I hate to argue with a quote from an old post, but there's one thing Gene didn't mention. There's a phrase in the financial world for the interest accrued on money being held that might need to be paid out. I believe the phrase is "float," but I may be wrong. The idea here is that even if the casino doesn't book the money you pay them for a chip as income or profit, because they're holding those funds in case those chips are ever cashed in, they are in fact holding your money in exchange for an interest-free IOU (the chip). The money they make investing your money until the day (should it ever come) that you redeem a chip, is profit for the casino.
These funds are not insignificant. one of the primary reasons that the NYC subway chose to go to a Metro-Card (debit card for fares) is that they make MILLIONS per year on the interest between the day you buy your $15 card and the day you would have bought individual tokens. They make that profit DESPITE selling Metrocards at a discount.
So there is a profit margin for the casinos here, even by the accountants' standards.
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