Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: Doc

That sounds fine, PokerGrinder. I have a few that I can post now through the 3rd and will save my other one until after you complete your set. Before beginning new chips of the day, though, I want to post a few from casinos that have already been covered in this thread.

Doc please go ahead and finish a your new chips. When you are done I will start again :)

O.K., PokerGrinder. I only have new chips from three more casinos, so your resumption will only be delayed by one day.

I'll start composing my next Casino Chip of the Day post right now. This one shouldn't take long, since considering it a "new" casino for the thread is almost like cheating.

State: Louisiana
City: Lake Charles
Casino: L'auberge

Yes, as I said above, this one is almost like cheating. When I posted my souvenir chip from the L'auberge du Lac casino back in 2012, I noted:

Quote: Doc

L'auberge du Lac opened in May 2005 and is owned by Pinnacle Entertainment. Wikipedia claims that the place was completed in 2003 but gives no history on why it didn't open then. Anybody know the story?

The Pinnacle web site now just calls the place "L'auberge Casino Resort – Lake Charles." I guess that may be an adjustment related to their recently having opened "L'auberge Casino & Hotel – Baton Rouge," which I have not yet had the opportunity to visit.

Well, I did eventually visit L'auberge in Baton Rouge and posted that chip in this thread. Also, pokerface posted the story I asked for, mostly that Wikipedia was wrong (surprise, surprise) and that the name was changed from L'auberge du Lac to Lauberge Lake Charles even before I picked up my souvenir chip with the old name.

Anyway, I made it back to Lake Charles last week and picked up a souvenir with the establishment's new name in the process of losing a grand total of $5 while playing $15-minimum craps. That was the cheapest table they had open at 4:00 p.m. on a Friday. The small loss is probably best explained in that I am too cheap to play $15-minimum craps for very long and left after just ten minutes, with my real objective having been accomplished.

The new chip is an RHC Paulson and is almost identical to the chip I posted before. The only changes I can pick out are on the center inlay where the words "du Lac" have been deleted and the words "Hotel and Casino" have been replaced by an underlined "Casino Resort". Just as with the "du Lac" chip, nothing on this new one fluoresces under UV light.

State: Louisiana
City: Lake Charles
Casino: Golden Nugget

I described yesterday’s CCotD as “almost like cheating” to add to this thread. I expect it would have taken me quite a while to schedule a trip back to Lake Charles if the L’auberge chip was all that was waiting for me there. Instead, I just picked it up as a very short side trip from collecting today’s CCotD souvenir.

The Golden Nugget is within walking distance of L’auberge. I would have walked it if I weren't so lazy, but I arrived first at Golden Nugget and left the area after visiting L’auberge. I had no interest in walking both directions in order to get back to my car, so I drove from the Golden Nugget parking garage to the L’auberge parking garage, and that one-way drive may have taken longer than a one-way walk between the two casinos.

After Tilman Fertitta’s company Landry’s, Inc. purchased the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas in 2005, they set out on a campaign to upgrade and expand the brand. The company is headquartered in Houston, and Fertitta had long wanted a “home” casino. Since the State of Texas wasn’t fully cooperative in that concept, offering (I think) only one tribal casino and one casino boat), Lake Charles was the closest viable location, just 35 miles or so into Louisiana from the Texas border.

Landry’s wasn’t the source of the original plans for this casino. The story, as I dig it (riskily) out of Wikipedia, is that Pinnacle planned in 2006 to build a casino right next door to their L’auberge du Lac and call it Sugarcane Bay. That plan was cancelled in 2010. In 2011, Creative Casinos (belonging to a former Pinnacle chairman) revived the plans, with the new casino-next-door to be called Mojito Pointe.

Then in mid 2012, Ameristar purchased Creative Casinos and the name was revised once again to Ameristar Lake Charles. Six months later, Pinnacle agreed to acquire Ameristar, and in order to get regulators to approve the deal, they agreed to get rid of two of their properties, including the Sugarcane/Mojito/Ameristar in Lake Charles. They sold the property to Landry’s, which expanded the project plan to make the facility appropriate as their “corporate home” casino.

I have to admit to a memory lapse at the moment. I visited two Golden Nugget casinos last week, one in Lake Charles and one in Biloxi. At one of those, I saw on display the huge Hand of Faith gold nugget that I had previously seen in downtown Las Vegas. I just can’t remember which place I saw it. If I were to rely on a Wikipedia article (as I did in the previous paragraphs) to get the nugget’s current location, I would be reporting that it “is currently on public display at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.” Nope, I was not in Laughlin last week.

In any case, the Lake Charles edition of the Golden Nugget is quite nice. My wife and I had lunch there before heading to the casino floor, where I managed to win $45 playing $10-minimum craps for just 20 minutes. Of the first seven casinos I visited on that trip, the Golden Nugget was the only one that let me leave with more money than I came in with. And not by very much – just a little more than what the lunch cost.

The chip is a house mold Paulson with “Golden Nugget” and (twice) the block “GN” logo molded into the perimeter, just like the chip that I posted two days ago from the Biloxi facility with that batch of chips from casinos already covered in the thread. In fact, the only differences I note under visible light are the edge inserts and the line at the lower edge of the center inlay designating the city and state. These two inserts are purple and are fairly wide, though not so wide as some we have seen. UV light does reveal a different pattern than is on the Biloxi chip. In this case, there is a Paulson hat and cane logo and the repeated “Golden Nugget”, meaning another chance to search for an “error”. Who wants to tell us where it is?

(For those of you who may not recall, you may click on these small chip images to see them in a larger "medium" size. I also have "full-size" images available but not stored on-line.)

Quote: Doc

State: Louisiana
City: Lake Charles
Casino: L'auberge

...Anyway, I made it back to Lake Charles last week and picked up a souvenir with the establishment's new name in the process of losing a grand total of $5 while playing $15-minimum craps. That was the cheapest table they had open at 4:00 p.m. on a Friday...

Were there alot of players that early? Craps is a volume business, so it always surprises me when there are empty tables fully staffed with dealers discussing their next sports wager while the minimum bet could be lowered to 10 or even 5 to get something going.

When I visited, L'auberge had at least three tables staffed (maybe 4 or 5), and all were active with at least several players each. I didn't pay particular attention to the density, because I was just scanning for a low-roller table. I think that all tables were $15-minimum, but there may have been some higher and definitely nothing lower. From my perspective, $15-minimum is more than high enough, as I sometimes (though not too often) wind up with more than $100 in play on a $5 table.

Perhaps I should contrast this to my first session at Gold Strike later in the week. I was on a very crowded $5 table, and two of the players at my end were betting with black and purple chips, even though there were a couple of $10 tables open. I couldn't figure out what they were doing crammed in there. Later, I saw one of them in line at the cashier's cage and asked him. He said that when they arrived, that $5 table was the only one that had room for them. I don't think I can recall seeing a pit with multiple $10 tables completely full and the $5 table with space available.

Quote: Doc

State: Louisiana
City: Lake Charles
Casino: Golden Nugget

Wait is this a new place? I was in Lake Charles spring 2014 and I don't have a Golden Nugget chip...

Yep, the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles just opened in December of last year. As for your spring 2014 visit, Maxwell Smart used to hold his thumb and finger tip an inch apart and say, "Missed it by that much."

Click that first Wikipedia link in my post to see more about the place.

State: Mississippi
City: Choctaw
Casino: Golden Moon

Yes, this post may look like a total wall of text, but it might provide you with a little entertainment if you take the time to read it. Perhaps there is even a wee bit of irony in having the Independence Day edition of the Casino Chip of the Day come from a tribal casino. ;-)

The Pearl River Resort includes two casinos directly across Mississippi route 16 from each other, with a connecting pedestrian bridge across the six lanes (four thru and two exit) and a grass median. These casinos are the Golden Moon and the Silver Star. Even though these can be easily found via a search on Google Maps, there is some lack of clarity as to just what town they are located in.

When I posted my chip from the Silver Star back in January 2013, I described the location this way:

Quote: Doc

About 80 miles northeast of the capital city of Jackson, MS is the city/town of Philadelphia, population 7,477. The drive from Jackson will take you through the even smaller town of Pearl River, population 3,601, lying some eight miles out of Philadelphia. Unincorporated Choctaw, MS is supposedly someplace in that vicinity, though I have found maps that disagree by more than 100 miles on its location. Probably there are multiple, unincorporated places named for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, but this one is supposed to be a base of their reservation.

In those eight miles between Pearl River and Philadelphia (and some resources claim it to be in Choctaw), lies the Pearl River Resort, operated by the tribe.

This uncertainty in location is amplified by notations on my two souvenir chips. The Silver Star chip says the casino is located in Philadelphia, while the Golden Moon chip says that casino is located in Choctaw. Whatever.

I collected my chip from the Silver Star on August 18, 2010 and did not get one from the Golden Moon across the street until just last week. The almost-five-year delay was due to intermittent operation of the Golden Moon casino. In 2010, business was slow, and the Golden Moon was only operating on weekends. I was at the Silver Star on a Wednesday and anticipated getting back some weekend to get a Golden Moon chip. By the time I posted that Silver Star chip in this thread, I reported that business had dropped so much that the Golden Moon had replaced their table games pit with a concert venue.

I thought my collection had missed out on an opportunity forever, but as I was planning my recent trip I discovered that business had picked up. The Golden Moon had gone through a major remodeling, with a new table games pit opening at the end of last January. Trip routing revised!

The Golden Moon was the first casino stop on our recent trip, and I played $10-minimum craps. As I reported a few days ago:

Quote: Doc

… at the first casino I visited, I lost my entire craps buy-in without ever seeing a point made.

Bummer. At least I brought home my souvenir. Actually, I brought home two souvenirs – a $1 chip for myself and a $5 chip to pass along to rdw4potus. Choctaw/Philadelphia/Pearl River/whatever is remote enough that it shouldn’t be necessary for every collector to drive there him/herself. It’s a nice casino, but (as I learned) the enjoyment just ain’t that great all the time.

Both chips are from Bud Jones, with the BJ logos visible in about the 7:30 position. They have identical center inlays except for the denomination marks and the color of the BJ logos. The perimeters of these plastic injection molded chips have completely different patterns. Nothing on these chips fluoresces under UV light.

This completes my set of recently-collected chips, and I turn the lead role for the CCotD thread back to PokerGrinder to resume posting his collection tomorrow.




I have a compulsion to tell a completely off-topic story about what happened after we left the Golden Moon casino that Wednesday evening. Hey, in the very first post of this thread I said that along with the chips I would be posting “some comment about the chip and/or the casino and/or some extraneous issue that the chip brings to my mind.” Don’t say that you weren’t warned well in advance!

We were headed to Biloxi, but it was late enough, and we had already driven far enough that day, that I did not want to drive all the way to the gulf coast that night. We spent the night in the town of Laurel, MS.

On our drive south from the casino, just after 8:00 p.m. as it was getting dark on a two-lane section of road, we came across three young cattle frisking around on the highway. The area was a mix of woods and pastures, and obviously these three had stumbled upon an exit from their fence. My guess was that they would really like to find the way back in, to the feed and to their Mommas perhaps.

They were a bit amusing, but I realized that the next car might be coming down the dark highway at 60+ and be in for a sudden surprise. A collision would not be good for the calves, the vehicle, or the passengers. I decided to sit right there, watch the entertaining juveniles, and call 911 to report the highway hazard.

The 911 operator asked me my location. I said, “I’m on route 503 southbound, and my navigation system tells me I have 4.8 miles to go to the intersection with route 18.” I thought that was a reasonably detailed description of a rural location. However, the operator’s response was, “What county are you in?”

Now I had no idea what county I was in. I asked her how many places route 503 crosses route 18, but I didn’t get an answer. Perhaps it’s a bit like whether the Pearl River Resort is in Philadelphia or Choctaw. I wound up being transferred to three (maybe four) 911 operators in different districts, as they tried to decide where I was. I looked at my GPS map and told them the names of the next community north on 503, the next to the south, and some other communities off that route but similarly north-south as was my location. That still didn’t seem to be adequate for their purposes, but the last operator at least had a guess as to what county I was in.

She told me she could get an officer out there to help me as soon as one was available. I told her that I didn’t need any help – I would have no difficulty driving on down the road, but the next driver might need an ambulance along with the officer. She thanked me and got my name and a call-back number. I gave her just a little more info: I said that by then the calves had wandered off the highway and a short way down a little dirt road. It wasn’t marked, but I said there was a utility pole where that road met the highway, and on the pole was a sign saying, “Elect ______ Tax Assessor.” Not so specific as an address, but maybe that plus the “4.8 miles from route 18” would be enough.

We drove on south, just shaking our heads. Sure glad I didn’t have a real, immediate emergency. Later in the week, when we met friends in Tunica, I told them about this incident. They said that we had been driving in a really backwoods/backwater area of the state and that you couldn’t really expect much in the way of effectiveness on the part of the authorities there. Oh, the fun we have as part of chip-collecting expeditions!

(And rdw4potus doesn’t think his fiancée is going to look forward to these little adventures. Pshaw!)

Amazing story Doc, just love the randomness!

Category: Canada
City: Calgary, Alberta
Casino: Silver Dollar

Well I am back from my mildly (definitely planned too many casinos per day) crazy chip collecting trip. I collected 42 new chips for my collection bringing my total collection up to 390. I also collected 10 new chips to post here which is good. I started the trip winning at all but 2 of the first 25 or 26 casinos (which had me thinking how I was running so +ev) and then proceeded to lose at about 90% of the casinos for the rest of the trip. In all I was down about $700 which isn't horrible for this long a trip I guess.

Today's chip of the day is from the Silver Dollar Casino in Calgary, AB. The casino has since been closed and rebranded which will be discussed in tomorrow's chip of the day. The Casino closed in January, 2010. Much like the rebranding of the Stampede Casino there was really not much done to change the casino. So much so that when I went the second time (to collect a new chip) after the rebranding it looked exactly like the first time I had been there years earlier.

The chip is off-white which I do believe was planned and not from dirt and wear. The chip has three edge inserts that I would say are a dusty rose colour, with 6 dots around the frame of the same colour. The centre inlay is white with the casino name and casino location in black, and the denomination in red. In the background of the denomination is a grey silhouette of what looks like a Model T Ford.

This chip from the Silver Dollar Casino has the same design, other than colors and the center inlay, as the chips I have posted from the Las Vegas Hilton, the Hacienda, and Club Fortune. Perhaps others.

The LV Hilton chip has a BJ logo visible on it, and the Hacienda and Club Fortune chips have BJ logos that show up under UV light. I suspect this means that this chip from the Silver Dollar Casino is also from Bud Jones. Sometimes, though, I may have been tricked on such matters.

Thanks for the new chip post, PokerGrinder. Sounds like you might be able to keep this thread revived for a while. :-)


BTW, I'm not an antique car enthusiast. How do you distinguish between sketches of a Model T and a Model A? I found Wiki photos of a Model A here and a Model T here, and I can't really decide which looks more like the image on the chip.

From your linked images the Model A had the tire mounted on the side and the Model T had the tire mounted on the rear. I am not a car enthusiast either but if the images are correct it would make it a Model A.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Well I am back from my mildly (definitely planned too many casinos per day) crazy chip collecting trip. I collected 42 new chips for my collection bringing my total collection up to 390.

I drove cross country in April in 9 days (more like 8 days, last day was really short distance) driving about 3150 miles and visiting 50 casinos and I was totally pooped out. I wonder how many days and how far you drove this time? I remember you covered some crazy distance last trip.

Quote: Doc

This chip from the Silver Dollar Casino has the same design, other than colors and the center inlay, as the chips I have posted from the Las Vegas Hilton, the Hacienda, and Club Fortune. Perhaps others.

I have my chip from the Hacienda Casino in my hand and it is the exact model as the Silver Dollar Casino. Good eye, I didn't notice that.

As far as the car on the chip I took a shot in the dark really. I am not a car enthusiast at all just tried to figure out what I thought it was from searching on google.

Quote: Konbu

I drove cross country in April in 9 days (more like 8 days, last day was really short distance) driving about 3150 miles and visiting 50 casinos and I was totally pooped out. I wonder how many days and how far you drove this time? I remember you covered some crazy distance last trip.

I drove 1300 miles to Ottawa and collected 3 chips as I was mostly doing that portion of the trip to help my sister move. The rest of the trip was 6 days and 3100 miles to collect 39 chips. I was completely exhausted by the last day, it ended up being too much but now that it is done I am glad that I did it as I am happy with my haul.

Category: Canada
City: Calgary, Alberta
Casino: Century

Today's chip of the day is from Century Casino in Calgary, AB. This is the rebranded version of yesterday's Silver Dollar Casino. The casino reopened in November, 2010 as per MoGH. The casino has 529 slot machines and 16 tables including BJ, Roulette, Baccarat, Let it Ride and Ultimate Texas Holdem. This is definitely not one of Calgary's nicer casinos but it is good if you want a less crowded casino to gamble in.

The chip is white with three edge inserts (red/blue). The centre inlay is white with the Century Casino fireworks logo both in colour and in grey in the background. The name, location and denomination are all in black and grey.

This rebranding reflects affiliation with the two Century casinos in Colorado that have previously been discussed in this thread. Compare the fireworks logo here to the ones on the chips that rdw4potus posted here and here and I posted here and here. However, this is the first Paulson chip that we have seen from this casino chain. PokerGrinder says, "This is definitely not one of Calgary's nicer casinos...", but at least they use a high-end chip with multiple, mult-color edge inserts, even on their $1 chip.

When I posted that last chip, I noted that the company also had this casino in Calgary plus casinos in Edmondton, Poland, and Aruba. Perhaps PokerGrinder will soon be treating us to a view of a chip from one more of those. :-)

Correct Doc. I had actually been to the two Colorado Century casinos before getting this one from Calgary. As you suspected we will get to the one in Edmonton eventually as well. The chip is a very nice quality, I agree.

Category: Canada
City: Calgary, Alberta
Casino: Grey Eagle

My bad, my plan was to make the chip of the day post before I went out and then I forgot and it was too late to make yesterday's post once I got home. Today's chip of the day is from Grey Eagle Casino in Calgary, AB. This is the only Indian casino in Calgary. I would say this is the nicest of the 7 Calgary area casinos. The casino opened December, 2007. The casino has 867 slot machines, 40 table games and big poker room.

The chip is the same model as the one from the Stampede Casino. It is white with six green edge inserts. The centre inlay has a blue background with a grey eagle that takes of most of the inlay. The casino name and denomination are both in black. There is a green ring around the inlay, as well as 4 green "1"s.

We've been spammed lol

Since I don't see anything, I'm guessing this was just one of those messes that our mods cleaned up before I got here.

It was two giant posts Doc, about buying a bunch of different fake forms of ID for pretty much any country. Kind of cool that the Mods cleaned it up this quickly.

Category: Canada
City: Edmonton, Alberta
Casino: Century

Today's chip of the day is Century Casino in Edmonton, AB. This is the other Century Casino that Doc said would most likely be posted soon. Century Casino opened on November 16,2006. The casino has 752 slot machines and 34 table games including BJ, Roulette, Baccarat, 3 Card Poker, 4 Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Holdem, Craps and a poker room with 10 tables.

The chip is a white plastic with three blue edge inserts that each have two smaller blue inserts under them. The centre inlay is white with the Century Casino logo in the middle. The casino name and location are in black.

Category: Canada
City: Edmonton, Alberta
Casino: Yellowhead

Today's chip of the day is Casino Yellowhead (Doc GL figuring out how to list this one). The casino is in Edmonton, AB and it opened in August, 2000. The casino has 783 slot machines and 27 table games including BJ, Roulette, Baccarat, Craps, Pai Gow, Caribbean Stud and a 12 table poker room.

The chip is white with 6 black edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with the casino name, denomination and location all in black. The logo in the middle looks like a horse pulled wagon.

First of all, PokerGrinder, take a look at your last post. I think you carried over (duplicated) a couple of paragraphs from your Century chip post.

With regard to the name on this latest chip, where does it come from? I thought for a moment that Edmonton might be at the head of the Yellow River, but I can't find a river by that name in Canada. Surely it's not an ethnic comment.

I decided to post this one in the index ignoring the leading "Casino". If there is no other justification, I'll just claim that "Yellowhead" puts this one (currently) at the very end of the list of Canadian casinos, and it's a whole bunch easier for me to add just one cell at the end of a table than to put this one in the middle and have to shift all of the others down, an exercise I go through almost daily.

Quote: Doc

First of all, PokerGrinder, take a look at your last post. I think you carried over (duplicated) a couple of paragraphs from your Century chip post.

Haha ya I copy and paste the previous chip post so that my formatting is always proper. I have edited the post now.

Quote: Doc

With regard to the name on this latest chip, where does it come from? I thought for a moment that Edmonton might be at the head of the Yellow River, but I can't find a river by that name in Canada. Surely it's not an ethnic comment.

To be honest I actually had no idea so I did some research and the Yellowhead Highway passes through Edmonton. If you want to read more about it here is the Wiki link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowhead_Highway
There is also a Yellowhead electoral district in Alberta in the Edmonton area.

Quote: Doc

I decided to post this one in the index ignoring the leading "Casino". If there is no other justification, I'll just claim that "Yellowhead" puts this one (currently) at the very end of the list of Canadian casinos, and it's a whole bunch easier for me to add just one cell at the end of a table than to put this one in the middle and have to shift all of the others down, an exercise I go through almost daily.

Seems like a good idea to me!

Category: Canada
City: Edmonton, Alberta
Casino: Baccarat

Today's chip of the day is from the Baccarat Casino in Edmonton, AB. The casino opened in 1996 and right now there are tentative plans to demolish it next June. From what I have read they are planning on building a new casino right across the street that would open June, 2016 as Grand Villa Edmonton Casino and then demolishing the current Baccarat Casino. Personally I think this would be a huge upgrade as the Baccarat Casino is kind of a dump. Anyways so if you plan getting a chip from this casino (which I assume none of you have plans to) you have around 10 months to do so. Baccarat Casino is close to Chinatown and seems to make a special effort to cater to an Asian clientele. The casino has over 300 slot machines and over 20 table games including BJ, Roulette, Craps, Pai Gow Tiles, Ultimate Texas Holdem and of course Baccarat because it would be a little silly to call the casino Baccarat Casino if they didn't offer the game.

The chip is white with 4 edge inserts, 2 blue and 2 green. The centre inlay is white in the middle with grey shading around the edges (not dirt). Casino name, denomination and location are all in black. The middle of the chip has the casino logo which is a red "B" and "C" over top of a black spade. Obviously the "B" and "C" stand for Baccarat Casino.

So three hours or so ago, I posted a comment about how much easier it is to edit the index with "Yellowhead" going at the end of the Canada table. And then you come right back, post the "Baccarat Casino" chip that goes second in the table (for now) with 48 other items in that array to be shifted down. Thanks a lot!

;-)

I think the casino logo is quite interesting. First the "C" appears above and slightly to the left of the "B" as if maybe the name should be "Casino Baccarat". But this is Alberta, not Quebec, and they probably aren't always thinking in French.

Also, the logo is symmetric about its center, so that if you rotate the chip 180°, the logo is correct again. Cute. Bet they have that logo on the top of the roulette wheel post, on the center of the Big 6 wheel hub, and maybe other places that it can spin around.

PokerGrinder...thanks for all the Canadian casino posts. I never knew these places even existed. I've always wanted to go to Canada and now I have an "excuse". When the time comes, I'll start a new topic, but in general....are the comps and steakhouses close to what we are used to in the USA?

Quote: PokerGrinder

It was two giant posts Doc, about buying a bunch of different fake forms of ID for pretty much any country. Kind of cool that the Mods cleaned it up this quickly.

I was one of the few who clicked on the spam post. I was actually interested in the offerings but of course, would never just send money to a spam outfit/person. I used to actually have a "fake" passport, don't recall exactly why? This was before the supposed crackdown by "Homeland Security" which as we have read, hasn't exactly been successful.

Quote: Doc

So three hours or so ago, I posted a comment about how much easier it is to edit the index with "Yellowhead" going at the end of the Canada table. And then you come right back, post the "Baccarat Casino" chip that goes second in the table (for now) with 48 other items in that array to be shifted down. Thanks a lot!

Haha sorry Doc, the things you do for your obsession... I mean hobby :)

Quote: Doc

I think the casino logo is quite interesting. First the "C" appears above and slightly to the left of the "B" as if maybe the name should be "Casino Baccarat". But this is Alberta, not Quebec, and they probably aren't always thinking in French.

Also, the logo is symmetric about its center, so that if you rotate the chip 180°, the logo is correct again. Cute. Bet they have that logo on the top of the roulette wheel post, on the center of the Big 6 wheel hub, and maybe other places that it can spin around.

It is always amusing to me what you notice about chips Doc, I have the actual chip in hand and didn't realize that until you mentioned it. Yet you managed to see that based on an image on your computer, it is very cool though.

I can't say I noticed it on the roulette wheel as I never play it, also they don't have the big wheel. Not sure why but is very uncommon in Canadian casinos I have found.

Quote: NokTang

PokerGrinder...thanks for all the Canadian casino posts. I never knew these places even existed. I've always wanted to go to Canada and now I have an "excuse".

I am glad you are enjoying the posts, I figured I would post all my Canadian chips before moving onto my American ones. I am guessing you have used MoGH, but if not it is great and is what I always use to plan my chip collecting road trips.

Quote: NokTang

When the time comes, I'll start a new topic, but in general....are the comps and steakhouses close to what we are used to in the USA?

As far as the comps and steakhouses that is an interesting question. The comps are the same in that they give you points based on your play that you can spend in the casino, as well some of the casinos you can turn your points into cash. I am not sure as far as offers since most of the casinos are a one time visit for me. The ones that I frequent in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba don't give much in the way of offers, maybe a couple bucks in free play once or twice a year.
For the Steakhouses part what exactly are you looking to find out?

Quote: PokerGrinder

... also they don't have the big wheel. Not sure why but is very uncommon in Canadian casinos I have found.

Maybe Canadians have more sense than to waste money on that game, eh?

But maybe not, eh?




(Note my feeble attempt to add mock-Canadian humor.)

Quote: PokerGrinder

For the Steakhouses part what exactly are you looking to find out?

Is it really beef as in cows, or is it moose or some other animal, and of course, do the casino's give comps for said meals? Many thanks.

Quote: Doc

Maybe Canadians have more sense than to waste money on that game, eh?

But maybe not, eh?




(Note my feeble attempt to add mock-Canadian humor.)

I enjoyed the effort Doc

Quote: NokTang

Is it really beef as in cows, or is it moose or some other animal, and of course, do the casino's give comps for said meals? Many thanks.

Lmao no we definitely eat cow in steakhouses not moose. Depending on your level of play I am sure they would comp something. I tend to go for the Asian food when I am in casinos as it tends to be really good. For instance the Deerfoot Casino in Calgary where I go a decent amount when in Alberta has a menu of free food in the high limit/baccarat room, as well Grey Eagle in Calgary does but there menu is not the greatest. My home casino in Winnipeg would laugh at you if you asked for a comped meal outside of the comps you get on your club card for play so it really depends where you are.

Category: Canada
City: Edmonton, Alberta
Casino: Casino Edmonton

Today's chip of the day is from Casino Edmonton. Casino Edmonton opened in 1986 and was formerly Casino ABS, I am not sure what ABS stands for. The casino has 860 slot machines and 25 table games including BJ, Roulette, Craps. Baccarat, Caribbean Stud Poker and a 12 table poker room. A fun fact, a lot of the locals call this casino "Casino Argyll" as the casino is on Argyll Road.

The chip is very plain, it is white with no edge inserts. The centre inlay is blue with a white centre. The front of the chip has the PURE Canadian Gaming logo including the Canadian flag in place of the "U". The casino name, denomination and location are all in black. The other side of the chip has the same colour scheme on the inlay and the same information. The only difference is the denomination is large and in the middle in place of the logo.

Perhaps to show how inconsistent I am in my efforts to be consistent in the index, this time I am filing the chip with the leading "Casino" designation.

Category: Canada
City: Edmonton, Alberta
Casino: Palace

Today's chip of the day is a very neat one I think because... it is in a mall! The West Edmonton Mall to be exact and the casino that I am referring to is the Palace Casino. West Edmonton Mall is quite famous as it is the largest mall in North America and it was the largest mall in the world until 2004, it now sits as the 10th biggest mall in the world. The Palace Casino opened in 1990. The casino has 600 slot machines and 20 tables games including BJ, Ultimate Texas Holdem, 3 Card Poker, Baccarat, Pai Gow Tiles, Roulette, Money Wheel and a poker room.

The chip is very cool I think. The chip is white with three purple edge inserts. The centre inlay is a picture taken from outside of the casino/mall of the top of the casino. I love that they have used the actual "Palace Casino" sign from the casino instead of writing it on the chip. The location and denomination are in white.

Interesting that the casino is in a mall. Is it open 24 hrs. a day? If so, do they just close the doors that connect to the inside of the mall?
I wonder if there is a problem with parents letting their kids run around unsupervised in the mall while they go gambling? Are there a bunch of bored kids sitting on the benches outside the doors?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Interesting that the casino is in a mall. Is it open 24 hrs. a day? If so, do they just close the doors that connect to the inside of the mall?
I wonder if there is a problem with parents letting their kids run around unsupervised in the mall while they go gambling? Are there a bunch of bored kids sitting on the benches outside the doors?

The casino is not 24 hours it opens at 9 am, the website doesn't say but I assume the casino closes around 2 or 3 am. The time I went the mall was already closed and basically they leave the mall doors open near the casino and their is an escalator to take you to the 2nd floor where the casino entrance is, their is security to make sure you don't wander the mall.
Not too sure about the second part of your question, I didn't notice anything like what you are describing.

Quote: PokerGrinder

The casino is not 24 hours it opens at 9 am, the website doesn't say but I assume the casino closes around 2 or 3 am. The time I went the mall was already closed and basically they leave the mall doors open near the casino and their is an escalator to take you to the 2nd floor where the casino entrance is, their is security to make sure you don't wander the mall.
Not too sure about the second part of your question, I didn't notice anything like what you are describing.

FWIW, Aspers in London was like this, and it seemed to me to be a great arrangement. Tube stop closest to 2012 Olympic Site, Huge multi-level mall, Aspers on top (4th?) floor. Had to travel through closed mall to get back to tube around midnight, good number of security along the way, lots of cameras too. Good sized restaurant attached, big balcony off big bar on other side. Not sure if the casino ever closes, though.

Category: Canada
City: Enoch, Alberta
Casino: River Cree

Today's chip of the day is from the River Cree Casino. The casino is on an Indian reserve just outside of Edmonton in Enoch, AB. The casino opened October, 2006 and is the only casino in the Edmonton area that allows smoking indoors. I didn't stay long because I found the smoke in the casino to be way too strong but I sat down at a BJ table and the guy next to me hit the Lucky Ladies Bonus on the last hand of the shoe with a max bet for just over $4000. He was probably down a lot as he didn't seem very excited. The casino has over 1100 slot machines and 32 table games including BJ, Roulette, Craps, Baccarat, 3 Card Poker, 4 Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Holdem and a 19 table poker room.

The chip is white with two light blue edge inserts. The centre inlay is blue on the outside, white on the inside with a decorative border separating them. The white part has a stream flowing through it with 4 teepee's each getting smaller to show they are farther down stream than the previous teepee. I have no idea what the five different coloured circles are for as I can't find them on any other logo from the casino.

Category: Canada
City: St. Albert, Alberta
Casino: Apex

Today's chip of the day is from the Apex Casino in St. Albert, AB just outside of Edmonton. The casino opened January, 2011. The casino is pretty small from my memory, staff was friendly though. Anyone else find that the smaller casinos have nicer staff usually or just me? The casino has over 380 slot machines and 11 table games including BJ, Baccarat, Roulette, Ultimate Texas Holdem and 3 Card Poker.

The chip is light blue with two dark blue edge inserts. The centre inlay is all black with all white writing and would look really sleek if it weren't for the stupid website on the bottom of the chip. Personally I think there are very few things tackier than putting a website on your gaming chips.

That is the last chip from the Edmonton area, I have 5 more casinos from smaller areas of Alberta and then I will move onto Ontario.

P.S. Sorry Doc this one goes right to the top of the index...

Quote: PokerGrinder

Sorry Doc this one goes right to the top of the index...

Uhh, the "Apex" chip goes right to the top of the index? Are you trying to drop puns on me again???



Now if you really meant the beginning of the index, you missed just oh so slightly.

BTW, I can't figure out what those colored dots on the River Cree chip mean either. For that matter, the name bugs me just a little, too. For one thing, the casino name is the only reference I see to the Cree tribe, which I assume is the owner. I didn't find a reference to "River Cree" as being one of their bands. I looked at the casino's web site and didn't see any references to the tribe or any links to tribal info. Usually the tribal casino sites link to some place with historical or cultural info. Do they try to hide rather than promote the casino's connection to the tribe? Unless my memory is really faulty, I'm sure that Casino Rama had plenty of info available about the Chippewas.

Quote: Doc

Uhh, the "Apex" chip goes right to the top of the index? Are you trying to drop puns on me again???

Haha I am a sucker for a good/bad pun

Quote: Doc

BTW, I can't figure out what those colored dots on the River Cree chip mean either. For that matter, the name bugs me just a little, too. For one thing, the casino name is the only reference I see to the Cree tribe, which I assume is the owner. I didn't find a reference to "River Cree" as being one of their bands. I looked at the casino's web site and didn't see any references to the tribe or any links to tribal info. Usually the tribal casino sites link to some place with historical or cultural info. Do they try to hide rather than promote the casino's connection to the tribe? Unless my memory is really faulty, I'm sure that Casino Rama had plenty of info available about the Chippewas.

Well Doc I did some research and, drumroll please... found nothing. I am not sure why they have no info on their website, Grey Eagle Casino in Calgary has lots of info and like you said Casino Rama does post about their tribe. I am not sure why they wouldn't make the information available. The only thing I can think of is the North Saskatchewan River runs right through Edmonton very close to River Cree Casino. Maybe and I do think this is a long shot but maybe it just means the Cree Tribe by the river? Feels like a longshot.

Category: Canada
City: Camrose, Alberta
Casino: Camrose

Today's chip of the day is from the Camrose Casino in Camrose, AB. Here is another fun one for you Doc, so you had decided that Casino "name of place that casino is" would be listed with the casino in the name ie. Casino Rama or Casinos of Winnipeg. So now what do we do about Camrose Casino that is in Camrose since "casino" is after the place in the name. I hope all that made sense.

Back to the casino, it opened in June 2007. Camrose Casino is located about a 70 min drive from Edmonton and roughly 3 hours from Calgary. The casino is quite small, it has 200 slot machines, a 6 table poker room and 12 table games including BJ, Roulette, Ultimate Texas Holdem, 4 Card Poker and Baccarat.

The chip is the same style as the plastic ones from British Columbia. It is blue with double stepped white edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with the casino name, denomination and logo in different shades of brown. I can't figure out what the designs on the chip are, both the one in the background that is very light and the one under the dollar sign as well as the round one on the top of the chip. I can't find anything that connects this casino to a Indian tribe, the only connection is that they advertise on their site for Stoney Nakoda Casino in Banff which is a Indian casino. So in summation, I pretty much couldn't figure it out. I challenge Doc to find out '_'

Quote: PokerGrinder

So now what do we do about Camrose Casino that is in Camrose since "casino" is after the place in the name.
...
I can't find anything that connects this casino to a Indian tribe, the only connection is that they advertise on their site for Stoney Nakoda Casino in Banff which is a Indian casino. So in summation, I pretty much couldn't figure it out. I challenge Doc to find out '_'

Well, the index is simple enough -- I just listed the place as "Camrose".

You couldn't figure it out, so you challenge me? I have enough trouble doing the research for the casinos that I have been to.

Anyway, here's what I found as readily available. The web site for this place makes it sound as if it is just part of the Best Western hotel there. I'm not completely certain of the ownership, but digging only slightly deeper reveals that it is managed by Stagewest Hospitality, an organization that claims to have been "opening doors since 1944." They appear to be currently managing a rather diverse range of 14 properties, including hotels, dinner theaters, and casinos. They even claim to operate five Water Parks, though I think that may be a grandiose description of the water slides at the pools in some of their hotels. For example:


The three casinos in their list are the Camrose and the Stoney Nakoda already mentioned, plus the River Rock casino in Richmond, just south of Vancouver, BC. When I posted my chip from the River Rock a bit over two years ago, kenarman posted a reply with the history of the casino, including the notation that it was owned by Great Canadian Casino. I don't know whether there has been a change since then or maybe Stagewest Hospitality operates the place for Great Canadian Casino.

Perhaps kenarman will see this post and help clear this up. He said that River Rock was his "home" casino even though it was 350 miles away.

Haha sorry I figured I would tag in the veteran. I found most of what you found, I was mostly going by the designs on the chip for my thinking that it was a Indian casino.

Category: Canada
City: Lethbridge, Alberta
Casino: Casino ABS

Sorry to everyone for the lack of a chip of the day for Friday, ran out of time as it was my best friend's stag party and I didn't get home until 4 am so it was already Saturday.

Today's chip of the day is from Casino Lethbridge. The casino was formerly Casino ABS Lethbridge but changed it's name in 2004. They however did not buy a new set of chips, they just continued to use the old chips which I find to be very odd but what are we supposed to do? I visited this casino when I was living in Calgary last summer. I took a day trip, if I am remembering correctly it was about two hours of driving each way. I won gas money and was quite satisfied. The casino has 427 slot machines, a small 6 table poker room and 14 table games including BJ, Baccarat , Caribbean Stud and Roulette.

The chip is white with two light blue edge inserts. The centre inlay is a sky with birds flying (no clue what type of birds :P). The former casino name is in yellow, denomination in orange and the location in grey.

I have edited this to be my Casino ABS chip post as I have since returned to Casino Lethbridge and I have collected a Casinok Lethbridge chip. (November 18, 2017)