For money; they don't do it for fun, they do it for the money it generates.

Oh, they have house rack chips which last for years, so why else spend the time and money, but to sell to collectors and make lots and lots of money.

Go ahead, pick a casino, figure the money raised based on chips made/released, subtract $1.25 for each chip and see the PROFIT. Off hand I can think of a casino that from 1 set of chips probably made $250,000.00.