You might want to check with Steve Piccolo, as he seems to have the majority of knowledge on Nevada casino bi-centennial stuff. The piece is new to me and is not pictured at Steve's Bicentennial page ( http://www.casinochips.net/bicenten/bicen1.htm ).

As Steve was a recipient of the silver medallion, he would probably know how they were issued and used. But if you read the card that came with them (see page 2 of Steve's site) you can see that 5000 were made and they needed to be worn at the Grand Opening event to be treated as a VIP.

As you may have noticed, it is getting harder and harder to find casino-related, US Bi-Centennial items, even the stuff that is known, let alone new items. Nice find!

Jim