Gaming Board probe seeks to determine why Binion took casino chips

The state Gaming Control Board has launched a formal investigation into the circumstances that led Ted Binion to take $3 million in casino chips from the Horseshoe Club two months before his murder.

"We're trying to find out how the chips turned up in Teddy's tool room in Pahrump," Control Board Chairman Steve DuCharme said.

DuCharme confirmed that most of the chips never were taken out of circulation at the Horseshoe and could have been cashed.

He said the Horseshoe under its previous president, Jack Binion, had a practice of not recalling or destroying old chips.

He said the practice was acceptable. But he added: "It's not the customary way of doing business. It subjects the operation to some liability."

Keith Copher, chief of enforcement at the Control Board, said agents so far haven't found any signs of wrongdoing in the disappearance of the chips, some of which were minted back in the 1950s.

"We're not looking to prosecute anybody," Copher said. But he added the chips should not have been taken out of the Horseshoe by Ted Binion.

"There's no telling what Ted was planning to do with them," he said.

Binion's estate returned the chips last month to his sister, new Horseshoe Club President Becky Behnen. She reported receiving them to the Control Board, and that sparked the investigation.

"We're fortunate that we got these back, because if they had gotten into anybody else's hands, they could have been cashed," Behnen said Wednesday.

Behnen described her brother's taking of the chips as "unorthodox."

Last month, Behnen told the Sun that her brother had removed the chips, along with an estimated $4 million in silver he had been storing at the Horseshoe in July just before she took the reins of the hotel-casino from her other brother, Jack Binion.

Gaming regulators had forced Binion to give up his 20 percent interest in the Horseshoe because of his ties to slain mob figure Herbie Blitzstein. Binion was murdered Sept. 17.

Montana contractor Rick Tabish, a Binion friend, had helped the ousted gaming executive transport the chips and the silver to Pahrump in July. The chips were stored at Binion's 60-acre ranch there, and the silver bars and coins were put into a specially built underground vault on land Binion owned in the heart of downtown Pahrump.

Tabish was arrested less than 36 hours after Binion's death with two other men after they allegedly had dug up the silver fortune and were preparing to haul it away. Tabish has since reportedly become a target in the homicide investigation.

Copher said his agents have notified homicide detectives about their probe into the chips.

"We're keeping them advised of what we're doing," Copher said. "We're just making sure that everything we're doing doesn't interfere with their investigation."

There have been reports that some people have tried to cash old Horseshoe chips at the casino since Binion's murder. Detectives are said to be interested in determining whether any of those people can be linked to Tabish or Binion's girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, who also has come under suspicion in Binion's death.

Agents reportedly want to question Tabish, who has refused to cooperate in the homicide probe, about his role in helping Binion take the chips from the Horseshoe. Tabish also has asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned in court about valuables missing from Binion's estate.

Copher sent agents to the Horseshoe on April 26, several days after the Sun reported the return of the chips.

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