Thanks Max, I agree those are valid points, just never heard from anyone that had mentioned the origin. There must be someone out there that knows. Someone that was present when the rule was first introduced. I remember calling for a couple racks when I was going to quit a game. While I was stacking my chips into the rack, the dealer dealt me in...I decided to play that hand. You would have thought I was about to rob the players at gunpoint! There were players that insisted I not play from my rack, so I folded and went home.
I could understand if cash on the table played, it would be too easy to slip a few bills under the rack...other than that, not sure why it's not allowed.
There must have been a very serious incident that occurred because you can't play from a rack anywhere.