Casino Chip of the Day

I have chips labelled "GSP" that I actually collected at Manch Vegas in Manchester. I suspect these chips moved and that you collected them in Manchester as well.

Piecing together the Universal Gaming puzzle, perhaps you collected those chips at Sharky's in Manchester?

I have chips labelled "The Lodge at Belmont" that I thought were procured at Lakes Casino (also in Belmont.) I was travelling through and had trouble finding the location at night so it is entirely possible I stopped at the wrong place. Following Doc's guidance I'll denote these chips as coming from The Lodge at Belmont since it is clear from their appearance that is the casino of origin, even if I got them elsewhere.

Much more straight forward is the River card room. I've got a couple chips from there also.

I don't want to step on toes of longtime contributors, especially since I'm new and am liking the interaction with members of this group. If I should defer to rdw4potus on posting the overlapping chips let me know. Otherwise, I'm happy to keep going with the New Hampshire set. My New Hampshire chips are far from a complete set for the state, but it might be the only noteworthy niche in my collection. How many collectors specialize in New Hampshire chips?

I found the same problem in middle of nowhere parts of Washington state. Little card clubs close and sell their chips to newly opened card clubs. I’m of the opinion that you should have to use chips that show your name on them in a legal gambling facility mostly cause I hate collecting a chip from the wrong place. Doc also has had this issue in South America and the Caribbean I believe.

Quote: RideTheEdge

I don't want to step on toes of longtime contributors, especially since I'm new and am liking the interaction with members of this group. If I should defer to rdw4potus on posting the overlapping chips let me know. Otherwise, I'm happy to keep going with the New Hampshire set. My New Hampshire chips are far from a complete set for the state, but it might be the only noteworthy niche in my collection. How many collectors specialize in New Hampshire chips?

I would prefer if you keep going with your posting. If nothing else, it lets me keep going with my procrastination re: taking pictures:-)

State: New Hampshire
City: Belmont
Casino: The Lodge at Belmont

It's been a long day driving from Connecticut to some college my daughter might go to, or perhaps it was another trip. Over 10 years ago in any case. I've got a list of poker rooms in New Hampshire I'd like to visit and this might be my best chance to collect a chip or two from a more remote location for my budding collection. I've got the address here somewhere in a directory of North East card rooms.

Ah, there's a casino sign let's pull into that parking lot. This is an awfully long driveway, or maybe it just seems that way when I'm lost driving in an isolated area in the dark. Is that a card room sign on that industrial building up ahead? Where is the entrance?

Okay, here is an open door on the side of the building. Nobody here? What are all these powered off slot machines doing here, I didn't know New Hampshire allowed slots. Let's just go down this hallway. An empty casino pit, no dealers. Oh, there are some poker tables down there with people, now we're talking. "Our tournament already started. Stop by at 2PM tomorrow and you can play. Sure we'll sell you some chips. The state said I couldn't run the slot machines, not sure why they had a problem with it. It's hard enough making enough to keep this place going." (conversation paraphrased)

And so I purchased what I thought were chips from Lakes Casino in Belmont New Hampshire. Perhaps that is where I was. I'll report these as being from The Lodge at Belmont since that is what it says on the chip. The $2 chip looks like a normal plastic dice chip embossed with the logo and denomination. The $4 chip has the dice in different locations though, and the $1 has crowns instead of dice. My failings as a chip photographer come through with the $4 chip, which in reality is bright red (like a red dice chip), not orange as pictured here. Click on the chip images for higher resolution.

Lol! That is an awesome post. Well done sir.

I never know what to do when there aren't $5 chips. In this case I grabbed a $4 chip since it was at least red.

Quote: rdw4potus

I never know what to do when there aren't $5 chips. In this case I grabbed a $4 chip since it was at least red.

I try to get at least one $5 chip and everything under that including rake chips when they agree to sell them. It's only a little more money, and I have the satisfaction of having closer to a complete set for that location. Much harder to get that satisfaction when there are many $5 variants, but that's a reason to come back another day. Collecting the smaller chips also gives me a reason to walk around the blackjack pits looking for $2.50 chips. I don't really do this for the value, but after discovering some (relatively) old chips from Atlantis in Atlantic City (used to go there years before I started collecting) I looked up the $2.50 and it was selling for more than I would have thought, and many times as much as the $1.

RideTheEdge do you specialize in east coast chips or do you collect from anywhere you happen to go? How big is your collection?

Btw I’m enjoying your posts!

Quote: PokerGrinder

RideTheEdge do you specialize in east coast chips or do you collect from anywhere you happen to go? How big is your collection?

Thanks for the encouragement! And for the opportunity to brag!!

Before now I haven't networked with other collectors. I'm proud of the collection but am sure it's only a modest size in comparison to most. I collect from anywhere I happen to go. Whenever I travel for whatever reason, I try to hit any cardrooms or casinos nearby and pick up chips. Since I live on the east coast I have more from around here.

According to a spreadsheet where I keep track (counts possibly off by a little), I have:
- 164 chips from 57 casinos in Vegas,
- 259 chips from 72 casinos in 16 states other than Nevada,
- 23 chips from 10 casinos in Canada, Holland, and Ireland,
- plus some duplicates (less than 20), a few novelty chips, and 1 illegal.

Besides Vegas, 55 chips from California (various business trips mostly), 19 from Washington (my cousin's wedding), and a few from just across the river in Louisiana, all the other US chips are from east of the Mississippi.

It seems like you, rdw, and Doc have very impressive collections. No need to repeat yourself if you've posted numbers elsewhere in the thread though I'm curious.

I keep my chips in what coin collectors call "flips" (see the loose flip in the bottom right of the pic below.) Unlike coin collectors, I don't staple the flips though that would make it easier to store lots of chips. Instead I put them in plastic pockets, 12 to a sheet, which are stored in nice heavy loose leaf binders that I can zip up to prevent loss. I've got three of those binders. One for Vegas, one for east of the Mississippi, and one for the rest. I get the flips and plastic sheets from air-tites.com

Awesome. I currently have chips from 845 different casinos that I’ve visited. From memory I think RDW has 600+ and Doc is at 543 which he keeps track of on the first page of this thread.

Those are amazing collections that must cover a large percentage of the existing casinos.

I’m still missing hundreds from the states and 20-30 from Canada. I completed my Nevada collection about 3 years ago and every year I add the 1 or 2 that I need to keep it up to date. This year I was going to grab Strat, Sahara and Oyo to finish my Nevada collection again. My collection includes a couple hundred chips from countries outside of North America too.

I have almost exactly 600 chips, plus some duplicates and non-gaming tokens. My collection is in a set of transparent plastic storage containers. I'm not sure what these are actually meant for (thread maybe?) but the chips fit perfectly 40/row, 6 rows/container, 2.5 containers of casino chips. Doc's chips are under a sheet of glass on his desktop. He keeps them in a geometric pattern and changes the pattern when he gets new chips. it's really awesome.

I'm missing essentially all of the west coast north of I-80, plus a few new casinos and name changes in southern Cali. Also missing about 30 new casinos and name changes in NV, NY, OK, NJ, LA, MA, FL, RI. And about half of MN/SD/ND (all of which are within about 250 miles of home). I'd planned to re-close-out NV during a May trip to Vegas, and to finish MN and SD (and maybe ND, but bar blackjack there makes that hard) over memorial day weekend. Hopefully, I can do those things by the end of the summer season.

It's funny - we all kind of have different rules for collecting. PG collects all chips from all venues by design, I collect casinos but I won't say no to card clubs if they're on my route, Doc doesn't play poker so he doesn't attempt the card clubs in most cases (I forget his rule for places like CA where the clubs can have BJ and carnival games, but I think those are out too). I'll have decisions to make eventually about how badly I want chips from places like TX and MT where the only venues are poker clubs spread reallllly far apart.

Doc and I have a bit of an odd rule where we have to have played at a venue before we'll take the chip. In more than a few cases, that's meant buying the chip and then losing a dollar spinning a slot one time. I think PG is more willing to take the chip and run.

Quote: rdw4potus

Doc's chips are under a sheet of glass on his desktop. He keeps them in a geometric pattern and changes the pattern when he gets new chips. it's really awesome.

In case it isn't obvious, that's a sign of nerdiness. My latest post of my full collection was made here, and that photo is up-to-date except for the chip I collected in Nassau back in February. I am too lazy to rearrange the entire array just to fit a single chip into its proper location. The total "official" count is 543 casinos covered, plus the extras that appear on the sides of that photo of the set. I think I would have collected quite a few more, except that I have a strong interest in remaining married.

The idea of collecting venues rather than chips is new to me. It is appealing because in some sense it is possible to have a complete set, or at least complete a growing list of regions. That seems very satisfying. At first I collected just $1 chips but there were so many chips I used that weren't in my collection, and often the $1 chips were plain in comparison to the $5s. Lacking funds to get every chip wherever I visited I settled for $5 and under, recognizing I'd never have a complete set for any particular venue except the tiny rooms with low limits.

On to the subject of constraints on what qualifies for the collection. It's a neat idea, making the pursuit more challenging. I have more pride in chips I gathered myself, and marginally more pride in chips gambled than chips purchased at the cage. In spite of my small collection, the aspiration for completeness includes chips that are no longer in play that I'll be willing to purchase. That said, the number of my chips that were not procured from the casino are limited:
- Friends know that I collect, so occasionally I'll get a $1 chip as a gift when one of them returns from a trip. There's only a handful of those I didn't already have.
- I bought some numbered $5 Foxwoods chips from the host of a local home game. She didn't go to Foxwoods any more and just wanted to cash them in. I offered to buy them at face value (what she would get when she made it back to the venue to cash them in), which was fine with her as long I wasn't going to just turn around and sell them for a profit. I still have them of course.
- A dealer in California gave me a chip from another casino from his tips when we discussed my collection. I think I subsequently got that chip directly because I have a duplicate $1 California chip, but am not certain.
- At a casino in Dublin there were Irish pound denominated chips in play from other casinos (presumably no longer in existence) when the country was on the Euro. I got as many of those as I could and like both of them.

Regarding this forum, should I only post chips that I obtained myself from a gambling establishment?

State: New Hampshire
City: Hampton Falls
Casino: The Poker Room

Just past Seabrook is the aptly named "The Poker Room." I like the atmosphere here, with the high ceilings and exposed wood beams. There are lots of tables by New Hampshire standards. Tournaments are held in the basement, with cash games and table games upstairs. I haven't played many tournaments in New Hampshire, but I played one here last year. The tournament had a nice structure with 30 minute levels. Lots of play, and making the final table took all day. One of the dealers was working his last day at that tournament prior to leaving for the soon-to-be opened Encore outside Boston. The tournament director gave him a nice send off in good spirits. Nice to see, not every employer is so warm when people leave to work for the competition.

Ceramic chips, front and back the same. Click on the image to see higher resolution:

“PG collects all chips from all venues by design”
RDW did you mean I’ll collect from any gambling establishment? If so then yes that’s true except the bars you’ve talked about in ND as a lot of them use the same beat up old chips and that doesn’t interest me. As far as collecting I do try and play in all casinos that I collect from even if it is only a hand of BJ but I do have some little casinos in Nevada that I just went in and bought a chip from the table without playing. That was mostly cause when I collected from all the non strip and downtown casinos in Vegas I did it on a one day car rental and it still took 16+ hours without much playing.

RideTheEdge thanks for getting this thread back and up and running. The 3 of us haven’t discussed chips much lately before you started posting.

Quote: RideTheEdge

Regarding this forum, should I only post chips that I obtained myself from a gambling establishment?

My opinion, which I noted in post #1, is that it is fine for you to post any casino (or card room) chip that you have, but I am not in favor of people harvesting chip images from other sites to post here. I'm also not in favor of including advertising chips from non-casino properties. For example, the Museum of Gaming History Chip Guide includes a large number of Harley Davidson chips from motorcycle dealerships and a fair number of personal chips.

I think I have already mentioned that I concur with PokerGrinder appreciation for your getting this thread back active. And I think I have the thread index back up to date.

Quote: PokerGrinder

“PG collects all chips from all venues by design”
RDW did you mean I’ll collect from any gambling establishment?

Yes, that's what I meant. You seek out chips from any gambling establishment, I seek out casinos but don't rule out card clubs if they're nearby, doc just does casinos.

Quote: Doc

My opinion, which I noted in post #1, is that it is fine for you to post any casino (or card room) chip that you have

Thanks, I'll only post from my actual collection.

Quote: Doc

I'm also not in favor of including advertising chips from non-casino properties

I have some borderline items that I was going to pepper in with other posts, but perhaps I shouldn't. For instance, at a NH room I picked up a lottery token used for scratch offs with an image on it that is very relevant to the state of New Hampshire that I was going to explain. I also have a WPT promotional chip that probably doesn't belong here, and an illegal that I don't intend to post without permission from the guy who ran the room.

Quote: Doc

I think I have already mentioned that I concur with PokerGrinder appreciation for your getting this thread back active. And I think I have the thread index back up to date.

It has been such a kick to share with people who appreciate this stuff. The encouragement from all of you has been heart warming.

Steve

You could post that stuff but I wouldn’t post it as a chip of the day just a normal post.

I hope I don't cause a trigger for putting this out there: but do y'all ever feel a bit of remorse for collecting chips?

On one hand, I feel like sometimes I'm helping the casino's profits by collecting chips and I could have like a couple hundred dollar bills in front of me instead of chips. On the other hand, I justify collecting by thinking I'd buy some cheap souvenir from my casino visits that would have cost anywhere from $1–$5 anyway.

Hi everyone. My name is smoothgrh, and I collect casino chips.

Hey Smooth, I don’t at all. I love the hobby and at the end of the day I have about $1450 usd worth of chips and if I want to I could get minimum $3000 wholesale for the whole collection. Yes I spend money to get to places and then the gambling losses but that is easily outweighed by the enjoyment I get from the hobby. To put it in perspective I’ve been collecting for almost 11 years so my cost per year for the chips is $132 a year. A lot of the travel that is involved in collecting the chips I would do either way. Another thing about the value of my collection even though I don’t ever plan on selling it is that as the years go on the chips gain value as places close or rebrand.

Oh I forgot, my name is PokerGrinder and I am a chip collecting addict.

Quote: smoothgrh

I justify collecting by thinking I'd buy some cheap souvenir from my casino visits that would have cost anywhere from $1–$5 anyway.

You reminded me of how I got started as a chip collector. I may have told that story several times before, and one of those times was when I posted my chip from the Bellagio. In that post, I included two side stories, and the second one includes the "souvenir" issue that you reminded me about.

Thanks guys for providing therapy. I was fretting that I’d brought up a taboo issue.

I think part of it goes back to Gambling 101 where they say casinos want you to play with chips instead of cash because it doesn’t feel like you’re playing with real money. And that I should remember the chips in my hand are my money, not the casino’s.

But I do feel the value when I look at my chips, such as my $2.50 chip from Harrah’s New Orleans while dating the now-Mrs. Or the $5 Harvey’s Lake Tahoe chip that was a wedding favor from my friend’s wedding there. I played the chip on a hand of blackjack, won, cashed in the winning chip, and kept the original.

Doc, thanks for the Bellagio story! It’s the kind I wish all gamblers could have, and it started your chip collecting to boot!

State: New Hampshire
City: Hampton Beach
Casino: Aces and Eights

Had Doc taken a northerly walk along the beach that day back in 2014 when he picked up his Ocean Gaming chip (see Ocean Gaming) he may have stumbled upon Aces and Eights. I had no idea there was a festival the September day in 2016 I drove up to hit Hamptom Beach. All along the beach were vendors selling various forms of seafood, beer, and other sundries. I recall some music and general fun. As Doc reports, parking is a challenge. Even more so this day since so much was closed off for the festival. I found a spot in a nearly residential area past the end of the beach. No signs prohibiting parking, and my car survived unticketed and untowed.

Aces and Eights was just across the road separating business from beach. I recall a walk up some steps to get to the room. The game was an aggressive but weak high variance affair, juicy but risky, providing an hour or so of entertainment before heading out with a small profit. I didn't know about the room prior to the trip, but found it when exploring the town and searching for parking. I intended to play at Ocean Gaming that day, but that game didn't start until 5PM and when I did stop by later it was full.

More embossed (or should I say "stamped"? I'm not sure the proper terminology) plastic chips which are common in the smaller New Hampshire rooms.

Hampton Beach addendum

As a bonus to my Aces and Eights visit, there was a bucket of NH Lottery tokens on the way out that I think people use for scratch off tickets. I grabbed one of those also. Taking PokerGrinder's advice, this is not an official CCotD post and I hope it doesn't cross the Doc's request not to post advertising. The Old Man of the Mountain pictured on the lottery token was a famous landmark in New Hampshire. The profile of a man's face in the White Mountains succumbed to the elements in 2003 despite decades of efforts to keep it from collapsing.



I played a few hands of blackjack at Ocean Gaming during the same trip and picked up a couple chips not pictured from Doc's visit to the same place.



As I look at the higher resolution photographs of these and others it seems the dice chips with the dice spaced evenly apart, which look just like chips that are sold retail for casual home use, don't stand up to wear very well. Even the slighly different dice chips (see my pics from The Lodge at Belmont a few posts back) hold up better. Small rooms buying cheap chips are getting what they pay for.

State: New Hampshire
City: Plaistow
Casino: Granite State Poker

(Edited to change the location and venue name per Doc's suggestion. Also changed the accompanying text to reflect the change in venue name)

In the summer of 2014 I took a road trip to visit a few poker rooms in New Hampshire. My last two venues in New Hampshire (one more coming tomorrow) are from that trip.

Although this post is for Granite State Poker in Plaistow, New Hampshire, I've never been there or even heard of it until today. I acquired these chips at Manch Vegas in Manchester, New Hampshire.

While researching this post I discovered the term "Manch Vegas" has some history. Apparently there were lots of illegal video poker machines in Manchester in the 80s and 90s that earned Manchester this nickname. The name stuck as a sarcastic way of critiquing the lack of entertainment, but now it celebrates a growing vibrancy. All this I glean from this article.

Anyway, back in 2014 Manch Vegas referred to a (presumably) legal gambling establishment in a light industrial building, a common theme in these out of the way rooms. After driving by what looked like an old loading dock trying to find a parking space I found the doorway. There are multiple sections of this casino with a long hallway in between. The poker is off on one end with frequent tournaments. I played one of these, bought some chips, and then headed off to the next stop.

These chips are branded "GSP." The chipguide at MoGH identifies these chips as originating from Granite State Poker in Plaistow. I'm not sure what to make of the chipguide information about this chip. It says Granite State Poker closed in 2012, but the latest update of the chip is from September 2014 which is a month after my visit to Manch Vegas. The pics on chipguide for both Manch Vegas and Keene Poker room (see my first CCotD post for Howie's Poker Room a few pages back) have similar designs that are totally alien to me and must have come after I collected my chips for both of these rooms. I'm a little uncertain how to label this room since I never heard of Granite State Poker until doing this research. I'm inclined to label the room as I found it, Manch Vegas, despite the cryptic GSP on the chip, but am swayed by Doc to label the post with the original venue for the chips. It took some digging to convince myself that venue ever existed.

This is the last of my plastic New Hampshire chips. Note the lack of wear around the edges, unlike the "dice" chips from Ocean Gaming and one of the Lodge at Belmont chips. While taking these pics I noticed that the $2 chip is an irregular. The denomination is missing from the back. Like coins, I have no doubt this anomaly increases its value by a sizable multiple and I could get several pennies for this chip if ever I choose to sell it.

I was planning on visiting Boston later this summer to go see the Red Sox with my dad. As part of that trip I was going to do a couple days of collecting around the east coast that included NH. Sadly that’s postponed and I have a feeling a lot of these small rooms might not re-open after the pandemic. All that aside I have to say that NH might have the ugliest group of chips I’ve ever seen lol.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I have to say that NH might have the ugliest group of chips I’ve ever seen lol.

Hah!

I agree. The cheap plastic chips used by the rooms a little farther from the Massachusetts border are not very appealing.

Quote: RideTheEdge

These chips are branded "GSP." The chipguide at MoGH identifies these chips as originating from Granite State Poker in Plaistow. I'm not sure what to make of the chipguide information about this chip. It says Granite State Poker closed in 2012, but the latest update of the chip is from September 2014 which is a month after my visit to Manch Vegas.

I'm not sure how to interpret the MoGH info either, but here are a few possibilities.

I suspect that the "update" of the chip some years after Granite State Poker supposedly closed means that the MoGH post was updated then, not that the closed casino got updated chips. I'm guessing that GSP closed in 2012 (as claimed by MoGH) and that the Manch Vegas, aka Manchester Poker Room, was opened either earlier or later that same year by the same owners (as also claimed by MoGH) who used the same chips in both places. Then, at some later point in time, the Manch Vegas/Manchester Poker Room started using the Granite State Poker Alliance chips that are shown for that poker room on the MoGH site.

In this post, PokerGrinder pointed out a difference in our viewpoints on how to organize this thread. From my viewpoint, I would suggest (not require) that these GSP chips be posted under the name Granite State Poker, with a note that the original place had closed by the time you obtained the chips at a different card room operated by the same owners. Then, should "Manchester" chips eventually come into your possession, or that of someone else here, that would be the basis for a separate CCotD post. I'm not really sure of the best way to handle Granite State Poker Alliance chips.

Also, here is a possible explanation for the "irregular" $2 chip. I can't be certain from the photos, but I think those are hot stamped chips. For those, the chips are manufactured without the center info. Then, the same chips can be sold to different establishments, with the names and denominations stamped onto the chips before the manufacturer delivers them. That type of chip has a strong tendency for the hot-stamp info to fade away or flake off, and that probably happened on the back side of your $2 chip -- which might be labeled as a $5 chip in a different establishment!

Quote: Doc

I would suggest (not require) that these GSP chips be posted under the name Granite State Poker, with a note that the original place had closed by the time you obtained the chips at a different card room operated by the same owners.

For the Lakes/Lodge at Belmont post, this is the approach I took. I wasn't certain which venue I was at when collecting the chip, and the branding on the chip was unambiguous.

In spite of the MoGH listing, I had doubts that a room called "Granite State Poker" ever existed. It seemed like the name of an umbrella organization. I was prepared to argue that personal observation was more reliable than an MoGH entry and the post should stand as is. I did some digging before insisting on this point and found this article. MoGH plus a press report is convincing so I'll change the post per Doc's suggestion.

A case of possibly unreliable information on MoGH can be found at the Poker Palooza. I've played there. It is a catering hall named the Silver Fox that had tournaments a couple nights/week in the basement, followed by a cash game. I've never seen it called the Poker Palooza and there is no such signage. My best guess is that's just what the chips said at one point. I could be wrong as I only played there for five months in 2015 and the MoGH post saying this is a card room at the Silver Fox restaurant was in 2012. It's enough for me not to rely on MoGH when it comes to tiny venues.

Quote: Doc

Also, here is a possible explanation for the "irregular" $2 chip. I can't be certain from the photos, but I think those are hot stamped chips. For those, the chips are manufactured without the center info. Then, the same chips can be sold to different establishments, with the names and denominations stamped onto the chips before the manufacturer delivers them. That type of chip has a strong tendency for the hot-stamp info to fade away or flake off, and that probably happened on the back side of your $2 chip

When a stamp wears off there is still an impression in the chip where it used to be. This impression can be felt with a finger nail whether or not there is a visible image. For this chip, close inspection and examination by finger nail reveals no such impression so I'm fairly sure it got skipped in the stamping process.

Doc, just noticed that you already updated the index with the Manch Vegas name. I changed the post to "Granite State Poker." Sorry to be creating so much work for you these days.

I'm afraid it's just going to get worse as I add images of chips for casinos that are already in this thread. I only have a little over a dozen more casinos to contribute, but I have many more chips that are not yet pictured for casinos that have already have a CCotD entry.

No problem at all. When I saw your post about editing the name on the latest CCotD post, I easily edited that line of the index. As for adding images of chips for casinos already covered in the thread, that won't affect the index at all. I'll just add a note about the new image to one of my old posts close to that CCotD entry, if I can find an appropriate place to do that.

State: New Hampshire
City: Milford
Casino: The River Card Room

This is one of the card rooms I visited in my 2014 road trip, and the last I have to share from New Hamphire. Though these are not the first chips I collected, I think they are the first from a trip that I made with the express purpose of adding to my chip collection. Visiting poker rooms was a bonus and I would not have travelled without the chance to play cards, but if not for the motivation to collect I doubt I would have driven here.

Reviewing these particular chips brings back memories of what was happening in my life at the time (off topic, I won't bore the list with details). I wonder if this is a common benefit to collectors of various types as they look over their collections. To be fair, I would not reminisce like this without also referring to my poker records to recall the dates I visited the various rooms.

Those records say I entered a tournament here, but I barely remember playing. I do remember a decent size open space, sparcely decorated, with just a few players. The room was in/near retail zoning with a pretty large parking lot given the number of visitors.

This might be the only New Hampshire card room with Paulson chips. Front and back are the same, have a gander:

State: Massachusetts
City: Everett
Casino: Encore Boston Harbor

I'm honored to be the one posting chips for Encore Boston Harbor, my local casino.

We waited eagerly for this place to be built and talked about it often at home games. Coincidently I had a flight back from a Vegas trip the day it opened. After peering longingly across the Mystic River from my doctor's office the following day I hopped on over to take a look inside. Been there (on average) at least a couple times a week since then until it shut down for the pandemic.

The main casino floor has the table games, slot machines, buffet, restaurants, and shops. Take a ride up an escalator to get to the poker room with over 70 tables, many of which overlook the casino. Depending on the seat it can get a little loud on the weekend when they crank the music up and seats near the balcony areas of the poker room can always get a good earful of the slot machines. High limit games are more isolated from the noise, and you can always get an interior table if the view and vibe are less to your liking. The competition is a little tougher than New Hampshire or Rhode Island at the higher limits, but you can get a nice game at the lower limit. Unfortunately they recently increased the rake, and there is a $2 jackpot drop whenever the frequent promotions are running, so this can be an expensive place to play poker.

Although in theory part of the casino grounds are in Boston, this casino is predominantly in the neighboring municipality of Everett. Although the name implies the casino is on the Boston Harbor it is really on the Mystic River. I've identified the location as Everett which is the most accurate but will change this to Boston if that is the accepted practice for the thread.

The front and back of these chips are the same. The $2 chip is used in the limit poker game and the $2.50 chip comes from blackjack. I also have an irregular $5 chip (not pictured) that is slightly smaller than the normal chips, not sure how that happened. It was very noticable in a stack, so I took it out for my collection.



I think this is the same player's card as the Wynn in Vegas. This isn't the original for this casino and the design changed since it opened. Unfortunately I tend to lose a lot of these.

Massachusetts approved 3 full-blown casinos, only two of which were built. Doc already posted a chip from MGM Springfield. Here are a few more chip images from that place. There is also a slot parlor affiliated with Hollywood casinos named Plainridge Park Casino, but there are no chips to be had there.

Not sure how much commentary is called for in additional images for venues that have already been posted. I stop by MGM Springfield every now and then when going back and forth to friends/family in Connecticut, but I'm more likely to stop at Twin River in Rhode Island.

The $2.50 chips are more orange than pictured here, not yellow. The fronts and back are the same. Two different $5 chips are pictured.

I started with the New Hampshire chips because that is probably the most unique niche in my collection, as dubious a boast as that is.

Although I haven't combed through the thread yet to identify every chip I have that is not yet pictured, since I collect everything from $5 down at each place I go I suspect there will be more chips from casinos already represented than from new places. I can proceed a couple different ways:
- I can space out official CCotD posts interspersed with images from nearby (or similarly categorized) "redundant" casinos,
- or I can post all the official CCotD contributions I have first and then cover the rest.

Which option is preferred?

First off those Encore chips are just gorgeous. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a company like Wynn.

As far as how you post I would post all the official chip of the days first. There is no rule lol I just want to see your collection.

1. I added the Encore Boston Harbor CCotD post to the index. I have that place on my list of "Chips I might get", but I don't think I have been to New England at all since the day I collected my MGM chip in October 2018. As for listing the Encore as being in Everett rather that some place including the name "Boston", that is fine -- whatever you think is a good designation of the location. Sometimes the best option isn't very clear -- for an example see my post about the Golden Moon" casino in Mississippi. Also, we typically refer to most/all of the casinos in Paradise, NV as if they were located in Las Vegas!

2. I edited my CCotD post for that MGM chip to provide a link to your post with the additional chips.

3. As for posting other chips from casinos we have already covered, I'd say that if you already have the photos ready, then dump them all on us whenever it is convenient for you. Depending on how much of a tale you want to include, you could put them all in one post (just separated in batches of text for each casino), and I will do my best to provide similar links in my posts earlier in this thread.

Note, now I see that PokerGrinder offered his differing view on those posts while I was typing. Either way should work just fine.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm taking photos as I'm making these posts, so I'll go ahead and add the official CCotD posts first. I'll be able to keep up a nearly daily cadence for a little while.

Thanks for editing your MGM CCotD post. The Ocean Gaming chips in New Hampshire aren't the most notable, but if you are editing old links you can consider updating that one with a pointer to my Ocean Gaming chips as well.

Regarding Paradise, NV: I took a look at the Excalibur post (just picked a random casino fairly far south down the strip) to see if it was listed as Paradise or Las Vegas when deciding if I should use Everett or Boston. I find Nevada place names thoroughly confusing. Excalibur's address is listed as Las Vegas, and my search for the meaning of Paradise leaves me unsatisfied. Apparently it is an "unincorporated town" and "census designated place."

Quote: RideTheEdge

Thanks for editing your MGM CCotD post. The Ocean Gaming chips in New Hampshire aren't the most notable, but if you are editing old links you can consider updating that one with a pointer to my Ocean Gaming chips as well.

Done. Don't know why I overlooked doing that when you first made the post.

Old age?

Nah. I've got enough of that going on that (if it mattered) I wouldn't be able to respond to any posts at all.

State: New Jersey
City: Atlantic City
Casino: atlantis

My ex-wife and I used to go to Atlantic City a lot before we were married and had kids. One of our favorite spots was atlantis, not because it was well run (it wasn't), but because they had $2 blackjack and that suited our budget. One of the smaller casinos, atlantis had a black glass facade with the gaming area located on the second or third floor. Playboy's casino was a previous occupant of the same building.

$2 blackjack was in the corner and usually had people lined up behind the table waiting for a seat, at least on the weekends when we went. Once you got a seat you kept it. I ran out to get takeout chinese one night that we ate hurriedly (they would only hold the seat for a few minutes) in a stairwell. Our longest session was 14 hours.

These are the oldest chips I have, collected by accident in the late 80s. I found them a few years ago in a box where I keep old odds and ends. We must have left them in our pockets one day after almost running dry at the table and not bothering to redeem them at the cage.

The denomination appears to be built right into the mold. I don't recall seeing that before but I have some other chips from AC that also have this feature so I suppose it's common. I'll have to look out for it when reviewing the rest of my chips. Front and back are the same.

Thanks for covering this casino! I had to take a look back to see why I don't have one in my own collection and realized that the place closed in the spring of 1989, more than 14 years before I started collecting chips and more than 15 years before what I think was my first visit to Atlantic City! Guess it's pretty much the same explanation as why I don't have chips from the Sands, Dunes, or a few other places around Las Vegas.

I'm not sure whether it is completely appropriate or not, but I went with the lower-case "atlantis" in the index, as you did in your post. That's certainly the way the chips and their logo have it, though the MoGH Chip Guide capitalizes it in their list.

There were other Atlantic City casinos back then that aren't around any more. The casino all the way at the end of the boardwalk (past Tropicana) used to be the Golden Nugget. The exterior design was (still is?) similar to the Golden Nugget in Vegas. I went back at one point and it was called the Atlantic Club. Even later there was another Golden Nugget in a different location. Unfortunately, I don't have any old Golden Nugget chips to complicate the casino naming conventions in this thread.

Showboat had just opened back then, at the extreme other end of the boardwalk (though Revel got built even further along years later). Showboat used to offer free parking, so the car would go there and I would take the hike to wherever I was going. Back in the late 80's, the marina area (near the current Borgata) had Harrah's Marina and a Trump property. There was also Sands and the Claridge (now an appendage to Bally's) along the boardwalk. The Claridge had 4 deck blackjack so I liked to go there. The only other place with 4 deck blackjack was the Tropicana. The other casinos back then were still around at least until recently: various Trump properties, Caesar's, Harrah's, Resorts, Bally's. There were a total of 12.

Category: Europe
City: Dublin, Ireland
Casino: Sporting Emporium

In order to play in the Irish casinos you have to be a member. I guess this means they are formally a private club but the process isn't much different than getting a player's card with the exception that it is required and you do it at the entrance. As I recall, I was greeted near the front entrance, went through the "join the club" formality, and was then granted access.

The Sporting Emporium is posh. I found the decor and staff to be classy. The facility itself is spread over multiple floors with the casino games on a lower floor and poker higher up. There is an elevator that opens up into a pleasant entrance to each floor, as well as a nice stairway. They brought out some food for the poker room around dinner time. The poker players were the same as you'd find anywhere else, in contrast to the class of the establishment. I did not run into James Bond.

These recollections are six years old so there is a chance I'm confusing different casinos in Dublin or details of the layout, but based on the order they appear in my logs I think I got it right.

Chips, front and back the same.


Players card is about an inch high, meant to go on a key ring

Doc I fixed the post you messaged me about.