I think we have kicked this around enough.

If the casino makes 200, then there's no exclusive club and everyone can get one, so no lines, no hoarding, no team buying. The casino takes months to distribute the strikes.

If there are 100 made, people will stand in line all night, to get one. There will be teams of resellers who will grab them for a $200-$300 profit. The casino is happy because all of the Strikes are gone in hours.

1) Unlike others, I find no reason why the casino should care about collectors. They care about "moving" strikes. They can do what they want. It's all about profits, and the casino is in business to make a profit. They are doing thier job.

2) As for teams and re-sellers, they found a market and are milking it for profit. They don't make the strikes, they get them through the same channels as everyone else. It's a business decision, not a collecting issue. If someone tells you they are doing you a favor by selling a strike for double the face value, the day after issue, I'd question thier forthrightness. It's a business, for profit.

That leaves the only cause for a problem, the collectors themselves.

If people didn't grab every new issue, the day it came out, the casinos wouldn't be encouraged to make less strikes than the demand. But then, the demand is artificial anyway.

If people didn't pay the usury and outrageous prices, the re-sellers wouldn't create the shortage. They would have no reason to double the price of a strike, because people wouldn't pay it.

So I have come to the conclusion that the casino, and the re-sellers have done nothing wrong and there's nothing to complain about. It's the people who buy the $200 strikes for well over face, (some double and more) that have created the problem.

If you want to stop the inflation, reduce the artificial demand. Re-sellers won't profit as much from buying up the issues, so you will be able to get them from numerous sources, for fair prices.

It's not the casino, or the numbers, or dealers and the re-sellers that have created this situation, it's the collectors.

(opposing opinions encouraged, you might even change my mind )