The company is the market leader in making poker chips for 28 of the 30 largest U.S. Gaming Partners International Corp., or GPI, previously known as Paulson Gaming Supplies, signed the agreement. Pregnant women who work at the casinos or gamble regularly put their offspring at risk of mental retardation, and the expectant mothers don't even know it, the group's representatives told the gaming industry during a year of negotiation. Handling the chips exposes dealers and players to the lead, argued researchers at the Center for Environmental Health. In the latest showdown under the voter-adopted state anti-toxics law, an Oakland nonprofit with a a long string of notches in its environmental-safety belt two weeks ago forged a clean poker chip agreement with a major manufacturer and 21 casino owners to get the lead out.
Since before Wyatt Earp gambled with Doc Holliday in Tombstone, Arizona, and the rich and famous flocked to Monte Carlo casinos on the Riviera, poker chips have been weighted down with lead, a toxic metal.
