Casino Chip of the Day

Tonight I collected my last chip of the trip. I got two chips in Germany and 18 in Poland.

State: Texas
City: Port Aransas
Casino: Texas Treasure Casino Cruises

There were a few casino day cruises that sailed out of Texas. Texas Treasure was one of the early boats that operated in the late 1990’s. They initially used these Island Holiday chips, but shortly after introduced the Texas Treasure version.



Both are nicely designed ceramic casino chips. The Island Holiday version looks quite tropical, but aside from the picture, only has the denomination. There’s no mention of the day cruise’s name or location. Oftentimes these day cruises moved seasonally and operated out of different ports and even different states, so designing a chip set with a name and denomination yielded a versatile and cost effective chip.

Later these chips gave way to the Texas Treasure Casino Cruises version. Again, no location and only the denomination was shown, but now patrons who carried one of these chips home with them as a souvenir were easily able to identify where they got the chip – Texas! With the success of the Texas Treasure, the company would eventually add a second boat which sailed out of Freeport, Texas, called the Texas Treasure II. I’ll post this day cruise tomorrow.

Well literally days after I finished my Nevada collection (for I think the 5th time) there is a new casino in Nevada again! Golden Nugget bought Hard Rock Lake Tahoe and has changed the name to… any guesses? 😂

My collection wasn’t going to be complete for long as FountainBleu and Durango are both close to opening in Las Vegas. Oh well I guess I’ll have to go back, again!

State: Texas
City: Freeport
Casino: Texas Treasure II

On the heels of the success of the original Texas Treasure Casino Cruise out of Port Aransas, Texas, they launched the Texas Treasure II out of Freeport in 2001. The day cruise business would not be a long term venture as both Texas Treasure boats closed operations shortly thereafter.



Little creative energy or expense was spared on this chip. It’s identical to its sister ship with the only modification being the addition of the ”II” next to the name.

State: Texas
City: Livingston
Casino: Alabama-Coushatta Casino

This chip is from one of the Indian casinos that no longer exist. Mostly slot machines, it did operate 6 blackjack tables, hence the need for chips. This casino was only in operation from November 2001 until July of the following year – a scant 8 months.

This did not prevent them from creating one of the most unusual chips ever. This 2-sided ceramic chip gets its fair share of double-takes. The tribe name, Alabama-Coushatta, and their tag line Entertainment Center of Texas adorns both sides of the chip. The All Seeing hand image is perhaps most startling. It has a feather background. The reverse features tribal decoration and more feathers. The denomination is shown on both sides of this unique chip.

Were you at these Texas casinos? Or did you pick up the chips from a collector? I ask cause I’d love to know if they looked like real casinos or makeshift.

So I was supposed to fly Berlin to Frankfurt to Toronto to Winnipeg for a wedding. Plane delayed out of Berlin for a hour and although I ran I missed the connection by about 5 minutes. The airline gave me a hotel, food and train ticket to and from the hotel. Sooooo what’s the first thing I did when I thought I was most likely going to be in Frankfurt for the night? Yes I found the casinos, (while still in Berlin) two of them to be exact. Sadly they are both outside of the city and obviously in opposite directions. I’m crazy so I did it anyways. I’m almost at the second and one and beyond tired and slightly regretting my life choices lol.

State: Texas
City: Amarillo
Casino: Amarillo Social Club

This 5-table room opened in late 2021 as the first poker room in Amarillo. They charge a $10 daily membership fee, and offer discounted 30-day memberships for $30 or yearly memberships for $300. Their hourly seat rental fee is $12, but you can opt to buy 10 hours for the discounted price of $100. They’ve continued to thrive, especially their popular poker tournaments. They built the club right, by focusing on professional, well-trained staff, a comfortable room with plenty of TVs, and free drinks (with BYOB) and snacks.

They’re on Poker Atlas where most of their reviews are all 5-stars. Here’s what one customer had to say in October 2022:

”The setup is awesome. Brand new tables and flat screens everywhere showing a plethora of sporting events. Venue is very new and very clean. Dealers are awesome and super fun to be around. They keep things really entertaining outside of the poker hands. BYOB. Snacks are provided. Any meal option is usually a staff member making a nightly run to a local restaurant with everyone's order. Admin is friendly and the competition isn't too strong. Lots of money flying around. $1k+ aren't uncommon at all. In a town of 180k, with the nearest gambling alternative being 2 hours away, this place is sure to blow up. Very pleased overall.”

As for their chips, they might have skimped a bit in this department. These generic mold/color chips should look familiar to most Texas rounders. Aside from the simplistic center inlay sticker, this inexpensive chip set was used at TCH Austin until very recently when it was replaced by a ceramic set.



APC, for Amarillo Poker Club, along with the date that they were established, adorns one side of the chip while the denomination adorns the other. Not a lot of design work went into this chip, but it is one of the very few Texas chips that are 2-sided.

So, are they the Amarillo Poker Club, or the Amarillo Social Club? Well, the chips and the name of their Facebook site lean toward the former, but their Poker Atlas listing, logo, and website address lean toward the latter. I’m more inclined to rely on the Poker Atlas listing and their website, so this social poker club should be referred to at the Amarillo Social Club.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Bourbon Street

This small casino sat just off The Strip on East Flamingo. The 15,000 sqft casino had a tiny 166 room hotel (according to Wikipedia). I remember venturing into this casino to pick up these $1 casino chips to add to my collection. If you’ve been to some of these smaller off-Strip properties, I put this in the same category as Maxim or San Remo, meaning that it has a small hotel, small casino floor, and desperate to hang on against the dominating Strip properties by offering heavily discounted rooms, meals, and attraction. Eventually they all go bust and are eaten up by the larger corporate behemoths.

Bourbon Street replaced the Shenandoah Hotel which stood at 120 E. Flamingo from 1980-1985; all the time fighting unsuccessfully to get a gaming license. In 1985 it was renamed Bourbon Street as new ownership was able to open the casino. It operated for the next 20 years, changing hands and names a time or two, until it was closed, later demolished, and is now a parking lot for The Cromwell employees.





The 3 variations of their $1 chips are all shown here. I picked them up during various trips to Las Vegas. The first is a simple hot stamp Paulson chip. This was later replaced by less expensive plastic hot stamped chips.

State: Texas
City: Aransas Pass
Casino: Aransas Queen Casino

I have a few other $1 Texas chips, mostly from casino day cruises, which I’ve picked up over the years via the casino chip collecting hobby and online community where trades are common among collectors. This one is from the Aransas Queen which operated from 2015 to 2018.



This is a beautiful Paulson clay chip with a pair of rounded light blue inserts on the classic hat and cane white mold. The inlay has the Aransas Queen logo, denomination, and location.

State: Texas
City: Port Isabel
Casino: TexCas Casino Limited

I have a few other $1 Texas chips, mostly from casino day cruises, which I’ve picked up over the years via the casino chip collecting hobby and online community where trades are common among collectors. This one is from the TexCas Casino Limited which operated from 1988 to 1992.



This Coin-In-Center chip, or CIC for short, is white with 3 blue inserts. The coin is stamped with the casino name, denomination, and logo. These CIC chips were not very popular outside of Las Vegas, and few if any casino use them today. In fact, this is the only CIC chip among the 136 $1 chips in my Texas collection.

Coin in chips are my favourite type of chips.

State: Texas
City: Freeport
Casino: Surfside Casino

I have a few other $1 Texas chips, mostly from casino day cruises, which I’ve picked up over the years via the casino chip collecting hobby and online community where trades are common among collectors. This one is from the Surfside Casino which operated aboard the TexasStar vessel.



This ceramic chip is an early ChipCo as can be seen by the omission of their CI logo on the face of the chip. The design is that of a generic boat with the sun on the horizon, apparently being dive-bombed by two enormous seagulls.

The colours on the chip are beautiful.

Alpha1243 messaged me and said he’s ready to turn the posting back over to me for a few months so I have photographed and uploaded all my chips (didn’t clean them yet) and will start posting shortly.

Category: Europe
City: London, England
Casino: Les Ambassadeurs Club

Today’s chip of the day is from Les Ambassadeurs Club in London, England. I had to do quite a bit of research for this club to piece together a proper history. The first casino opened at this location in May, 1961 as Le Cercle Club. From my research it seems that the building was called Les Ambassadeurs when it housed Le Cercle Club. In 1981 London Clubs International which is part of Caesars entertainment bought it. I believe this is when the casino became Les Ambassadeurs Club as well but I’m not sure. Les A as locals call it was sold to Bluestream Holdings in 2006 and then finally sold a third time in 2017 to Mr Cho Hung Suen who owns the Birmingham Football Club.

Given this info there are two possible reasons why I didn’t collect a chip there on my first visit to London in 2017. The first option is that it was still one of the clubs that was basically impossible to get a membership without being suggested by a current member which I have found with Crockfords and a few others in London. After the sale in 2017 they might have relaxed the membership a little to let normal folks like you and I sign up for a membership. The other option is I just flat out missed it in my research of casinos and clubs in London, either is very possible.

Now to my actual visit. I had two days in London before I made my way down to Dover for a cruise to Norway. I got to the club and signed up for a membership. The club is old and gorgeous and I felt very underdressed in jeans and a normal T-shirt. The main gaming room has 16 table games with well dressed croupiers. The official website says “16 tables on our main floor” but doesn’t list how many tables are in their private HL rooms or even how many private rooms they have. At the end of the gaming room is an area with about 30 slot machines. The main gaming area is beautiful which is not surprising as it’s the location that was used for Dr. No in 1962 where Sean Connery was the first Bond to utter the phrase “Bond, James Bond” on screen. The table limits were very high with the minimum bets starting at £50 ($61 USD). I played bj for about ten minutes and broke even on my £500 buy in. Not surprisingly on a table where the minimum bet is £50 there were no £1 chips in site so I kept a £5.

The chip is red with 4 white/black/white edge inserts. The centre inlay has a white border with 4 notches in it. The inlay is white with the club name in black in a horseshoe shape from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock. The centre of the chip has Les A in gold fancy lettering. Underneath that is the denom in gold with a black border, the BG logo for the maker of the chip and the location in black.

Focus and crop. Great job digging up the history!

I was having trouble getting my iPhone to focus sadly. I tried a bunch of times but it was not cooperating.

Have you considered trying to sober it up? ;-)

I was in a rush. I had like 90 chips to photograph and I left it to the last second. I leave my collection at my parents house so I can’t even redo it right now cause that is many many hours of driving away lol.

Category: Europe
City: London, England
Casino: Metropolitan Casino Mayfair

Today’s chip of the day is from Metropolitan Casino Mayfair in London, England. Last August I collected a chip from Park Lane Club and posted the chip here. I mentioned that the club had been sold to Metropolitan Gaming and would be rebranding as Metropolitan Lane Casino. I was correct about the sale but the rest of the info seems off. Metropolitan Casino Mayfair is just down the street from Park Lane and I found info that Park Lane is still open and I also found info that it is shut down, so basically I’m not sure.

This casino looks brand new and beautiful. There was a section for slots and the main area had the tables games. They also have an outdoor gaming area but I seemed to have missed that when I was there. As well they have private gaming areas for high rollers. I played £10 minimum bj and won £200. More importantly as I was chatting with the pit boss he suggested a restaurant that served authentic Neapolitan Italian food. Both he and the dealer were from Italy and said they love it there. I didn’t make it to the restaurant on that trip but I did go 6 weeks later when I was back in London. The food was amazing and I’d highly suggest people check out 50 Kalo in London if you’re in the area. I didn’t make a reservation and ended up waiting for 40 minutes so maybe make a reservation in advance.

The chip is red with 4 yellow/black/yellow edge inserts. There are 4 yellow rectangles alternating with the denom in yellow around the outside of the chip. The centre inlay is white with a gold “M”. The other side of the chip has a white inlay with the denom in gold.

I do like it when the obverse and reverse differ.
Those "5"s around the rim... are they printed on? It seems impractical to insert those into the composite.

The 5's are part of the mold and are not printed on. This is pretty common. If you break the chip the different colored parts of the mold will separate into individual pieces. This style is very popular in Canada.

Here are several examples from around the U.S. and elsewhere:

I should also probably point out that this mold, like the classic hat and cane mold by Paulson, also comes in two variations. The Paulson hat and cane mold has a short and long cane version. The manufacturer does not recognize the difference and uses both molds interchangeably. This results in 3 variations: a chip with the short cane variation (SCV) on both sides, a chip with the long cane variation (LCV) on both sides, and a chip with SVC on one side and the LCV on the other.

The denomination in the mold of these plastic chips also comes in 2 varieties: a small “$” and a large “$”. When the chips are ordered the manufacturer once again does not recognize the difference and uses both molds interchangeably. This creates chips with either the small “$” or the large “$” mold. One such example is shown below from the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg, MS.



If you look closely at the “$” you’ll see that the “S” on the small variation is less pronounced and the “|” is barely visible on the outer parts of the “S”.

Not all chips made by this manufacturer can be found with both small and large “$” variations. This may be due to the size of the order, as fewer chips might have been produced on a small number of dies all happening to have the same mold, or that the manufacturer eventually retired the older dies as they were no longer useable. It could also be that the improved their manufacturing process and this variation was eliminated through quality control. In either case, I know of about 9 such examples where the $1 casino chip was produced in both small and large “$” molds.

For some reason, I was thinking that the molded-in denominations around the rim appeared mirror-reversed on the reverse of the chip.

(I thought I had seen this on some B&G chips.)

State: Washington
City: Airway Heights
Casino: Spokane Tribe

Today’s chip of the day is from Spokane Tribe Casino in Airway Heights, Washington. This chip is the start of the end for the this thread when it comes to Washington. I finished collecting the last 27 chips currently available that haven’t been posted yet and a few that I didn’t have yet but had been posted by another member. After my cruise from England to Norway I flew back to Calagry to pick up my car and two days later I hit the road to collect chips on my way to Seattle for a cruise with a WoV member to Alaska.

My first stop was Spokane Tribe which originally was supposed to be a Hard Rock casino but he tribe decided to sever that partnership before the casino ever opened. The opening date was January 8th, 2018. The casino has 450 slot machines and 12 table games according to Casinocity but I think that is probably out of date. The smoking section had about that and I’d say there were another 150-200 slots and 7 tables in the non smoking session. I went to the non smoking section and played a new version of pai gow since the only bj tables were in the smoking area. I played supreme pai gow which is different in that the player antes, then gets 4 cards and can bet 1-4x based on those cards (or fold) before getting their last 3 cards. The catch is that the dealer gets 8 cards to make a 7 card pai gow hand. There is no commission. I played for a bit and lost $100 pretty quickly. I wasn’t a fan of the game at all and I don’t think I would have been even if I was winning. I like normal pai gow better than all these weird variations that keep coming out.

The chip is a white RHC with 3 turquoise edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with a red and a blue horse running towards each other. The casino name is in black/red while the denom and location are black.