"In our conversation, he told me how protective the pit was of a single rack of $500 chips, and that onclosing day they were giving the chips out as souvenirs to the employees. He has long since given his away."

Think about this statement.
The guy was a poker dealer and did not deal anything bigger than $5 chips. AND, It was 14 years ago!!!!!
It sounds like he is saying, the Castaways management gave out live $500 chips to employees on the last day. That means they could cash them for the next 120 days or possibly get them down at another casino for the next 120 days.

You just read a post saying the poster had 400 to 500 of them.

"And perhaps this past employee is giving us a detail that we did not know before, i.e., of all the blue $500 chips out there, only 100 are real, the rest are fakes."

BJ did not make any knock-offs in the same mold as real chips.

I challange anyone to show me an ad they ran pre 1988, selling any of the chips with TCR numbers I posted.

All I can say is "Believe what you want."