The story is, shortly after the casino opened, they decided they wouldn't need the .50c chips - so they sold them... ALL of them - most in one sweep (a few people managed to get some in the beginning)

Every time I'd ask them to get chips from the vault (anything $10 up), I'd jokingly say, "And grab me a rack of .50-centers while you're in there."
The poker manager would give me an odd look and say, "We don't have .50 cent chips"
This went on for several trips... finally, he said to me (a little irritable)-
" There ARE no .50 cent chips! There's no such animal." (he'd been there around 3 years... the poker room opened in 1997 I think).

I said to him, "YES THERE IS!" I went home and got my .50 cent chip (purchased from someone in Michigan!) and showed him. Everyone in the poker room was shocked. Most don't even know Bucky's EVER had a .50 cent chip. Finally an old-timer who works there told me how they had sold them all years ago.

No one has ever tried to cash them in... and some collectors have "small stashes", but the bulk of the chips seem to have disappeared.

and THAT's the rest of the story