He was already at large and could buy back the devices he had y constructed. However it is unlikely that they were good for practical use, because in this case the police would not sell them to anyone. What use was to sell them, we do not know, but we will describe the machinations of Colavecchio.
It's hard to say when exactly Louis decided to forge chips for slot machines, but it is known that in the second half of the nineties in various casinos in Atlantic City and Connecticut there was excess of these chips. Roughly speaking, they had extra chips, and no one could understand where they came from.
It could be explained only by the presence of fakes, but a very careful analysis of the chips showed no fakes. Managers and security of casinos had to bring it to the FBI investigation.
Feds launched an investigation and in 1998 came to Colavecchio. When they raided his home with a search warrant, even experienced agents were shocked. Louis had unique equipment for making chips, stunningly accurate copies of real ones. They also found thousands of ready-chips that the cheater did not have time to cash yet.
In his workshop they found 150-ton of press, laser, multiple forms and blank impressive reserves of zinc, copper and nickel. All this allowed Louis to copy almost any coins and chips, and it was impossible to detect the fraud.
When the FBI showed chips to casino managers, they could not believe that they see fakes. Realizing that their chips are too unreliable, they converted slot machines for using paper vouchers that are more difficult to forge.
Louis was sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2006, he was released, resumed his old activity and a few months later was caught again for some trifles. This time he was released on bail in exchange for a detailed description of his criminal activities.
There a documentary "Breaking Vegas"devoted to Colavecchio that came out at The History Channel. Louis' equipment, as mentioned above, was sold at auction.
P.S. In November 2013 Rhode Island police arrested Colavecchio again. But this time not for cheating with fake chips. 71-year-old Louis got in the department of drug trafficking. The police found more than four pounds of marijuana and several bushes of this plant at his house. Colavecchio said that he grew it for personal medical use, and even showed a medical certificate from the physician. But he unlikely could explain why several grams of cocaine were found in the same place, and what a woman seizing marijuana, cocaine and methadone did at his house. Colavecchio will probably go to jail again.