I have recently been to a poker tournament, part of a series, ended up with a surplus of chips, and decided not to cash them all in. Just to be on the safe side, because walking home possessing a stack of chips isn't AS potentially dangerous as carrying a large wad of cash.
It was not something I really thought through – more of an instinctive decision, but I then got to thinking about it and whether the casino would cash my chips when I returned for the next tourney! Lucky for me, the teller recognized me and I didn't have a lot of chips to cash, but I wonder how this sort of thing is regulated.

I can safely tell you that the casinos think ahead on exactly these issues, and you got pretty lucky. In any case I can say that if your chip amount was not (evidently) small, and the teller hadn't known you, you would not have gotten your chips cashed in, because the first line of defense by the casinos in this case is to say that they do not cash outsider chips, in case they are stolen!
Anyway I have read an online source addressing your question, reminding you that chips are not cash.. You can see it at this casino
I can also safely say that this tourney did not take place in vegas… sounds more like a charity tourney…

That writer doesn't know too well what he's talking about, I can tell u from personal experience that if you deposit chips in the strong box, the casino will never deny you. And I've been to both big and small casinos.

casino will still if they can , once in belize they took my money and never gave it back.
It was $100 and they said some one already toke it ...

As this is a matter regarding chips, I would suggest you an article directory which can give you a detailed info about casino chips.