Casino Chip of the Day

There are 5 Parkwest Casinos owned by the group called Parkwest Casinos. The casino in Rancho Cordova was just named Cordova Casino before the re-brand.

Antique Rose was located in Cameron Park about 20 miles east of Rancho Cordova.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I wonder if there are any antique shops in Cuba that have chips from the casinos that flourished in the pre-revolution days?

Cuban chips used to be valuable but a lot of counterfeits flooded the market and prices dropped.At least that's what I have heard,I'm not a chip expert by any means.

State: California
City: Stockton
Casino: Kings Card Club

Today's chip of the day is from Kings Card Club in Stockton, California. As I mentioned in the Westlane CotD the first room houses the Westlane Card Room, there is a bar/restaurant and then another card room called Kings Card Club. Kings Card Club has the carnival games. I played a half dozen hands of pai gow before moving on down $5. Between the two card rooms I lost a whole dollar.

The chip is very similar to Westlane. The chip is blue (again most likely a Chipco) with 4 blue "$1" around the outside of the chip. The fake inlay is black with a gold ring around it and the casino name in white. The logo consists of a gold crown and the four suits in a half circle around the crown.

Do the Westlane and Kings chips have writing on the edge? I think it is unusual to see chips with no edge inserts nowadays. Usually there's a contrasting color to make a stack easier to count, or track on the security video.

Quote: Hunterhill

Cuban chips used to be valuable but a lot of counterfeits flooded the market and prices dropped.At least that's what I have heard,I'm not a chip expert by any means.

I understand that the Communist's hacked apart and burned the gambling tables and wheels shortly after the revolution. I wonder if any gambling related items, besides the casino buildings themselves, were "officially" allowed to survive?

They don't have any writing, just a few dots on the edges.

State: California
City: Citrus Heights
Casino: Stones Gambling Hall - The Saloon

Today's chip of the day is from Stones Gambling Hall - The Saloon in Citrus Heights, California. Stones Gambling Hall opened in 2014 and has a poker room (The Saloon) and a card room which will be tomorrow's chip. The Saloon is one of the nicer poker rooms that I have ever been in and I have been in a lot of poker rooms in my lifetime. The room has 17 poker tables spreading a mixture of Holdem and Omaha in both no limit, pot limit and limit at varying stakes. They also run daily tournaments and I think I saw a sign for a tournament series as well. The chips from the poker room can't be used in the card room or vice versa. I'm not sure if they have one or two gambling licenses for the establishment.

I was looking to get in and out as quick as possible so I took the first seat that was available, 4/8 limit poker. I lost $18 in about 30 minutes. The one hand of significance happened when I raised pre flop with 109 of spades and the flop came 876 with two spades. I bet the flop and the A on the turn. The river came the 4 of spades, I bet and got called by larger spades. That's limit poker for you. I racked up after winning some of my chips back and cashed out before heading to the card room to collect a chip there as well.

The chip is a blue Paulson RHC with 4 edge inserts, 2 orange triangles and 2 red/orange/red inserts. The inserts look pretty sloppy, almost like they were painted on. The centre inlay is black with a grey outer ring. The logo in the background of the chip reminds me of the dominoes pizza logo. The logo is 4 grey squares, each with a suit in it. The casino name and the chip denomination are both in white over top of the logo. The bottom right hand corner has a marking that looks like a shield, most likely the manufacturer's mark.



Tomorrow will be my final chip post for a while so I guess this thread will go dormant again until someone has something to post.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Casino: Stones Gambling Hall - The Saloon

Well, for the moment I have this casino in the index just the way you have it listed. I may have to delete "Gambling Hall" at some point because these ultra-long names just make problems for the index.

I think it would work to list it as Stones - The Saloon.

Isn't there supposed to be an apostrophe in there somewhere? The owner's name is Ryan Stone. Otherwise, are the copyright holders of the "Rolling Stones" band, "Keystone" Beer, and "Stone Brewery" brands concerned? Or maybe the brewery is the same guy as the saloon owner?

State: California
City: Citrus Heights
Casino: Stones Gambling Hall - The Tavern

Today's chip of the day is from Stones Gambling Hall - The Tavern in Citrus Heights, California. The Tavern is in the same building as The Saloon but uses different chips. The Tavern has 17 table games spread out over a large room. I played 1 shuffle of DD BJ with another player at a $10 minimum table. I won $40 and wished the other player betting $100+ a hand good luck on my way out.

The chip is blue with 12 edge inserts, 4 green and 8 red. The centre inlay is the same as yesterday's for the most part, black with a grey outer ring. The logo in the background of the chip reminds me of the dominoes pizza logo like I said yesterday, I'm having deja vu. The logo is 4 grey squares, each with a suit in it. The casino name and the chip denomination are both in white over top of the logo. The bottom right hand corner has a marking that looks like a shield, most likely the manufacturer's mark. I took a picture of the wrong side of the chip, the manufacturer's logo is on the other side, you'll just have to trust me.

Stones was the last chip that I currently have to post. I think I did pretty well with this set of chips, I only missed 2 or 3 days once I started posting I think. Doc didn't even get to harass me, sorry to take that pleasure away from you Doc.

Yes, PG, you've been more on schedule than at times in the past. Well done!

So do you think these last two chips should be indexed as just "The Saloon" and "The Tavern" or with those names preceded by "Stones Gambling Hall"? If the latter, it would be better, perhaps, if you re-took the photo for The Tavern (and perhaps updated the imgur.com link in your post), not just to show the shield you talked about but to show the "Stones Gambling Hall" name that I suspect is on the other side, too.

(See, I still get to harass you.)

Oh I didn’t realize that...
I’d list them as:
Stones - The Tavern
Stones - The Saloon

It looks cleaner dropping the gambling hall.

Done, but in alphabetical order. :-o

Something appears to have glitched (probably a double-click or something on my browser), and I had not seen until this morning either your comment or Ayecarumba's that appear at the bottom of the previous page. Otherwise, I would have made the adjustment prior to indexing the chip shown above.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I have been following this thread since I stumbled onto it around 6 months ago and I absolutely love it. I think at this point I have read almost every page on this thread! I have been collecting chips for about six years now (since I turned the legal age of 18 in Canada) I would love to contribute to the thread as I have a bunch of chips in my collection of 330 casinos visited that are not represented in this thread. I find it really cool that there are collectors as crazy as me. I go by the same rules as Doc since I started this collection that I only include casinos that I have played at in my collection, although I do have a separate bag of probably 20 chips that were given to me by other collectors.

I just finished putting my chips in order and fixing my list (I had 3 more chips than my list said I should). In the last 4 years and 3 months I have collected 513 new chips to bring my collection to 843 casinos. I am averaging 120 new chips per year since I joined this forum which makes me feel a lot more nuts than I thought I was...

I was wondering if anyone has ever collected from more casinos than me from visiting each casino? No way to ever know. The reason I was wondering is because someone on the chip board just set the Guinness record for most $1 chips in a collection with just over 800 different casinos. The record didn't say anything about having been to the casinos or just collecting them in any way including buying them.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I just finished putting my chips in order and fixing my list (I had 3 more chips than my list said I should). In the last 4 years and 3 months I have collected 513 new chips to bring my collection to 843 casinos. I am averaging 120 new chips per year since I joined this forum which makes me feel a lot more nuts than I thought I was...

I was wondering if anyone has ever collected from more casinos than me from visiting each casino? No way to ever know. The reason I was wondering is because someone on the chip board just set the Guinness record for most $1 chips in a collection with just over 800 different casinos. The record didn't say anything about having been to the casinos or just collecting them in any way including buying them.

Go get that world record PG!

Not all mine are $1 chips, I have various currencies, a couple dozen $5 chips and 2 $25 chips.

The record was for the most $1 chips from different casinos

Quote: PokerGrinder

Not all mine are $1 chips, I have various currencies, a couple dozen $5 chips and 2 $25 chips.

The record was for the most $1 chips from different casinos

How many $1 chips do you have? What is the record for different casinos, regardless of denomination?

I think you could seriously contend for a record of some sort. The certificate is pretty cool:



I bet if you laid them out and took a picture, you could get in the printed book too. This guy got in for collecting toothpaste tubes:

I have chips in Thai Baht, Indian Rupees, Sri Lankan Rupees, Peruvian Soles, Chilean Pesos, Colombian Pesos, HKD, Malaysian Ringgit, Chinese Yuan, Euros, Pounds, Singapore dollars and Canadian dollars. My US chips amount to 605 different casinos but two of those I have $1 tokens from 2 casinos, 2 $25 chips and I would guess about $30 $5 chips. I have US$1 chips from around 570 casinos I think.

I've never looked into any of the records. I also think it would be near impossible to prove that I actually collected each chip at the actual casino.

I think you probably have travel receipts, trip reports, and posts in this thread that may satisfy the requirement to prove that the chips were collected in person. Sounds like you need to spend a couple weeks on the west coast to bring 605 up closer to 800...

Quote: PokerGrinder

In the last 4 years and 3 months I have collected 513 new chips to bring my collection to 843 casinos. I am averaging 120 new chips per year since I joined this forum which makes me feel a lot more nuts than I thought I was...

So in 4.25 years, you have collected more new chips than I have in my entire collection. Impressive. I'm sitting here with a total of just 506, before heading out on a jaunt this coming weekend for an estimated 25 additions to the set. And I had collected my first chip way back in 1976, not even knowing that it would be part of a collection. The second one wasn't added until 2003.



BTW, yes, we already knew that you were nuts. Plenty.

;-)

Quote: PokerGrinder

I have chips in Thai Baht, Indian Rupees, Sri Lankan Rupees, Peruvian Soles, Chilean Pesos, Colombian Pesos, HKD, Malaysian Ringgit, Chinese Yuan, Euros, Pounds, Singapore dollars and Canadian dollars. My US chips amount to 605 different casinos but two of those I have $1 tokens from 2 casinos, 2 $25 chips and I would guess about $30 $5 chips. I have US$1 chips from around 570 casinos I think.

I've never looked into any of the records. I also think it would be near impossible to prove that I actually collected each chip at the actual casino.

It doesn't sound like the record requires you to have collected them in person. I think your collection is a contender. Another 250 is like a summer to you.

Quote: Ayecarumba

It doesn't sound like the record requires you to have collected them in person. I think your collection is a contender. Another 250 is like a summer to you.

Lol that’s a busy summer. If I don’t take an impromptu trip to the east coast which is 50/50 then I won’t be collecting anything anytime soon.

Quote: rdw4potus

I think you probably have travel receipts, trip reports, and posts in this thread that may satisfy the requirement to prove that the chips were collected in person. Sounds like you need to spend a couple weeks on the west coast to bring 605 up closer to 800...

I’ll probably do another collecting trip around spring fling next year. With the two new AZ casinos complete by then I might do AZ and NM.

I have found 7 casinos to visit in Mexico City on my layover from Cuba. I will have just under 6 hours (not including the 2 hours we have to be back at the airport before the flight) to hit all 7 casinos which will be tight. The total driving time is 2 hours (Uber) so it should be ok. Good luck to me!

New Strat chips are available. I probably won't grab one until next Spring Fling as I don't go to Vegas much anymore.

Same place you’ve already collected from. What’s different that you need to collect it?

They changed the name from the stratosphere to The Strat officially.

Quote: PokerGrinder

They changed the name from the stratosphere to The Strat officially.

According to Vital Vegas, chips from Stratosphere Casino expire Dec. 9, 2019. Does that mean they're good on Dec. 9, not good on Dec. 10???

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: 1st Jackpot

Back on pages 768-770 of this thread, we had a little teaser discussion of a trip that my wife and I were planning, on which I expected to add 25 new chips to my collection and four new ones to this thread. We made that trip Sunday-Sunday of this past week, and I finally have the chip photos prepared, so it’s now time for me to start posting the new chips to the thread. I also need to rearrange all of the chips on the top of my desk, so look forward to an updated photo of the full set soon.

Unfortunately, there will only be three new chips to post to the thread, instead of four. Back in 2014, rdw4potus presented a chip from the Isle of Capri in Bettendorf, Iowa. That casino (like several with similar names) has revised its identity to simply the “Isle” casino. As best I can read the notes at the MoGH chip guide page for this establishment, that change must have happenned in 2016. I expected to add the “Isle” chip to the thread. Turns out, they are still using Isle of Capri chips, and the people there indicated that there are no plans to change them out. One new chip from there for my collection, but none for the thread. I expect to add a post later showing all the chips that I collected that are not shown in the thread already, i.e., different denominations from casinos already covered.

Anyway, I do have a chip to post today from a new casino in Mississippi. Back when legal casino gaming in the USA basically meant Nevada, Atlantic City, and Mississippi, they really expected the casino industry to boom in this southern state. The area of Tunica/Robinsonville, MS seemed to be mapped out into clusters for more potential casinos than on the Las Vegas strip. Then, casinos started popping up all over the country (almost), and the Mississippi gaming industry started to fizzle. Plenty of places that were going strong are now closed.

For the Tunica area specifically, there is another recent problem. The largest metropolitan area in the region is Memphis, TN, and the Arkansas laws have recently been revised so that the Racino in West Memphis (just across the river and quite a bit closer than Tunica) could expand its gaming substantially. That could well be the pealing of the death bell.

In spite of this downer discussion, there is a “new” casino that opened in Tunica just under two years ago: 1st Jackpot. Now the place is not really new – it just has a new name. It used to be called Bally’s Casino and before that Bally’s Saloon and Gambling Hall, and I have previously posted chips from both of those versions here and here.

If anything about the facility – other than the name – has changed, I didn’t notice. My wife and I did have lunch at their buffet restaurant some 11 days ago, and I am still waiting to see whether the credit card charge ever comes through. If they lost that completely, it will partially make up for the $75 I lost at their craps table.

The chip is a white Paulson RHC design with four edge inserts – two medium width in light blue and two narrow ones in pale yellow. The center inlay has a background that is two-toned blue in the form of light rays emerging from the bottom center. The name emphasizes the “1st JACKPOT” portion in orange letters outlined in black on top of a red oval outlined in orange. I’m not sure what that background oval is supposed to be – some kind of stemless tomato, perhaps?

Below the emphasized portion of the name is a smaller banner in black with (whatever the proper word is for a decorative-shaped box) enclosing “CASINO ♠ TUNICA”. I am not sure how it will appear on the forum, but that item between the two words is supposed to be a spade pip. All of that is also in orange.

Next is the $1 denomination in blue with a double (perhaps triple) outline of white, orange, and maybe brown. Below that is the state name in a color that looks more yellow to me than the orange characters, with a blue outline for each character.

UV light seems to make the blue edge inserts disappear completely and the yellow inserts look darker than the white clay. I am not sure whether the clay is fluorescing or just reflecting the violet light that comes from my lamp along with the UV. The center inlay has the repeated name “1st JACKPOT CASINO”, and yes, there is the one spelling error such as we have come to expect on this type of UV image. If you are a newcomer and have no idea what I am talking about there, just ask, and I will explain. The rest of you can just look to see whether you can find it.

Also, in case there are newcomers here, I should add the reminder that for my chip posts you can click on the small image to get a larger one to examine.

As predicted yesterday, I have finally reorganized the display of my chip collection on my physical desktop (not just the one on the computer monitor). I have often posted photos of this set, and since it has been more than 14 months since the last update, I thought I would present the image below, showing the current count of 531 chips. This configuration has spaces for 540 chips, so there are a total of nine empty spots in the corners.



As is usually the case with my chip posts, you may click on this image to get a larger image to view. In this instance, perhaps depending on your browser, if you click on that larger image you may be able to view the image much larger, allowing you to scroll around and view individual chips. Of course, the image resolution begins to be tested at some point.

Occasionally, I have provided a list of links to the previous posts of the full collection, so I thought I might repeat that here.

June 6, 2018 -- 492 chips

October 9, 2017 -- 484 chips

August 14, 2016 -- 471 chips

July 4, 2016 -- 461 chips

That July 2016 post included nine earlier photos going back so far as 216 chips in May 2010, almost two years before I even started this thread.

Several times in the past as I have presented these images, there have been comments about how my arrangement was approaching the ultimate capacity of this desktop, and I have given some assurances that there was room for quite a few more chips. I even noted for discussion that there are ways to increase the display density by changing the configuration.

I have for years arranged the chips in horizontal rows and vertical columns with the diagonals at 45°. In October 2017, shortly after posting the image of my 484 chips, I made a graphic illustration of how the array would be much more dense if the diagonals were at 30° (or 60°) instead of 45°.

Now I have finally made the shift to an array with 30° diagonals, and as you may see in the photo at the top of this post, this is quite similar to the October 2017 illustration of a closely-packed, 30° array. Making this change after so many years of doing the array in the same manner was quite a taxing exercise for my feeble gray cells, but I think it works. This array allows for 20 columns of 14 chips and 20 of 13 chips, including the now-empty spots.

The wood desktop has a black inlay on which I arrange the array. The current array has a quarter-inch border of empty space inside the top and bottom of that inlay and half-inch borders at each side. This array with 30° diagonals is intended to have a 0.09" gap between chips along the vertical and diagonals, but I am not really that precise in laying them out. Of course, the fact that not all of the chips are manufactured to the same dimensions adds some variability to the array, also.

In any case, there is still room for more chips on the desktop by (1) reducing the 0.09" gap toward zero, (2) utilizing the areas of the current 1/4" and 1/2" perimeter borders, and (3) filling all of the spaces in the array. The spreadsheet that I used to help plan the current array still claims that in the extreme I might be able to fit 624 chips on top of the black inlay in an array that would involve 22 columns of 15 chips and 21 columns of 14 chips. However, it looks to me as if that array might be about 0.02" wider than the inlay. I think I could fake that small amount, but this is still ignoring those ceramic chips that tend to be very slightly larger than the clay chips. Otherwise, it will be time to start using the wood area surrounding the inlay. ;-)

State: Arkansas
City: West Memphis
Casino: Southland

Almost seven years ago in this thread, I posted a chip from Southland Park, a racino that included a dog track and electronic games. At the time, their blackjack game involved real cards dealt by a live dealer and read into a computer as they were drawn from the shoe. Wagers were placed on individual computer monitors that kept track of buy-ins and balances. At cashout, the player’s balance was converted to chips to be taken to the cashier’s cage for redemption, and that is how I obtained my souvenir. In my post, I made a few disparaging comments about limitations in the design/operation of the “casino”.

At the time, there were only two such gaming facilities in the state, with the other one being the Oaklawn Park racino (with a horse track in that case) in Hot Springs. I visited there in 2015 and presented my chip from that establishment here. That is the way casino things stayed in Arkansas until very recently.

Last November, by statewide vote of the population, Issue 4 became Amendment 100 and allows for both expanded operations at Oaklawn and Southland and two new casinos, one each in Pope and Jefferson counties. The brand new facilities were subject to competition, with the requirement that proposers have the support of locally-elected officials.

Since then, both Oaklawn and Southland have made major changes to their facilities and operations, and a new casino in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) to be owned by the Quapaw tribe was approved in June with ground breaking taking place earlier this month.

There was (and still is) major controversy regarding a Pope County casino. The statewide initiative failed 60%-40% in that county, and a local ordinance was passed by a nearly 70% margin requiring an election to allow a casino to be built in the area. Naturally, there was not much support from the local elected politicians, and the state commission denied all five applications for such a casino at their meeting in June. Just this past week the commission decided to re-open the bidding for a Pope County casino license, and there are some on-line articles (here is one) discussing this. (I have no control over whether that link remains good.)

Southland Park is now operating under the name Southland Casino Racing. Oaklawn Park is now operating under the name Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. From a collector’s viewpoint, this is a bit confusing and may represent a missing opportunity – the chip I collected from Oaklawn Park in 2015 says “Oaklawn Racing • Gaming” with no mention of the word "Park", as is also the case for all of the ones shown in the MoGH Chip Guide. It appears that they may have designed their chips with (almost) the new name several years before they changed the name of the establishment, and there may never be new chips to collect from there. I’ll investigate that a bit further before going to Arkansas again to collected from the one – or possibly two – new casinos to be constructed in the state.

I did, however, visit Southland Casino on our multi-state chip-collecting excursion this month, managed to lose $25 playing $5-minimum craps, and made it home with a $1 souvenir chip. The new chip is the familiar Paulson RHC design in white, with two double edge inserts in brown and olive. Yes, the brown inserts look orange in my photo, but they are not.

The center inlay has a background that fades/emerges from brown to yellow and back to brown. The city and state are presented in the arc across the top, followed by a single star and the Southland name on a diagonal between two diagonal lines. The denomination is in white outlined in black with the remainder of the name (Casino) in a smaller font at the bottom. All of the text other than the denomination is black and in all caps.

UV light shows no fluorescence or even reflection from the edge inserts and the center inlay has a repeating pattern that fluoresces. I think it just says Southland Casino Racing, but the “Racing” part is basically illegible in all of the repetitions. If there is a spelling “error” as is so common in these repeated patterns, this one is hidden well enough that I cannot pick it out. (Click to see the larger image and search for yourself.) There is, however, a fluorescing denomination in the pattern, just above and slightly to the right of the visible-light denomination.

The last three posts in this thread were verbose, included photos of casino chips, and were presented by me. There have been no replies thus far. I have two more such posts in mind, but before doing that, I thought I would jump off topic and ask a grammar question to see whether anyone has a good (perhaps correct) answer...

In the first paragraph of my post two above this one – the one with the photo of my entire collection – the very last sentence says, "This configuration has spaces for 540 chips, so there are a total of nine empty spots in the corners."

Does that sentence sound right to you? Should the verb in that final phrase be "is" or "are"? It seems now that I made an error. Correct variations would be "... there is a total..." and "...there are nine empty spots." However, the "nine" keeps getting in the way of my thinking when I try to say/write "... there is/are a total of nine empty spots."

Ah, the annoying thoughts that a nerd has to deal with when writing/editing.

I have no idea but I am reading your posts and enjoying them.

Quote: Doc

In the first paragraph of my post two above this one – the one with the photo of my entire collection – the very last sentence says, "This configuration has spaces for 540 chips, so there are a total of nine empty spots in the corners."

Does that sentence sound right to you? Should the verb in that final phrase be "is" or "are"?

Thanks for the chip postings—the collection is beautiful in its entirety! (They're beautiful individually, too!)

You're right: It's either "There is a total of…" because "is" refers to the singular "total" OR "There are nine empty spots…" because "are" refers to the plural "spots."

Thanks for the replies. It just bugs me that I know which verb is correct, but "There are a total of nine empty spots..." just comes out too smoothly. Proper grammar should sound correct to me and come out naturally after all of the years I spent in school and all of the years that English has been my only language.

A few days ago, when I noted that most of the casinos that we visited on our recent chip-chasing trip had already been discussed in this thread, I said that I planned to post a blast of all of my souvenir chips from those casinos for comparison to the ones that had already been posted. In each case, rdw4potus had originally posted his $5 chips when telling about the casinos, so here are my $1 chips from the same establishments.

Edit: Rather than my embedding links to all of the original posts by rdw4potus, if you are interested in viewing his chips to compare them to mine, just use the thread index on page #1 of the thread.

Mark Twain, LaGrange, MO
Gemaco chip, very similar to the $5 chip posted by rdw4potus. On at least the second UV image, I can see a Gemaco logo fluorescing at about the 4 or 5 o'clock position, but I'm not sure whether I see it on the first side or not.



Catfish Bend, Burlington, IA
Paulson RHC design. Again, very similar (except for denomination, color, and edge inserts) to the $5 chip posted by rdw4potus. There is nothing on this chip that fluoresces under UV light. As was the case for the chip posted by rdw, this chip is used for two locations of the Catfish Bend casinos. I only visited the one in Burlington.


Isle/Isle of Capri, Bettendorf, IA
As mentioned in a previous post, the Isle of Capri has changed its name to simply Isle, but they are still using the old chips with apparently no plans to change. And again, the Paulson RHC chip is very similar to the $5 chip posted by rdw. Both sides are the same, and nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.


Rhythm City, Davenport, IA
This ceramic chip is quite different from the one posted by rdw, and I have no confidence at all regarding the manufacturer. The chip does not even list the city or state, so perhaps it is in use at numerous locations. Both sides are the same, and nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.


Wild Rose, Clinton, IA
The Paulson RHC chip is, once more, very similar to the $5 chip posted by rdw. Repeating myself even more, “Both sides are the same, and nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.”


Grand Victoria, Elgin, IL
Perhaps I should quit referring to this chip design as a Paulson RHC. It’s the same chip, but the center inlay of this one includes a logo for Gaming Partners International, which includes Paulson. It is rather similar to the $5 chip posted by rdw, though mine seems to be in much rougher condition than his. Maybe it has been in play for half a dozen years longer. It also has a similar-but-different design on the center inlay. UV light reveals a repeated crown logo.


Harrah’s, Joliet, IL
A Paulson SCV chip rather similar to the $5 one posted by rdw except for the shape of the center inlay, the denomination and colors, and a center inlay text-spacing issue pointed out by rdw when he posted his chip. Both sides are the same, and nothing fluoresces under UV light. A dealer told me that the chip says “casino cruises” because years ago they were required to take the river boat out for cruises while the players gambled. Laws have changed.


Hollywood, Aurora, IL
This ceramic chip is a very different design from the one posted by rdw. I think I could identify the manufacturer, but I am out of practice on this stuff and too lazy to dig into the subject tonight. I am almost certain we have seen this exact design before. All of the perimeter decorations appear to fluoresce under UV light but nothing on the center inlay.


Hollywood, Joliet, IL
Gemaco chip, similar to the $5 chip posted by rdw, except for the denomination, color, number of edge inserts, and shape of the center inlay. Both sides are the same, and nothing fluoresces under UV light.


Jumer’s, Rock Island, IL
Another RHC chip with a GPI logo. In addition to colors, this one differs from rdw’s $5 chip in the shape of the center inlay. Under UV light, one edge insert fluoresces, and a hidden top hat and cane logo appears. Both sides are the same.


Par-A-Dice, East Peoria, IL
This time a rather different chip from the one posted by rdw. This one, too, has a GPI logo, but instead of eight top hats and canes, it has seven Boyd Gaming logos around the perimeter of each side and a different shape for the center inlay. The second side of the chip is totally a Boyd Gaming promo. Following that trend, UV light reveals the repeated “Boyd Gaming” and a denomination mark in the center, but I haven’t found the hidden “error.”



Rivers, Des Plaines, IL
OK, so I am not from that area of the country. What is the proper pronunciation of that city name? The chip is another with a GPI logo but no top hats or canes. On the perimeter is an “artistic” logo that rdw described as being both a representation of a river and an R for the casino name. UV light reveals the repeated “Rivers Casino” with the expected-but-sometimes-missing “error”. Any newcomers who still don’t know what this is all about, feel free to ask.


Ameristar, East Chicago, IN
A Paulson RHC chip, too old to have a GPI logo, and with an oversized center inlay that hides most of the hats and canes. This is quite similar to the chip posted by rdw, except for the denomination and color of course, and with a different background pattern on the center inlay. UV light reveals the hidden top hat and cane. Both sides are the same.


Blue Chip, Michigan City, IN
Paulson RHC chip very similar to the $5 chip posted by rdw, except for colors, denomination, edge inserts, and a 12-arc loop around the perimeter of the center inlay. UV light reveals the hidden top hat and cane, and both sides are the same.


Horseshoe, Hammond, IN
This RHC chip is very similar to the one posted by rdw but looks totally different, mostly because of the background image on the center inlay. Both sides are the same, and nothing fluoresces under UV light.


Majestic Star, Gary, IN
Once again, the major differences between this chip and the one posted by rdw are the colors, edge inserts, denomination and the shape of the pattern on the center inlay. UV light reveals the hidden top hat and cane and the fact that two of the edge inserts fluoresce. Both sides are the same.


FireKeepers, Battle Creek, MI
Yes, this RHC chip differs from the $5 one posted by rdw strictly by the expected items. Both sides are the same, and nothing fluoresces under UV light


Four Winds, Dowagiac, MI
Again, the RHC chip differs from rdw’s only by the expected factors. Both sides are the same, and UV light reveals the hidden top hat and cane.


Four Winds, Hartford, MI
The chips rdw collected from the Four Winds casinos differ only by the edge inserts and the names of the cities shown on them, and my chips differ in the same ways. Both sides are the same, and UV light reveals the hidden top hat and cane.


Four Winds, New Buffalo, MI
Re-read the paragraph above to understand how similar these chips are. And read rdw’s post about the Four Winds casino in New Buffalo to perhaps understand how the New Buffalo casino is dramatically different (nicer) than the two closely-associated casinos. There is a fourth related casino, but it does not have table games except poker, so I did not go there. I must have held my UV lamp a little closer to the chip than usual – I don’t really think the clay and the perimeter of the center inlay are really fluorescing, just reflecting the visible light that is emitted by my lamp.


Gun Lake, Wayland, MI
Again, a similar design to the one posted by rdw except for colors and edge inserts, and this time the base color of my chip is gray instead of white. I find it interesting that neither my chip nor rdw’s indicates the location of the casino at all. UV light reveals the repeated “Gun Lake Casino” and a top hat and cane inside an otherwise empty circle. I can’t pick out any error in this pattern.


MGM Grand, Detroit, MI
I visited this casino three years ago this month and threw away too much money at their $15-minimum craps table. And then before I got home I realized I had lost the souvenir chip I thought I had kept. This month I finally made it back to Detroit for the first time since that previous visit, and I threw away even more money at that same game. Some of us never seem to learn. At least this time I made it home with the rather-expensive souvenir.

This is a custom Paulson design with the name of the casino molded into the perimeter of the chip. Colors, denomination, and the arc-loop around the center inlay design are the differences between this chip and the one presented by rdw. Both sides are the same, and UV light reveals the hidden top hat and cane.

Your Rhythm City chip looks like the new set from when they moved from a boat casino to a land based casino in the last year or so.

That makes sense. It (obviously, I suppose) was my first visit to the casino, and I hadn't checked the history. Any idea why the chip doesn't specify the city/state? I made a quip about the chip possibly being used in numerous locations, but I don't know whether there is even a second casino with the River Rhythm City name. (oops!)

Quote: Doc

The last three posts in this thread were verbose, included photos of casino chips, and were presented by me. There have been no replies thus far. I have two more such posts in mind, but before doing that, I thought I would jump off topic and ask a grammar question to see whether anyone has a good (perhaps correct) answer...

In the first paragraph of my post two above this one – the one with the photo of my entire collection – the very last sentence says, "This configuration has spaces for 540 chips, so there are a total of nine empty spots in the corners."

Does that sentence sound right to you? Should the verb in that final phrase be "is" or "are"? It seems now that I made an error. Correct variations would be "... there is a total..." and "...there are nine empty spots." However, the "nine" keeps getting in the way of my thinking when I try to say/write "... there is/are a total of nine empty spots."

Ah, the annoying thoughts that a nerd has to deal with when writing/editing.

Doc, I enjoy reading your posts (sometimes I can only skim them based on time) and looking at the chippy pictures. But I don't always have anything to say. I've tried to start hitting the "Thanks" button in these circumstances (not just for your posts, but others under similar circumstances). But it's a new forum feature and I haven't totally adjusted to it yet.

Rhythm City you mean and no it’s the only one.

Category: Canada
City: Point Edward, Ontario
Casino: Gateway - Point Edward

And now for the last new CCotD chip I have to offer for a while....

In June 2013, rdw4potus posted a $5 chip as a CCotD entry for the Point Edward Charity Casino, located in Ontario but just across the St. Clair River from Port Huron, Michigan. By August 2016, I had visited the place, and I posted an image of my $1 souvenir chip here.

RDW pointed out in his post that the casino had opened in 2000, and in mine I noted that in 2006 the name of the place changed to Ontario Lottery Gaming Point Edward, without any chips ever being issued that showed that name.

The place was later renamed "Gateway Casinos – Point Edward” and the MoGH Chip Guide claims that happened in 2017. A little search on this forum reveals that PokerGrinder told us in June of that year that the place “is being rebranded as Starlight Casino Point Edward.”

That appears to be four names that the casino has operated under, with two name changes having taken place since my visit three years ago. When I headed toward that region earlier this month, I was hoping that there would be chips in play with both the Gateway and Startlight names so that I could get two souvenirs with only one set of travel-and-expected-gaming-loss expenses.

Turns out that the casino does indeed have signage declaring that it is the Starlight Casino, but all of the chips in play say Gateway Casinos – Point Edward. I asked about that, and a dealer, a floor supervisor, and a cashier all said that the owner is Gateway and that Starlight is just one of their brands. They suggested that there is no reason for them to get chips saying Starlight. The chip does say Point Edward, which distinguishes it from the Gateway Casinos in nine other Canadian locations covered in the MoGH Chip Guide.

I played roulette at the casino, a game I very rarely play, but they did not have their craps table staffed at the time of day I was there. I declare that I lost $20 in US currency in that play, which is a combination of (1) losses at the table, (2) the cost of two-way currency exchange, and (3) a whopping 60¢ CA the cashier gave me in coin and which I added to the restaurant waitress’s tip, with the rest of her tip being included on the credit card slip. It seems that every trip I make into Canada, I wind up coming home with Canadian coins, and I never remember to take them with me when I go back. Decided this time it was better to leave that 60¢ with someone who might be able to use it.

The chip is a white Paulson RHC model with three triple edge inserts, each being gray-blue-gray. Together, the edge inserts occupy a little more than half of the chip perimeter. The center inlay background is white for the upper 55%-60% or so and black for the bottom portion, separated by two (thick & thin) orange bands. A similar double band forms a circle near the perimeter of the inlay, except for a matching Gateway logo at the bottom. In the white upper zone, there is a black Gateway logo, the words Gateway Casino also in black, and Point Edward in blue. In the lower black zone, the denomination appears in white. UV light reveals that the three blue edge inserts fluoresce, while the six gray ones do not.

Quote: Doc

Thanks for the replies. It just bugs me that I know which verb is correct, but "There are a total of nine empty spots..." just comes out too smoothly. Proper grammar should sound correct to me and come out naturally after all of the years I spent in school and all of the years that English has been my only language.

Well, I'm going to disagree on the grammar question. I think that because the "a total of" is somewhat superfluous, it becomes a subordinate modifier to the statement "there are nine empty spots". And the reason using "are" comes out so easily is that it's correct usage.

Thanks for the vote of support for my intuition (or whatever) as opposed to my nerdy analysis. I guess that perhaps the "a total of" is just one of many superfluous things about me and my offerings.

I remember a question I asked one of my high school English teachers. I posed the sentence: "All of a sudden, there was a loud boom." Now grammatically, what in the world is that introductory phrase? Is "sudden" the object of the preposition "of"? Is "sudden" a noun in that case? Is "all of a sudden" a totally incorrect expression for "suddenly"? I don't think I got a definite answer in reply, but I guess I was a nerd even back then.

Quote: Doc

Thanks for the vote of support for my intuition (or whatever) as opposed to my nerdy analysis. I guess that perhaps the "a total of" is just one of many superfluous things about me and my offerings.

I remember a question I asked one of my high school English teachers. I posed the sentence: "All of a sudden, there was a loud boom." Now grammatically, what in the world is that introductory phrase? Is "sudden" the object of the preposition "of"? Is "sudden" a noun in that case? Is "all of a sudden" a totally incorrect expression for "suddenly"? I don't think I got a definite answer in reply, but I guess I was a nerd even back then.

"There was a loud boom all of a sudden." Works too, but is not as interesting. So "all of a sudden" is a modifying descriptive subordinate clause to "There was a loud boom".

Not that I'm using the exact right grammatical labels and descriptors in any of this. But grammar works in my head in mysterious ways.

I a flying to Seattle to try to sign a new client. Will be leaving Thursday morning and getting there at 10am. Meeting will probably be about 2 hours. My flight home isnt until Friday night. I will have approx 24 hours to hit as many in Washington as possible. This gonna be interesting. Thinking about not getting a hotel and just drive around and sleep in car when needed. Not sure if I will ever get back to Washington in my life.

There are a ton in the area, it really depends how far you want to drive. I have a list of all the ones that I’ve gone to and I think that’s more than you’ll be able to hit. I have a list of the rest too but I doubt you want to drive that far.

My meeting is in Tacoma. Realistically I think with 90 min all directions, possibly more. There is a city way down south near Portland that has a few in the town. I may venture that direction but I want to get a list together first. You had a thread a while back listing all casinos. Maybe I will look at that.

I haven’t updated that in a long time. I can take a look at putting together a list for you tonight for a 90 minute radius around Tacoma.