead-Free Poker Chips

Twenty-one California casinos will soon be converting to lead-free chips. This comes on the heels of a television expose about the lead content in chips and protests from safety and health groups.

EXPOSE ON LEAD CHIPS

It all started in November of 2007, when ABC Channel 15 in Arizona reported on the lead content of chips manufactured by Paulson Gaming Supplies (now known as Gaming Partners International). The report stated that the heart of each chip contained particularly high levels of lead and indicated that exposure could be harmful to users. The Arizona Department of Health issued a warning, but they later retracted it when their tests could not confirm the station’s findings.

A story ran in the Las Vegas Sun which stated, “Independent tests showed it was physically impossible for either dealers or players to receive a harmful dose of lead by coming in contact with the chips.”

If they would’ve played at Bodog’s online casino, they wouldn’t have had to worry about lead in the chips. Digital chips are completely lead-free, and they’ve never killed anybody.

CALIFORNIA CHIP CHANGE

The station later pulled the story, but the chips (also in use in California casinos) were then targeted by the California Center for Environmental Health, a nonprofit group which monitors health threats to the public. The group claimed that the chips were made in Mexico, and lead was also used in the dyes which provided colors for the chips’ exteriors.

Following protests and bad publicity, an agreement was reached whereby the 21 California casinos using the chips would start using lead-free chips by no later than November 1st, 2008. After that date, the casinos in the state will be required to use chips with less than .005% lead.

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California Casinos to Use Lead-Free Poker Chips