The Bluff Towers conducted their own study about casino poker chips’ hygiene, for which they hired a team of students and Professor Brian Hedlund from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to determine how many germs could be found in the chips of five different Vegas Strip casinos. The team found that the chips with the lowest number of bacteria had approximately 5,600 micro-organisms. Of these, staphylococcus – abundant in human skin – was the most common bacterium found in the casino samples. Staphylococcus-induced illness ranges from pimples and boils to the infamous hospital killer MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), which causes infections immune to most antibiotics, killing around 80,000 people a year. The research team also found high numbers of bacillus, which originate in dirt and dust, and the bacillus cereus found is the main instigator of food poisoning.