Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: PokerGrinder

I went with BJ mostly because that is what it is listed as on the MoGH.

I have noted before that the MoGH Chip Guide, as much as I do like & appreciate it, seems to have a very strong tendency of attributing almost every plastic injection molded chip to Bud Jones. I think I even pointed out one time that the manufacturer's logo (not "BJ") was clearly evident under visible light, but MoGH attributed the chip to Bud Jones.

BTW, in a recent post I referred to one of your plastic chips as a ceramic chip, which is something completely different (see most of the ChipCo chips). I may have done that on multiple occasions, since mental glitches seem to be coming more often as my senility advances. I fixed the one error that I could locate easily.

No chip of the day today. My computer is malfunctioning and I don’t feel like doing it from my iPhone. I’m going to go binge watch The Flash now.

I didn't know there was a Des Moines in the state of Washington. I was only familiar with the city in Iowa, which I thought was named after the river.
Does the river originate in Washington?

I seriously doubt that. It would be rather challenging to get a river to flow from western Washington state to the east side of the Rocky Mountains. But then, I am not a geographer.

State: Washington
City: Spokane Valley
Casino: Black Pearl

Today's chip of the day is from the Black Pearl Card Room in Spokane Valley, Washington. Sadly I didn't stay here long because I lost my buy in and it took less than 10 minutes to do so. The Card room included table games, a poker room that I didn't notice and a restaurant... so basically the exact same model as every other card room in Washington. I really don't have any other information to share about the place, sadly as I said all these card rooms are pretty basic which doesn't leave much to talk about.

The chip is a white RHC with 3 blue edge inserts. The centre inlay is black (reminds me of the Revel chip) and all the writing is white. The bottom half of "Pearl" has a purple shading. The chip lists the location as Spokane but the actual address is Spokane Valley which is what I listed the chip as.

Was there a theme to this joint? The casino has the same name as the “Pirates of the Caribbean “ boat.

No it didn’t have any theme. I didn’t make that connection, I’m not sure how I missed that.

State: Washington
City: Shoreline
Casino: Goldie's Shoreline

Today's chip of the day is from Goldie's Shoreline Casino in Shoreline, Washington. I decided to include Shoreline in the casino name because everywhere I look they have it included in the full casino name. Now this is something that I haven't had to say for awhile... I have no recollection of this casino. I reread my TR and that didn't jog my memory so I looked through all the google images I could find of this casino and nothing looks even mildly familiar. I broke roughly even at this casino that I claim to have been at but there is no truth to that except the chip that I have. It is possible that I mugged someone and took their $1 chip, who knows? So I visited this mysterious casino for some amount of time and played a casino game of some sort and the outcome was neither terribly great or bad. That is a good description of my time there I think!

The chip is a white Paulson RHC with two edge inserts in green and orange. The chip isn't in good condition at all. The edges have been completely rounded off and there are chips out of the edges as well. The hat and canes have also been pretty worn down. The centre inlay is dark brown around the outside and light brown in the middle. The casino logo is in what I would call a gold colour. The location and the chip denomination are in white at the bottom of the chip.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Now this is something that I haven't had to say for awhile... I have no recollection of this casino.

On the perhaps-risky assumption that you were reasonably sober, I can only offer you sympathy on having reached "that age." Been there, done that.

Haha well I hope I was sober as I drove around collecting chips. I barely ever drink so I don’t think I can blame that.

I’m just old I guess!

State: Washington
City: Shoreline
Casino: Hideaway

Today's chip of the day comes from the Hideaway Card Room in Shoreline, Washington. This poker room was my last stop of my first day of collecting in the Seattle area. I had a little trouble finding the entrance as the poker room is up the stairs in the dark back area of the building. It was a little bit sketchy but you have to do dangerous things sometimes with this hobby. I mean it wasn't as bad as when I ended up in East St. Louis, Illinois by accident while collecting a chip. I played Hi-Lo Omaha for about ten minutes while waiting for my seat for holdem. During my short stay at the Omaha game a drunk thuggish looking young guy got really angry at me for no reason so I was happy when my name got called so I could move away from him. I was up about $100 after flopping a set and getting paid by the drunk guy at the holdem table. I then proceeded to run JJ to QQ on a 7 high board. I lost the hand and left a little while later stuck about $35. The poker room was solid and the staff were all super friendly. They had 7 tables with 4 running when I arrived. They had a bar and a Chinese restaurant in the building for the players. MoGH says that Hideaway opened in 1976 and there chips don't look a day younger than that!

The chip is/was a blue Chipco that now has extreme fading that has created a white ring around the chip. It took me a long time looking through a couple hundred chips before I found an even mildly decent one to keep. The picture is of the good side, the opposite side is extremely faded in the centre. The centre inlay is white with the casino name and logo in the middle of the chip. The logo includes a pair of aces which works well for a poker room. The denomination is on the top and bottom and the location is in the middle. The black has faded a bit.

State: Washington
City: Seattle
Casino: Roxy's

Today's chip of the day is from Roxy's Casino in Seattle, Washington. The casino is in a little side room of a bowling alley, which also has a small restaurant/snack bar. I didn't eat here mostly out of self preservation as it didn't look like the food would be very high quality. I lost $25 playing Pai Gow but the cashier had stepped out for a couple minutes so I wasn't able to cash out. I went and wasted $3 on the basketball game at the arcade which I am a sucker for. When I got back I had missed her again so I played BJ while waiting and got my $25 back. Finally she showed up and I was able to cash out. Roxy's had 6 tables if I remember correctly (I doubt that I do) and their website lists a poker room but that must have been separate as I didn't see that. The dealers were very friendly, I was talking to one that was giving me travel tips about Vietnam and telling me about the city where he was from. I was one of only two players there and I got the impression that they weren't expecting any more players to show up anytime soon. I guess 10 AM isn't a busy time for them haha.

The chip is a light blue plastic chip that MoGH obviously says is BJ because I am pretty sure that every chip on there is listed as BJ. The chip has 3 sets of dark blue edge inserts with two dashes between each set of inserts. The centre inlay is white with a gold ring around it. The casino name and denomination are in red and the location is in black. I like that they used an empty drink glass with a cherry as the "Y" in Roxy's, it makes it unique and I like anything on a chip that makes it unique.

The colour of the chip comes out as more of a turquoise in the picture but it is more blue.

This time, I again agree with MoGH. The chip from Roxy's is the same pattern (different colors) as the chip I posted from the Tuscany casino in Las Vegas, and that chip has a BJ logo that is clear under visible light (so no UV lamp needed that time.)

State: Washington
City: Burien
Casino: Wizards

Today's chip of the day is from the Wizards Casino in Burien, Washington. Wizards Casino opened in 1998 and is attached to a restaurant. The casino has 10 table games and 5 poker tables in the same room. I played a BJ game that had a ton of side bets that made the game extremely slow and it was mildly annoying because the whole table was betting all the side bets for every hand. I left after about 5 hands up $5, those 5 hands took 10-15 minutes.

The chip is a white Paulson RHC with two edge inserts, one purple and the other one is dark grey. The centre inlay is sky blue with a brown border. There is a Gandalf looking wizard in the middle, he is holding a wand that is shooting sparks and he has a scepter in his other hand. The casino name and location are in white around the border of the inlay and the denomination is in the middle with the wizard.

Quote: PokerGrinder

State: Washington
City: Seattle
Casino: Roxy's

Today's chip of the day is from Roxy's Casino in Seattle, Washington. The casino is in a little side room of a bowling alley, which also has a small restaurant/snack bar. I didn't eat here mostly out of self preservation as it didn't look like the food would be very high quality.
<snip>

This is very funny, considering what you ate in Asia, not to mention a human toe in the Yukon. Bugs, dog meat, monkey, eel, blowfish, you'll eat, but American bowling alley cuisine, you can't stomach.

Hahahahaha!

Quote: beachbumbabs

Quote: PokerGrinder

State: Washington
City: Seattle
Casino: Roxy's

Today's chip of the day is from Roxy's Casino in Seattle, Washington. The casino is in a little side room of a bowling alley, which also has a small restaurant/snack bar. I didn't eat here mostly out of self preservation as it didn't look like the food would be very high quality.
<snip>

This is very funny, considering what you ate in Asia, not to mention a human toe in the Yukon. Bugs, dog meat, monkey, eel, blowfish, you'll eat, but American bowling alley cuisine, you can't stomach.

Hahahahaha!

Haha well I have yet to eat dog or monkey to my knowledge. As far as the bowling alley food there are just so many better options than that. Asia I expect to try different things, but bowling alleys in the states... I’ll pass lol.

Only slightly off-topic, but do any of you have 4-D glasses or whatever would give good insight into this article? Maybe I'm just late hearing the tales.

The gist is that Penn National Gaming is buying Pinnacle Entertainment (pending approval of government oversight), with an impact on casino ownership mostly in the St. Louis area, if I am reading correctly. I don't know where else Pinnacle has casinos, and the article doesn't say. In order to avoid potential anti-trust issues, Penn National will also be selling one of their current casinos in the area to Boyd Gaming. They expect to close on the transactions in the second half of 2018.

My question, of course, is whether this will lead to any casino name changes and new chip sets that I will want to have represented in my collection. There doesn't seem to have been any change in chips at Lumiere Place since Pinnacle sold it to Tropicana a while back.

Any thoughts?

It’s an interesting article and I have been following this merger/sale a bit lately. I’m thinking that we will get a few name changes out of this deal.

State: Washington
City: Spokane
Casino: Aces

Today's chip of the day is from the Aces Casino in Spokane, Washington. I visited this casino during my day in Spokane and sadly I have no good memories of this casino and bar combo. They took my lunch money very quickly but at least the dealer was friendly. I lost $100 playing their $10 BJ while only winning one hand. I thought these casinos were built everywhere to give nice travelers free money? I guessed they missed that memo. The chip lists a hot dog emporium but I didn't see anything like that and I can't find anything online about it. I am assuming sometime since they opened that the hot dog emporium went by the wayside.

The chip is a light blue Paulson RHC with 3 edge inserts in sand and purple. The chip is quite rounded which makes me think that this casino has been around for quite some time. The centre inlay is white with what I can only describe as a hot dog cowboy holding the ace of spades. Seems like a very odd mascot to have for a casino. The casino name is in red while the casino location and the denomination are in black.

State: Washington
City: Spokane
Casino: Lilac Lanes

Today's chip of the day is from the Lilac Lanes Casino in Spokane, Washington. Lilac Lanes is obviously attached to a bowling alley as the name suggests. The casino is a very small room in the corner of the bowling alley that has 4 table games and a cashier, there was another room with 7 poker tables. I played Spanish 21 and couldn't lose! I made a a couple hundred bucks which made up for me losing at other Spokane locations. I probably wouldn't have left if I wasn't going to a movie since it is always fun when you can't seem to lose. Sometimes the cards love you and most of the time they hate you, that's variance for you lol.

The chip is a white Paulson RHC although it was hard to tell because the hat and canes are so worn off. The chip is quite rounded as well. The chip has 3 edge inserts in brown/purple. The centre inlay is pink with 3 bowling pins beside the casino name. The denomination is in red and the location is in black.

I will admit it was quite some time ago and restaurants can change but I found Roxys to be quite good food, large portions, fairly low prices. (Nice to have an old fashioned ice cream soda for two dollars). And, as BBB remarked, it sure beats all that Asian stuff from street vendors where its "I think its xxxxxxx".

Anyway, the Chip of the Day for this Winter Solstice should be River Rock in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Casino has called in prior chips and is completing a chip swap as casino executives and BC gaming enforcement officers trade speeches and editorials. No indication yet of whether Chinese gangs in the local area rumored to be affiliated with mainland Chinese triads will be taking any sides in the matter of chips having been used for money laundering, financing an underground economy and the purchase of large quantities of drugs.

State: Washington
City: Everett
Casino: Royal

Today's chip of the day is from the Royal Casino in Everett, Washington. The posts got interrupted as I have been really busy this week helping my parents out at their stores during the Christmas rush as I do every year if I am in the city. I looked back at my TR and it said "...won $3 at Royal playing Pai Gow and again I do not remember this place." and I still don't remember this place at all. I guess I have nothing more to add as I know absolutely nothing about this place.

The chip is a white severely rounded Paulson RHC in pretty rough shape. The chip has two edge inserts, one blue and the other turquoise. The casino logo ("R" with a crown) is in green with the chip denomination and the casino location below that.

State: Washington
City: Airway Heights
Casino: Northern Quest

Merry Chipmas everyone! Today's chip of the day is from Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights, Washington. Northern Quest is owned by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians. The casino has 1643 slot machines, 37 table games and 9 poker tables. I played through my FP and collected my chip while playing BJ before moving onto the card rooms of Spokane. The casino is very large and very new looking, I wasn't able to find out when the place opened. I would say it is on the newer side just from the look of the facilities and the chips looked quite new as well. They had a small no smoking section with slot machines in it.

The chip is a white Paulson RHC with 2 edge inserts in 2 different shades of purple. The chip has an over sized half purple and half yellow centre inlay. The casino logo takes up most of the yellow half while the chip denomination and location are in white on the purple half. As I already mentioned, this chip is in excellent condition. The edges are still relatively sharp and the chip has no colour bleeding. I was quite happy with the chips they offered opposed to some of the crap I collected throughout Washington on this trip.

State: Washington
City: Tukwila
Casino: Macau

Today's chip of the day is from the Macau Casino in Tukwila, Washington. This casino was the first of two Macau Casinos that I visited on this trip. The Macau Casino in Tukwila opened up in December of 2011. The card room is quite dark and it was as expected an Asian themed casino. I played BJ and ran really well at the $5 table winning $60 during my visit. The dealer was very friendly which always makes for a better experience.

The chip is a blue BJ with 6 sets of white edge inserts with a white dot between each set of inserts. The centre inlay has a colourful Chinese building with mountains in the background and Chinese writing on the centre left. The location is listed as Southcenter on the chip but the casino is in Tukwila.

State: Washington
City: Lakewood
Casino: Macau

Today's chip of the day is from the Macau Casino in Lakewood, Washington. I visited this Macau Casino at the back end of my second day in Seattle. I played a little BJ and won $30. The table was full and moved at a snail's pace which is part of the reason that I didn't stick around long. The casino was pretty well a duplicate of it's brother in Tukwila.

The chip is a the exact chip that I posted yesterday except that it is white with blue edge inserts instead of blue with white inserts.

I bet someone was proud of themselves for coming up with the idea to change the chip color.

Ya they really went nuts with designing different chips lol.

State: Washington
City: Shoreline
Casino: Club Hollywood

Today's chip of the day is from Club Hollywood Casino in Shoreline, Washington. This casino was in a pretty sketchy area, although it might have been completely fine it weren't midnight and I knew the area. I parked and the front entrance was locked, I realized this was the restaurant side so I headed around the back. It was really sketchy but I found the entrance and headed in. I played BJ and broke even before heading onto the next place.

The chip is a blue BJ with 3 white edge inserts and two white dots between each insert. The centre inlay is white with the casino name in an old tape reel. The location is in black and the denomination is in red.

State: Washington
City: Chewelah
Casino: Chewelah

Today's chip of the day is from Chewelah Casino in Chewelah, Washington. Chewelah Casino is owned by the Spokane Tribe of Indians. I visited the casino on my way out of Washington after leaving Spokane. I stopped in and lost $200 playing BJ, let's just say I took a beating. The casino has 317 slot machines and 5 table games although only one was open when I visited.

The chip is a white Pulson RHC with 3 light blue edge inserts. The centre inlay looks like a sunrise. The casino name is in white, and the location and chip denomination is in yellow. The chip has some chips in it around the edges but other than that the chip is in decent shape.

I have 2 more chip of the days to do before I leave on January 4th. I won't have time to do the ones of the chips that I got from my friend who was in the UK until I get back in April.

State: Washington
City: Omak
Casino: 12 Tribes

Today's chip of the day is from the 12 Tribes Casino in Omak, Washington. 12 Tribes Casino opened in 2015 and has 544 slot machines and 8 table games. I played BJ for a while when I got there and quickly got stuck $150 but I got lucky and broke even by the time I left the casino. This was definitely one of the nicer casinos that I visited. I was there on a Wednesday and it was mostly dead, I assume they do most of their business on the weekends.

The chip looks like it is made by Paulson but it doesn't have the Hat and Cane markings. The chip is white with the casino name and the shape of Washington carved around the chip. The centre inlay is white with a blue border. The casino logo and the denomination are on the inlay, the location of the casino isn't listed on the chip. The chip is in great condition and is a very nice chip. I love when casinos engrave their chips, it adds a really nice touch to the chip. It is definitely one of my favourite features of chips.

State: Washington
City: Manson
Casino: Mill Bay

Well I am proud to say that this is the last chip that I needed to post from my trip in September and I managed to get them all posted before I leave on January 4. I will hopefully have a bunch of new chips to post when I get back from Asia in April. So here is the first chip of the day post for 2018!

Today's chip of the day is from the Mill Bay Casino in Manson, Washington. I have found contradicting information as to when Mill Bay Casino opened. As per World casino directory the casino was established in it's current location in 1994 and the new casino opened in 2004. The problem with this is that I have a chip that says the grand opening of Mill Bay Casino was in 2010. Very odd! The casino is owned by the same tribe that owns the 12 Tribes and Coulee Dam Casinos. Mill Bay has 640 slot machines and 9 table games plus I saw a mention of a weekend poker room. I played BJ to collect my chip and met some nice older folks who were intrigued that I was collecting chips. The normal chips don't say Mill Bay Casino so I kept a $5 Grand opening chip to go with my $1 chip that says Coulee Dam Casino even though that is only a slot casino.

The $1 chip is a white Paulson RHC. The centre inlay is light grey with a dark grey wolf in the background. To the left of the wolf is a red dream catcher with a wolf cutout in it. The denomination is written in blue and the number is in red.


The $5 chip is a red Paulson RHC grand opening chip with 2 edge inserts that are blue/green/yellow. The centre inlay is over sized and has the same layout as the $1 chip. The difference being this one says Mill Bay Casino on it. The other side of the chip has a picture of the casino from the parking lot.

I just cross checked the index with the thread again and as soon as the Mill Bay Casino is added to the index and the chip count is raised to 1080 the index will be correct.

Doc I found an error in the index. You listed the Grand Villa chip from Edmonton, Alberta as being from Edm"u"nton, BC.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Doc I found an error in the index. You listed the Grand Villa chip from Edmonton, Alberta as being from Edm"u"nton, BC.

Thanks. I have now fixed that error.

Back when I was in the 6th grade, I learned the capitals of all the Canadian provinces, as well as the capitals of all of the countries (at that time) in the world, and I knew how to spell them. That has been a long, long time though, and senility keeps getting in the way.

Quote: PokerGrinder

The normal chips don't say Mill Bay Casino so I kept a $5 Grand opening chip to go with my $1 chip that says Coulee Dam Casino even though that is only a slot casino.

Did you use my technique and drop by the Coulee Dam Casino and put a dollar in a slot? If so, you can say (as I do) that you gambled there and have a souvenir chip to represent your visit. (No need to mention that they don't have gaming tables any more.) And it adds 1 to the count for the collection.


Edit 5/29/20: Member RideTheEdge posted here the images of additional chips from several Washington casinos that were covered in the last few pages before this post.

No my rule is that I must collect the chip at the right casino. I’ve never been to Coulee Dam Casino. It’s like I have a chip from Casino ABS but I don’t consider it part of my collection because I’ve never been to that casino, I got the chip at Casino Lethbridge.

Yay I get to be the nagger instead of the naggee! Not sure how to spell that most likely fake word. SO DOC... it’s been 3 days since I posted my last chip and you still haven’t started posting new chips?!?

Quote: PokerGrinder

Yay I get to be the nagger instead of the naggee! Not sure how to spell that most likely fake word. SO DOC... it’s been 3 days since I posted my last chip and you still haven’t started posting new chips?!?

Ya, he hasn’t posted one all year. ;+)

Quote: PokerGrinder

SO DOC... it’s been 3 days since I posted my last chip and you still haven’t started posting new chips?!?

Quote: miplet

Ya, he hasn’t posted one all year. ;+)

Whooops! You guys are right. I had completely forgotten that two of the chips I collected this fall are from casinos that have not been covered yet in this thread. I have a HOA meeting to go to in just a few minutes, so I don't know whether I will get a writeup prepared today or not. Soon. And thanks very much for the reminders. I just don't have many to offer, so someone else needs to come through soon to keep things going.

State: California
City: Funner
Casino: Harrah’s Resort Southern California

More than five years ago, I posted a Casino Chip of the Day from Harrah’s Rincon, explaining that the location designation (stated on the chip) as “San Diego” was reasonable if you interpreted that as the county and not the city proper. The casino was, perhaps more properly, located in Valley Center, CA, (much as the MGM Grand is NOT located in Las Vegas but instead in Paradise, NV. The casino belongs to the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, and I gave a little info about them in the older post.

The casino’s web site now claims that the place is located in Funner, CA. Now you just try to find that in your atlas! Well, maybe if you search hard enough. The ever-reliable Wikipedia has a page with this bit of trivia:

Quote: Wikipedia

The land on which Harrah's Resort Southern California sits was officially and unanimously re-named by the Rincon Band of Luiseño Mission Indians to Funner on August 1, 2016, with the public unveiling of this change occurring on May 5, 2017. On May 18, 2017, Funner, California introduced its first official mayor, David Hasselhoff.

And here is a link to a Forbes article that gives some more background on the name change. Anyway, that is why I have listed the casino location as being in Funner. No matter how silly that sounds to me, I will try to acknowledge the wishes of the Rincon band.

My understanding (perhaps in error) is that the casino was originally just Rincon Casino, before the affiliation with Harrah’s led to the name Harrah’s Rincon. Then, in 2014 the name of the casino supposedly changed again, this time to Harrah’s Resort Southern California. Except not much changed to let one know that the casino name had changed. Perhaps a bit like how much/little changed to let us know that the location is now called Funner.

I had played card craps at Harrah’s Rincon back in 2009, and my wife and I visited the place again in November 2017, the day after Thanksgiving Day. I again played card craps for an hour and a half, losing $25.

Many of the signs around the place still say Harrah’s Rincon, and almost all of the chips in play still have that designation on them. They did have one limited-edition $5 chip design in play (in limited numbers) showing the new name, and I picked up one for my collection. Hey! I mean, that’s why I went to the place! Some of the dealers assured me that they will have a full set of new chips with the new name within the next year, but I doubt I will be back.

The chip is a red, plastic injection molded, Bud Jones model with four pairs of yellowish edge “inserts” separated by four yellow squares. The center inlay on one side is white with purple lettering for the name of the casino, the name of the owning band, the denomination, and the designation “Limited Edition 2014.”

The other side of the chip shows a photo of a fountain or artificial waterfall that I assume is located on the grounds, but I have never seen it myself. Overlaying that photo is a purple label with the denomination and “Grand Opening 2014”, so this is basically a grand opening commemorative chip. Nothing on the chip fluoresces under UV light.



It has been so long since I have posted the Casino Chip of the Day that I will remind folks that you just need to click on each of those small images to see the larger images of the chip.

Category: Cruise Ships
Cruise Line: Holland America
Ship: Westerdam

The Westerdam was launched in April 2004 as the third ship in the Holland America Line’s Vista Class of ships. It was preceded in that class by the Zuiderdam in 2002 and Oosterdam in 2003 and followed by the Noordam in 2006. It is the third Holland America ship to bear the name Westerdam.

In June 2014, WoV member wezvidz posted in this thread a chip that he received on the Westerdam. However, that was a “CardPlayer” chip that he received in a World Poker Tour event conducted on the ship. Since that was not quite a chip from the Westerdam casino, I am filling that gap with this post.

For those not familiar with either the language or the history for naming these ships, noord, oost, zuid, and west are Dutch for north, east, south, and west. To further expound on the ship names, dam and dijk are Dutch words for dam or dike – a wall to block a body of water. Holland America uses the suffix “dam” for their passenger ships and used “dijk” or “dyk” for their cargo vessels. For levity, they of course like to use variations of puns on the names, such as, “I just saw another one of those dam ships!”

My wife and I sailed on the Westerdam for 13 nights in late October and early November of 2017. We flew to Rome, took a bus to the ship port in Civitavecchia, boarded the ship, and sailed to Fort Lauderdale, with stops in Cartagena, Malaga, and Cadiz, all in Spain. This cruise did not give us much time in ports and was mostly an opportunity to get away and enjoy shipboard life for almost two weeks, including throwing away a bit of my money in the casino.

This was our first cruise on the Westerdam, though we had previously sailed on the Zuiderdam once and on the Noordam twice. We have never (yet) sailed on the Oosterdam or any other Holland America ships, but while aboard the Westerdam we booked another cruise on the Zuiderdam for this coming April and May.

Ship name prefixes are common but not universally used. Even in cases of ships whose official names include prefixes, those are commonly omitted in everyday usage. The formal name of this ship is the M. S. Westerdam, with the M. S. standing for Motor Ship. For different ships, this prefix is variously used as MS, M/S, or M. S., and I have ignored it in indexing this chip in my collection and this thread.

The chip is a blue, Paulson, reversed-hat-and-cane design with over-sized center inlays showing on one side a photo of a Holland America ship. Those dam ships look so much alike that I have no idea whether this is really the Westerdam or not. The inlay is labeled in white with the name of the ship (using the M. S.) and the denomination.

The inlay on the other side of the chip shows a compass pattern on a grayish backdrop that looks like some combination of maps and images of ports – I’m not completely sure. It is labeled in white with the denomination and the name of the cruise line. This chip is very similar to other Holland America chips that I have posted in this thread.



While aboard the ship, I did not have access to my usual chip-photography setup, with the green-felt backdrop and the close-up lens, but I did want to get a quick shot to present here showing the full range of the chips in this series. These two shots show the two sides of the $1, $5, $25, and $100 chips that were in play during our cruise. I didn’t get my hands on any of the “big” chips.

I also wanted to reveal any hidden images or other features that might show up under UV light. I had only my small UV flashlight with me on the ship, and that flashlight is quite limiting for this purpose. I did capture this image of one side of the set, using the flashlight. Perhaps fortunately in this case, there is essentially nothing of significance on these chips that fluoresces under UV light, and absolutely nothing on the $1 chip that I kept for my collection (confirmed with a better UV lamp at home).

In the past I established a precedent that I will attempt to follow in this post. When I have posted a Casino Chip of the Day from a cruise ship casino, I have generally tried to accompany it with photos of the ship or of places that we visited on the cruise.

For our cruise on the Westerdam, in none of the ports did we encounter really good places to take a nice photo of the ship – all points from which I could take photos where either too far from the ship or too close to be able to see the whole thing. I will give a few examples that I can.

When we stopped in Malaga, Spain, my wife and I walked from the ship terminal into town and took a city bus up the hill to visit the 14th century Moorish castle known as Castillo de Gibralfaro. You can probably find on the web many photos of the place better than the ones I took. Instead, I offer the one below that was taken from atop the wall of that castle, looking down on the city of Malaga and its bullring.

At the top of that picture, you perhaps can see the most distant ship in the port. It’s difficult even to recognize it as a ship. If you will take my word for it (or even if you won’t), that is the Westerdam.

The following day, we were in Cadiz, Spain, and I had an opportunity to take photos of the ship from a closer vantage point, perhaps too much closer. At least the first image below gives verification that it really is the ship we were sailing on, even if it’s a bit like looking at a ship’s butt. The second image shows some of the bow end and identifies the verandah of our stateroom high on the Observation Deck.


And that completes my short run of posting new Casino Chips of the Day. Sorry about my forgetfulness in posting these.

Thank you Doc for the chip posts! I had seen that you posted them while I was travelling to Bangkok but I totally forgot to read them until now. Sounds like you and the Mrs had a fun trip (both of them). So you are telling me that I might have to make a return trip to Harrah’s Rincon at some point. I guess I’ll keep that in mind for when I am next in that general area which happens a lot.

I have collected one new chip so far from a poker club here in Bangkok. You will get to see that chip in about 4 months lol.

Thanks for the great post Doc! I enjoy following your adventures very much, and would enjoy more details and photos, even of the non-casino sites. Maybe you could start a travelogue on the DT site?

I have never even joined DT, and I think I already waste enough (er... too much) of my time here at WoV.

I do not document my travels in nearly the way that PokerGrinder does for his travelog threads. In this thread, I try to say a little more than "Here's the chip," and sometimes I think I go overboard on that. I doubt most people look forward to reading my rambling babbles.

Doc I think you would be surprised at how members enjoy your rambling babbles.

Was watching an episode of Pawn Stars yesterday when a guy brought in a bunch of broken pieces of concrete with old casino chips from now defunct casinos encased in them. Anyone ever see this before? Heres a blog I found talking about some other chips found.

http://www.vegastripping.com/news/blog/2480/vintage-sands-chips-unearthed/

I'm back in Minnesota, and I went to Canterbury Card Club for the first time in years last week. They've added a new high denomination chip:



It's nice to not have $100 be the highest denomination, but $300 is an odd choice. Is there a poker-related reason why this made more sense than $500 or even $200?

Running Aces also has $300 chips. I thought I remembered them having a $300 table max bet outside of the high limit room but I could be wrong. That would make sense to have a table max chip.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Running Aces also has $300 chips. I thought I remembered them having a $300 table max bet outside of the high limit room but I could be wrong. That would make sense to have a table max chip.

yeah, I'm never going to understand those rules in MN. TI and Mystic (and Grand and Jackpot) seem to agree that $200 is a magic number. If more than $200 (more than $199 at Mystic) is wagered, then closer supervision is required. Rather than increase supervisory staff on the floor, games outside of high-limit just run $5-200 or $10-200 betting ranges. But Running Aces and Canterbury both already have more supervisory staff present. So they allow bets over $200. But then they cap games at $300 and not $500 or $1000.

Also, Mystic racks $500 chips on the floor even with a $199 table limit when their only game is BJ. But Canterbury will book a $50/50/50 bet on UTH with nothing but green and red at the table. Not sure what their plan is for paying the trips or blind on that...

Quote: Doc

State: Nevada
City: Jean
Casino: Gold Strike

Yep, Johnzimbo, it didn't take long for the thread to get to the real Gold Strike casino.

Just two and a half months ago, the Wizard wrote a review of the Gold Strike, so I probably don't need to say much here about the casino or hotel. Instead, I would like to tell you a little bit about the town of Jean. I would like to, but it seems that my memories of past readings and what I can find on the internet today contain such a pile of contradictions, that you probably should view this whole discussion with considerable skepticism. I am definitely no historian.

I recall (with my very fallible memory) reading an article that said that Jean was established by a mining tycoon at the point where the railroad came closest to his mines; i.e., it was a logistics thing. I recall the article saying that he named the town for his wife.

Well, attribute any errors there either to my memory or to the article, because Wikipedia mentions nothing about mining and says that the town, originally called Goodsprings Junction, was renamed in 1905 by the postmaster in honor of his wife. Then this article and this one talk about Goodsprings being a ghost town a few miles away from Jean with some abandoned mines. One says it originally was named Goods Springs and named for Joseph Good. It also says that the place has an operating bar and café, so I'm not really sure about the "ghost town" designation. Particularly since Wikipedia claims that no one lives in the town of Jean.

The nearest I can come to fitting these pieces together is that Goods Springs/Goodsprings was the mining town with Goodsprings Junction being the closest railroad location, with the name being changed to recognize somebody's wife. Take all this misinformation for what you will.

At least some of what was mined in Goodsprings was gold-copper ore, according to one of those articles, so I suppose there is sufficient connection to name a casino in Jean the Gold Strike. The casino opened in 1990 and is about 1/3 of the way from the California-Nevada line to Las Vegas. It represents one of those attempts to waylay the gambling tourists before they can make it to Sin City. Or maybe a refuge for those who want a really, really, cheap place to stay while they low-limit gamble.

If you think its odd having a giant mock riverboat called the Colorado Belle in Laughlin, what did you think of that giant paddle wheeler called the Navada Landing right out in the desert at Jean? It was demolished several years ago, and along with it, I think the fire went out of the Gold Strike. I dawdled and missed out on getting a souvenir chip from the Nevada Landing.

The Gold Strike chip shown below is a Chipco chip issued in 1999. I think it has a satin (smooth) finish, but I forgot to check that out yesterday when I had the class cover off my desk and rearranged all of the chips in my collection. The two images are opposite sides of the same chip and maintain the old west gold mining motif. The edge of the chip has "Jean, Nevada" printed in two places, separated by either a "1" or just a vertical bar. I had that same uncertainty with the Circus Circus chip, and I don't remember whether anyone ever told me whether the $5 chips said "5" or just had the same vertical bars.

Just an update... The Gold Strike in Jean which is actually "Terrible's Roadhouse" now, still has all their old signage outside, and does not have $1 chips. They use tokens. As much as I love collecting chips, I couldn't bring myself to buy into the only open table, 6:5 blackjack, and keep a $5 chip. Sorry.

Also, the craps table is gone, replaced by a couple more 6:5 blackjack tables.

They have given up about 20% of the casino floor to display a small collection of cars, including a Batmobile from the t.v. show, and a Delorean from "Back to the Future".

Quote: Ayecarumba

As much as I love collecting chips, I couldn't bring myself to buy into the only open table, 6:5 blackjack, and keep a $5 chip. Sorry.

The important question is this: What casino name did those $5 chips have on them?

For quite some time, my list of chips-to-get has included this entry: "Terrible's Road House (Jean, former Gold Strike, if name change progresses to new chips.)"

The last time I stopped by there, they were still using Gold Strike chips, but that was a few years ago. The MoGH Chip Guide still does not indicate any chips with the new name, just a player's card and a slot cashout voucher. Same for the Terrible's Road House in Pahrump. I would be quite interested to learn if/when new chips are really in play.

Note, I have it spelled "Road House" instead of "Roadhouse", as does the MoGH chip guide. That's also what the player's card says. Do they have any conflicting indications at the establishment regarding what the new name is?

Sorry Doc, I didn’t see the $5 design. “Road House” is two words according to the hotel’s website.

Edit: I looked through some pictures of the car collection, but didn’t come across any with signage visible in the background. However, use two words with confidence. Sorry for the confusion.