Casino Chip of the Day

Category: Cruise ships
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Crown Princess

I sailed on the Crown Princess roundtrip from San Francisco from July 31 through August 11 with port calls in Alaska (Ketchikan, Sitka, and Haines) and Victoria, Canada.

Though I've been on several cruises, this was my first one on Princess which is known for being the line featured in the television show "The Love Boat." So I was excited about that, in addition to going on my first trip to Alaska. They give you occasional reminders about their Love Boat connection, such as slogans ("I LOVE this room!") and things like a Love Boat trivia session. Otherwise, it's the usual cruise ship sights and sounds, though with a bit of Alaska pride (even when we were in Canada).

The casino had the usual games, including $10 minimum craps where I won $40 on the first day.

They use a combination of chips like the one pictured and a generic Princess Cruises logo chip that I didn't keep.

Is this the only Labor Day $1 limited edition casino chip out there? As you can see, this house chip was produced to advertise their 1995 Labor Day Tournament. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Something new from Grand Casino in Hinckley, MN.

Very simple chip but I first reaction when I saw your post on fbook was how much I like it.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Auto/Truck Plaza

Sometimes called 76 Auto/Truck Plaza, was an odd location for a ”casino”. They opened for gaming in 1973 and operated until 2011 when it was sold and renamed Alamo Casino.



I can’t tell you much about the old 76 Auto/Truck Plaza, but I was at the Alamo Casino the week it put a black jack table, along with casino chips, in the property. In fact, I was the first to bring these chips to the attention of the casino chip collecting community. The location is what you might envision when thinking of a truck stop along the highway. It’s a crowded convenience store where they pushed aside some shelving units to make room for two black jack tables. When I asked about playing, they had to grab an employee to open the table and sell me some chips. I played a few hands, won maybe $20 or so, and pocketed a stack of $1 chips with a few $5’s to use as traders. I was impressed by the fact that their chips had different artwork on either side.



As one might imagine, operating gaming tables is labor intensive and takes up much more space than slot machines. A few years after that visit they removed the tables and only offer a few slot machines now, just like dozens of other small businesses in the Las Vegas area.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Ambassadors

Not much information on Ambassadors other than it looks like they opened in 1978 and closed in 1985 when it became La Mirage. This is their first $1 chip release. The subsequent release was a white gold hot stamp chip.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: La Mirage

When Ambassadors closed in 1985 it became La Mirage, not to be confused with The Mirage, when it reopened the following year. They operated until 1989 when it changed hands once more and became Anthony’s.

They issued this light blue plastic suited mold chip with a gold hot stamp.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Anthony’s

This is the next chip in the history of this property. First opened as Ambassadors in 1978, then becoming La Mirage in 1985, and now Anthony’s in 1989. This would be the final casinos until the property became a Quality Inn in 1993.

Like its predecessor, Anthony’s used the same light blue plastic suited mold chip with a gold hot stamp.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Big Al’s Speakeasy

When the Nashville Nevada Club closed in 1977 after 16 years in business, the property remained dormant until 1980 when it was briefly reopened as Big Al’s Speakeasy until closing for good later that same year.

They issued this light blue Paulson chip with a gold hot stamp.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Bingo Palace

Bingo Palace opened in 1978 on the spot of the previous casino, known simply as The Casino. They operated for 6 years before becoming what is now Palace Station.

They issued this classis coin-in-center chip on a chocolate-brown base with a dice and suits mold.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Carousel

The Carousel opened in 1965 in Downtown Las Vegas on the spot that was previouslySilver Palace. It operated until 1974 when it closed for a couple years before reopening as Sundance West.

They issues 2 different $1 chips during their years in operation. The first is this maroon chips with 3 green inserts and a delightful carousel image on the inlay with multicolor letters arranged in a fanciful manner.



Their second release was this is chip whose mold is known as horse head right. The off-white chip has 3 green inserts and a very harsh inlay with a font popular in those days.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Carver House

Carver House opened in 1961 and operated until 1965 when it became Cove Hotel before closing for good the following year.

This striking chip has a pair or maroon and navy inserts on an off-white base, making it favorite of collectors.

State: Texas
City: Watauga
Casino: Wild Card Poker Club

The Wild Card Poker Club opened in October 2022 and was closed down by the county the following month.

This ceramic chip has an orange-gold colored background with a white Greek key style border. The black inlay has the denomination in white with the Wild Card logo in blue which shown a diamond royal flush with a wild card replacing the king all set above the scripted name of the poker club.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: CBS Sports World

The CBS Sports World Casino opened on 29 August 1997 and was renamed Sports World Casino the following year.

They issued two $1 chips during this time. The first was this limited edition Grand Opening chip. This lavender 4-suits mold has the city/state in black text around the top of the inlay, the grand opening date along the bottom, and the words “Limited Edition” across the center. Red text is used for CBS Sports World Casino and the $1 denomination.



Their standard $1 house chip looks very similar to their grand opening chip, but with a few differences. The city is in black text along the top of the inlay and the state is now along the bottom. The grand opening date and limited edition text is removed. The red logo remains unchanged, although a bit larger. This house chips also includes two small black flags on either side of the denomination.

Quote: alpha1243

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: CBS Sports World

The CBS Sports World Casino opened on 29 August 1997 and was renamed Sports World Casino the following year.

They issued two $1 chips during this time. The first was this limited edition Grand Opening chip. This lavender 4-suits mold has the city/state in black text around the top of the inlay, the grand opening date along the bottom, and the words “Limited Edition” across the center. Red text is used for CBS Sports World Casino and the $1 denomination.

$1 CBS Sports World grand opening chip

link to original post

(snip)

Is that a hint of edge printing I see?

No edge printing. I think those are just 2 lavender lines in each white section of the chip.

Something new from theTreasure Chest in Kenner, LA.

.....

Quote: alpha1243

State: Texas
City: Watauga
Casino: Wild Card Poker Club

The Wild Card Poker Club opened in October 2022 and was closed down by the county the following month.

This ceramic chip has an orange-gold colored background with a white Greek key style border. The black inlay has the denomination in white with the Wild Card logo in blue which shown a diamond royal flush with a wild card replacing the king all set above the scripted name of the poker club.

link to original post

Now I want to hear about why it got shut down!

Quote: GenoDRPh

Now I want to hear about why it got shut down!
link to original post

They were in Watauga County, TX. That county is much less friendly to social clubs than other counties in the state.

Governors Lounge was closed down in Sep 2022 after being in operation for less than a year.



And then the Watauga Social Lounge was raided and closed in Oct 2022, also after being in operation for less than a year.



The main problem the county has with these social poker rooms is not the gambling, but the disruption to local businesses. These poker room are mainly located in strip malls alongside other businesses. The landlords designed these strip malls with parking lots sized to accommodate customers going in and out of the stores. Poker players stay parked much longer; longer even than restaurant customers would. So the parking lots are now full of cars, so customers wanting to frequent the other shops in the strip mall have no place to park. These other strip mall tenants have a valid argument.

On top of the congested parking lots, these poker rooms have longer hours of operation with many not closing until 2 a.m. or later on the weekends. This sometimes causes additional security concerns or generates extra trash which adds to the frustration of the other tenants. Eventually the county steps in. Since the county already approved the business license for the poker room, then can't just change their minds, so they usually stake out the poker rooms for several weeks or months until they can find some other pretense with which to close them down. This usually results in suspicion of money laundering, failure to submit currency transaction reports (CTRs), or the poker rooms simply breaking Texas gambling laws by having chips removed from the tables in the form of rake or tips.

Dallas sits in a county that looks upon these social clubs in the same light and have made it very difficult for them to operate. This is why clubs have popped up outside of the city to service the residents of Dallas.

Let me know if anyone is interested in buying these chips/coins. Obviously, I'll just cash in the Aria chips. Most of the chips are cashable but they hold a premium for collectors.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Moulin Rouge

The Moulin Rouge casino was originally opened between 1955 and 1959 but was reopened in 1993. This chip is from their reopening as prior to that they simply used $1 coins. The casino operated for another 3 years before closing for good in 1996.

They produced a very nice $1 chip with a light blue base and three pairs of pink-green inserts. The inlay features a can-can girl with the casino name and denomination in red and Las Vegas, Nevada below that in black text.

I really like the bright colours and how they go with each other.

I rather like that the skirt resembles a rose.

State: Texas
City: Katy
Casino: Katy Poker

I always check Poker Atlas when I’m planning my Texas Poker Road Trip. For several weeks prior to my departing, a new club, called Katy Poker, was listed as ”coming soon”. I reached out to the club asking when they expect to open and was able to time my trip so that I would be in Katy when they were opened. I’m glad that I did because from what I experienced, this poker room will not be in business for long.

The club is in a new location, meaning that they didn’t take over the space of a previous poker club. It’s a bright little room, but was empty on a Thursday evening with the exception of 3-4 players sitting at the only table in operation. I asked at the desk if there was a game going, and they said yes while pointing to the table. They waived the membership fee, saying that they are a new club and are looking to attract new players, so no membership fee for now. I asked about the rake, knowing that they wouldn’t abide by Texas state law and charge an hourly seat fee. Sure enough, they rake $10 per pot: $2 once the pot reaches $30 (no rake if the pot is smaller), $5 at $50, and $10 at $70. This is a pretty steep rake, but maybe the game would be juicy.



I bought in for $400 at the cage. On the walk to the table I pocketed a $25 chip, two $5 chips, and fifteen $1 chips ($50 total) and sat with the remaining $350 at the $1/$2 NLHE table. This is my usual routine. They offered a bad beat jackpot for quads beaten, though I don’t recall the payout. Food and drinks were provided and served by a couple of young Asian girls dressed as hookers. The dealer was not very experienced and let the players run over the table. As I was getting settled in at my seat I observed a hand in progress. Both players checked the river. This is when the player in Seat 8 announces “straight”, though there was no straight possible on the board and he did not table his hand. The clueless player in Seat 3 next to me was holding jack-high and was about to muck. Seat 8 eventually tables his hand. He’s holding trey-deuce and is playing the board, so Seat 3’s jack-high is good. The dealer announces that Seat 8 is playing the board. Seat 3 finally tables the winner and is pushed the small pot. This is when Seat 8 erupts, telling the dealer to keep his mouth shut. They argue a bit before I interject and tell Seat 8 that he cannot announce a hand at showdown without tabling that hand or better, else he loses any right to the pot since he’s doing this to get a player to fold. He tells me that he can say whatever he wants and the dealer should butt out.

I get dealt my first hand. We’re playing 4-handed with 2 stacks sitting in front of empty chairs. They play with a PLO bomb pot button, so this means that we’re playing a PLO bomb pot after just 3 hands of NLHE. Seat 8 soon understands that I’m not going to take any angle-shooting from him and decides to leave the game. Now we’re 3 handed. I tell the dealer I’ll sit out the bomb pots until the two players who own the stacks in front of the empty chairs return. He makes no motion to call them or speculate where they might be. After a few hands a new dealer comes to the table to relieve our dealer who immediately picks his tips out of the dealer well and sits down in seat 8 with about $43. The game is a $100 minimum buy-in. I ask him what he’s doing and am told he thought he’d play a while just to keep the game going. When I tell him that the min buy-in is $100, he quietly picks up and walks to the back of the room. Now it’s clear that the two empty seats are just for show – there are no players. The house and dealers allow this so they can run what looks like a busy table when in fact it’s just the 3 of us. I decide to pick up after having bluffed Seat 3 out of a couple tiny pots.

No one is at the cage. Our original dealer sees me standing there waiting and walks over to say that he’ll text the owner. After a couple of texts and no response he says that he can cash me out and proceeds to pull out his wallet. I have $372 in chips. He assembles a pile of folded and mangled $100, $50, $20, and $1 bills until he’s got the total correct. I’m satisfied with my small $22 profit and even more satisfied that I visited Katy Poker to pick up some nice clean chips before this place goes out of business.

Yikes, that sounds like a mess of a room.

State: Texas
City: Houston
Casino: Lucky J Social Club

This was the very first Texas social club I played at during my first trip in 2021. It was called 52 Social South back then. It's gone through several changes since, starting with Johnny Chan's 888 Social, then 101 Poker Richmond, and then Elite Social Club. I visited last year when it was Elite Social Club, but they were using a mix of chips from when it was known at 52 Social South and 101 Poker Richmond. I was hoping that they would have "Elite" logo chips this year. The signage on the building now read Lucky J Social Club. I asked if they still used the old chips and was told that yesterday was the last day that those chips could be redeemed. She went on to tell me that their grand opening would be on 11 Oct, but that the new chips were put into play this evening. Perfect timing!



They honored my old 101 Poker Richmond membership card, but unlike all of the previous iterations through the years, Lucky J would not charge an hourly seat fee. They raked $5 at $50 and another $5 at $100, but they do this in a matter that I can only imagine that they think is legal. Once the pot reached $50, the dealer removes a $5 chip from the pot, places it in his well, then picks up a time chip and places it over the drop slot. If the pot reaches $100, he removes another $5 chip from the pot and places that on the drop slot. Once the hand ends he deposits both chips into the drop. Every once in a while he'll call for a fill and a chip runner will appear with two stacks of time chips which are exchanged for two stacks of $5 chip from the dealer's well. I never got a close look at these time chips, but they were bright light-blue with a variation of the Lucky J logo on them. It wouldn't be the only time I'd see this practice as I'd run across it later in the trip at the Doghouse Poker Club.

I bought in for $350 but immediately lost it when I was dealt pocket jacks on the very first hand. We were playing $1/$3 with a $6 straddle and two players called. I raised to $36 and we went 5-way to a flop of 5-3-2 rainbow. Two players shoved in front of me and I called. One player tabled pocket aces and the big stack tabled 6-4. I would rebuy twice for $500 during this wild session. After getting stacked a final time I headed out a $1,300 loser. It had been a long first day that had me starting this year's Texas Poker Road Trip off in the hole. I hopped in the car and headed to Roegels Barbecue in Katy to grab a BBQ brisket sandwich just as they were closing up for the day.

State: Texas
City: College Station
Casino: Jokers of Aggieland Poker Club

I saw a picture of the $1 Jokers of Aggieland chip before heading to Texas and knew it would be one of my stops on this year's road trip. There were only a few poker rooms in College Station, and upon further inspection it appeared that Jokers of Aggieland was operating at the same location as Texas Ave Social Poker Club. I arrived at 7:30pm to find that Jokers expanded upon the space that Texas Ave occupied by knocking out the adjoining wall to the next unit in the strip mall thereby giving them enough space to add 4 more tables. Several players were on line at the cage to get chips for a game that was just about to start. They collected a $5 membership fee and I purchased $300 worth of chips and was also given a seat number card. That was something new. I asked what happened to Texas Ave and the owner said that the 2 clubs combined earlier in the year and took the name of Jokers. They did not charge an hourly seat fee as Texas Ave had, but rake $5 per pot instead. Again, a time chip is used for this, but this time I was able to get my hands on five of those chips. Few $1 chips are used in play, so it took an hour or more of play to accumulate enough to bring home. You'll also notice the unique orange $25 chips. They look even better in person.



They also use a bomb pot button, but this was a Dealer's Choice button. Players could select almost any game. The first time it came into play the player selected 4-Card Crazy Pineapple where players ante $5, are dealt 4 cards, and discard 1 card after the flop and 1 after the turn. You can see the cards being dealt in the picture below. I was dealt AAT8, raised to $30 and got 2 callers. The flop came AK8. I discarded my T, bet $55, and got 1 caller. The turn was an 8, I discarded my 8, bet $75, and got the call. The river was a 7. I moved all-in for my remaining $107. My opponent squirmed for quite a long time before folding pocket kings face up! Good start to my session.



The drive back to Houston would take just over an hour, so as the fish busted out and were replaced by more seasoned players, I decided it was time to grab a rack and lock up the $290 win.

State: Texas
City: Richmond
Casino: Broadway Poker Club

On the way back to Katy I made the detour to Richmond to play at Broadway Poker Club. I'd seen this card room on Google Maps for several years, but never saw any other indication that the place was still opened and never saw any chips listed anywhere. I tracked down a phone number and called the owner a few days prior who said that they are only opened a few nights each week and alternate between NLHE and PLO. I was informed that Friday was PLO and Saturday was NLHE, but to call before driving there to make sure that they actually had enough players for a game. It was Saturday and when I called was told that they had 1 seat opened at the only table running this evening.

It's located in a tiny strip mall, with little signage, and players are buzzed in. There's a tiny anteroom big enough to fit 2 people until you're buzzed in a second door. I was greeted by the Indian gentleman I spoke with on the phone. I followed him to the cage where I bought in for $500. He returned to the table with me where he was also playing. Most players had stacks of $800 to $1,000. The dealer looked to be taking a $5 rake from each pot. There was also a double-board PLO bomb pot button in use, but I sat back when that was dealt and watched players lose their minds, and most of their chips. It was already late when I arrived, so I played an hour or so before collecting the chips I'd come for and adding another $143 to my growing pile of winnings.



Again, we see the ChipLab set of chips in play here. These white chips with the blue and gray inserts are used by several poker rooms in Texas and elsewhere. It still amazes me that these rooms don't care about security. Anyone can purchase a bunch of these chips from ChipLab and redeem them at the cage. Just bring a stack or two of 18 white $1 chips or the red $5 chips with you, stick them in a full rack with a legitimate house chip on either end, and the cashier will never notice them since they just run a single chip across the edges to make sure the stacks are full, or may pull out one of the stacks on the end to count them down. Yeah, it's not much, but it'll work with $25 and $100 chips too in bigger games. I guess it's not enough of an issue for them to bother with.

State: Texas
City: Round Rock
Casino: Austin Social Lounge

Austin Social Lounge is the previous Poker House Austin.

State: Texas
City: Austin
Casino: Pecan Street Social

Pecan Street Social opened on 23 July 2024 in downtown Austin.

State: Texas
City: Killeen
Casino: Just Jacks

Just Jacks was the previous Rolled Jacks, but moved into a new location.

State: Texas
City: Killeen
Casino: Poker Plus Social

Poker Plus Social opened in September 2024.

State: Texas
City: New Braunfels
Casino: Comal Card House

Comal Card House opened in June 2024.

State: Texas
City: San Antonio
Casino: Ace Card Club

Ace Card Club opened 9 September 2024.

State: Texas
City: San Antonio
Casino: The BIG BLIND

The BIG BLIND opened 16 January 2024.

I am such a procrastinator, I wrote this on October 15.

Normally I would post these as chip of the days but since Doc is no longer keeping the index intact I figured it would just be easier to post them all at once. I’m currently sitting on the plane from Manila to Vancouver so I figured I’d do some writing and post them when I land. I’ve spent the majority of the last 2.5 months in the Philippines with 4 days in Brunei, 4 days in Macau and 10 days in Indonesia. While in the Philippines I went to Palawan, Cebu, Angeles and Batangas other than Manila.

Brunei has no casinos and yes it is as boring as advertised if you’ve ever read about the country. It is a very rich, very small country on an island shared with Malaysia and Indonesia. Mostly the reason I used this short trip as a visa renewal from the Philippines (visa only lasts 30 days) is because eventually I would like to go to every country and Manila is one of the cheapest places to fly direct to Brunei. I spent 4 days there with a girl I met in Manila and other than there being nothing to do I also figured out that I wasn’t interested in this girl at all.

I went to Indonesia for nerd reasons. I play Pokémon Go and every year they hold in person special events around the world about 20 times a year. I’ve always wanted to go to one so I checked where the Asian ones were and this 2 day event made the most sense. The event was in Jakarta which is not a very exciting city but I didn’t care cause I went to play the game for 8 hours both days. I went, I played, I got sun burnt and I left lol. Since I was already in Indonesia I decided to check out Bali. My friend and his gf were supposed to come but he lost his passport so that didn’t happen. The new girl that I had been seeing for a month couldn’t get away from work so I went solo. Ubud in Bali was a lot of fun, I took a jeep up a mountain for sunrise, trekked on volcanic rock and soaked in natural hot springs one day and the next I did a full day tour of a bunch of big tourist spots. I then moved to the beach town of Canggu where I basically didn’t leave the hotel for two days as I got violently ill. I basically slept and ran to and from the bathroom nonstop, it wasn’t fun. When I got back to Manila the girl I was seeing forced me to go see a doctor and I’m glad she did. I was just going to let it pass but I got prescription meds that had me feeling much better within 8 hours. The test results came back with nothing but I got better so I guess doctors are good lol.

Now to the topic of this thread which is the chips. Macau was the third place I went for a visa renewal and I had been once before back in 2017. I got most of the chips back then but I did miss a few due to lack of information available. As it has been 7 almost 8 years I don’t remember which I missed except one which is Ponte 16 and I got it this trip. I got 7 new chips for my collection but didn’t get the one I really wanted. There is a casino owned by Sands/Venetian called The Parisian. The 5 Sands owned casinos don’t seem to mind mixing in chips from their other casinos which makes it a bit tougher to collect. At Venetian they use Sands chips for the small denoms so I had to collect a 25 chip there. Well at The Parisian they use other casino’s chips for everything but the 1000 HKD chip. 1000 HKD is about 140 USD if my memory is correct and in 2017 I was extremely broke and couldn’t bring myself to keep the chip. I have regretted it ever since and since money is not an issue to me any more I planned on keeping the chip this time around. The most expensive chip in my collection is a 25 pound chip from the Barracuda Casino in London. They use generic Grosvenor chips for everything under £25 so I kept that chip for my collection. This Parisian chip would have been a lot more expensive than £25. Sadly when I got to The Parisian they had removed all the 1k chips that said Parisian and were using the generic Venetian chips. I found a picture of the chip on the chipguide and it has very distinct coloured inserts so I walked from table to table looking at the 1k chip stacks in the tray trying to find one. After about 30-40 tables and 200 1k chips per tray I found nothing… I was sad.

I’m now going to post one by one the chips but I’m not waiting to post one per day.

Category: Asia
City: Macau, Macau
Casino: Legends Palace

The first chip I did collect is from Legends Palace. It was still under construction the first time I visited Macau. The casino is small with baccarat tables in two rooms, the lower limit tables have two dealers taking bets on a double sized table with one of them opening the baccarat hands. The higher limit tables are normal with one dealer and the players get to open the cards. I played a few hands of baccarat to collect my chip. There are no slot machines at this casino and no non baccarat tables either which is not that uncommon in Macau. Tables are by far the most popular gaming and baccarat is by far the most popular game. I got in trouble at Legends Palace for using my phone to translate using my camera but I was able to show I was translating not taking pictures. (I also took pictures)

The casino logo clearly has an L and P intertwined but the chips have a logo that look like a L and a D.


I have no explanation for this and due to the language barrier there is no chance I was getting one. The 500 and above chips have a beautiful crackling gold design around the chip similar to the new Strat chips but sadly the lower denoms didn’t have that same feature for cost reasons.


The chip I kept is a 10 HKD brown chip with 8 white edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with Sociedade De Jogos De Macau, SA on it in black. The SJM logo can be seen on the centre right of the chip. SJM is the name of the company that owns about half the casinos in Macau and they use generic SJM chips at most of their casinos but a few have their own chips, I have no idea why. The LP which to me looks like LD is in gold along with the denom in gold. There is a black serial number on the bottom of the inlay. The opposite side of the chip is the same except the writing and denom are in Chinese, not sure if it’s Cantonese or Mandarin.

Category: Asia
City: Macau, Macau
Casino: Casa Real

The next chip is from the casino I stayed at both times in Macau, Casa Real. This is another SJM casino and as I mentioned uses generic SJM chips. However there is something in Asian casinos called junkets and rolling chips. Basically rolling chips are chips you buy that have to be bet and then the casino gives you a rebate later based on how much you play. These rolling chips are different and not generic at some casinos. Here comes the problem, due to the language barrier it’s basically impossible for me as a white guy to get these chips. At this casino I saw a Chinese guy sitting at a baccarat table playing with rolling chips and was able to get him to trade me one of his 100 chips for one of mine without being able to explain using words. When I left the table I realized this chip was actually in Chinese Yuan which means I paid him 9 HKD less than it was worth, oops.

The chip is the same gold crackling type of chip as the higher denom chips at Legends Palace. It has 6 yellow edge inserts. The centre inlay is white with SJM spelled out in black and the SJM logo. There is a serial number on the edge of the chip and what sort of looks like a serial number on the inlay but I don’t think it is. The denom is silver and the centre of the inlay has a bridge that reminds me of the Golden Gate Bridge but that seems highly unlikely. The opposite side is the same but with Chinese writing part of which I translated to Yuan which is how I found out that the chip wasn’t in HKD.

Category: Asia
City: Cotai, Macau
Casino: MGM Cotai

Next casino is MGM Cotai. I had collected from their casino on the main island on my last trip but this casino was under construction back then. The opening was then delayed 3-4 times spanning I think 2 or so years, it obviously went wayyyyy over budget. Inside it looks like a classic MGM Vegas style casino with a few hundred slot machines and 500+ table games mostly baccarat but a fair amount of other options as well. There was a poker series running while I was there so the casino was busier than some others I visited that night.

I collected a blue 25 HKD chip with 16 red edge inserts. The centre inlay is white and shiny. The MGM logo, Cotai and the denom are all in black.

Category: Asia
City: Cotai, Macau
Casino: Grand Lisboa Palace

One of the newer casinos in Macau is Grand Lisboa Palace in Cotai beside Wynn Palace. It’s a beautiful gothic looking building. Inside they have a few hundred slot machines and 300+ table games. They had a few beatable IGT slots which most of the casinos in Macau don’t. I played baccarat to get my chip. The casino is owned by SJM, while Grand Lisboa on the main island uses generic chips this one has chips with their logo on them.

The chip is blue with 12 brown edge inserts and SJM 6 times in white. The centre inlay is white with SJM spelled out and the serial number in black. The denom is gold and black. The gold logo is interesting. I can see the LP for Lisboa Palace but I can’t make out the G. The opposite side of the chip has the SJM logo in the middle and Chinese writing.

Category: Asia
City: Cotai, Macau
Casino: The Londoner

Sands Cotai which I collected from last time has since been rebranded The Londoner. I was hoping for some nice chips but sadly we got a new and only used here Sands Resorts chip. I kept it as it’s different and only used at this casino. The casino has a massive gaming floor with 200+ gaming tables and two side rooms with 300+ slots. I played BJ here to get my chip with some ladies cheering me on for some reason.

The chip is blue with 4 green edge inserts. The centre inlay is a mess of colours that sort of resembles a nature scene but not really. Sands Resorts and the denom are black with the denom twice in white around the edge of the inlay.

Category: Asia
City: Macau, Macau
Casino: Kampek

Kampek is another SJM casino but the chipguide has a SJM chip with their logo listed. I wasn’t able to get this one but I did manage to get a non generic rolling chip at a baccarat table the same way as I did before. I believe this one is HKD.

The chip is dark green with SJM spelled out in even darker dark green around the chip. The chip has 6 blue/tan/blue edge inserts. The centre inlay is sparkly blue with a building that looks like the space needle a bit but I assume is a building in either Macau or Hong Kong. The denom is gold, the serial number is black and the SJM logo is in the top left.

Category: Asia
City: Macau, Macau
Casino: Ponte 16

The last chip I collected here is one that I missed in 2017. Ponte 16 is isolated away from any other casinos on the west side of the main island. I took a taxi here and played baccarat to get the chip. All the gaming on both floors is table games except for about 30 machines on each floor.

The chip is blue with a silver centre inlay where Ponte 16 is written many times. Because of the shiny inlay you can’t see it in the first picture but you can in the one of the Chinese side. SJM is spelled out in black with the SJM logo under it. The denom is in the middle of the inlay with the Ponte 16 slanted 16 logo on the bottom of the inlay and the serial number beside it. The other side is the same in Chinese and like I said you can see the Ponte 16 written all over the inlay.

Category: Asia
City: Manila, Philippines
Casino: Casino Filipino City State

I collected the Manila chips slowly but surely as I spent about 6 weeks there and wasn’t in a hurry.

The first casino was Casino Filipino City State which is run by Pagcor which is like the gaming commission. They have a bunch of casinos most that use the same chips but they also have a hand in some of the other casinos and I’m not quite sure how much they are involved. There are also non Pagcor casinos and they operate like USA Indian casinos in that they govern themselves and somehow don’t have to answer to anyone. One of them stole 60k pesos ($1000 USD) from my friend when he was making a deposit for play and he found out after he had no recourse cause they don’t answer to anyone, very scary. Back to the casino, it was small and dingy which is how most of the Pagcor casinos are. It had slots on the main floor and tables on the second floor. There were about 8 tables and a few dozen slots. I played blackjack to collect my chip and for some reason kept a 10 peso and 100 peso chip, I’m not sure why.

The white chip has 4 double layered blue edge inserts and the denom listed 4 times in blue. The centre inlay is a metal coin which is my favourite type of chip. The coin inlay has Casino Filipino New Pagcor written on it with Philippines on the bottom. In the middle is the logo which looks like a sun with wings. The 100 peso chip is yellow with 8 black/green/black edge inserts. 4 black rectangles and 4 black denoms alternate around the chip. The centre inlay is made to look like a metal coin but it’s fake. It has the same writing as the white chip.

Category: Asia
City: Manila, Philippines
Casino: Lavie

Next up is Lavie Casino which is a former Pagcor casino that got a redesign and new name. I’m not sure how that works exactly other than Google maps still thinks there is a Pagcor casino in this location but there obviously isn’t. Lavie Casino has two floors of gaming, the main floor has about 100-150 slots and 40 tables while the second floor has 30 or so slots and 10 tables. There is also a HL room I didn’t go into and the 3rd floor is a VIP casino. The first gaming floor also has a small poker room but I’ll get to that later. I played baccarat to get my chip.

The chip is green with 5 black/green/black edge inserts. The denom is in black 4 times around the chip. The centre inlay is white with the casino name in blue and the denom in gold with a black border. The word cash is present to distinguish between the money chips and the free play chips I assume. The logo looks like an abstract rainbow of some sort.

Category: Asia
City: Manila, Philippines
Casino: Red Dragon Poker

Next chip is Red Dragon Poker which is the poker room that operates inside of Lavie Casino. I don’t know for sure but I think they rent the space from the casino which is why they use their own chips. I played about 30 minutes of 50/100 no limit which is like $0.90/$1.80 USD. The game was small and boring which is why I didn’t play long.

The chip is green with 4 triangular white/brown/white/brown/white edge inserts. The denom is listed 4 times in white around the chip. The centre inlay is silver with the poker room name in red and a red dragon in the shape of a spade. The denom is listed in black.

Category: Asia
City: Manila, Philippines
Casino: Xi Lai Deng

Next casino is Xi Lai Deng which was a few minutes walk away from Lavie. There were two casinos in this small mall. The one on the second floor was called Royal Palace and although they have plans to add tables they only currently have slots. On the third floor has the junket casino Xi Lai Deng. This casino was very fancy with about 10-15 tables. I played baccarat to collect my chip and they made a comment about how I couldn’t take a chip when I asked to colour down my 1k chip, I obviously took one anyway.

The chip is green with 8 yellow edge inserts and 4 yellow half circles around the chip. The centre inlay is white with a yellow border. The casino name and denom are black. The logo looks like a red dragon head with a messed up body.

Category: Asia
City: Manila, Philippines
Casino: Okada

Next casino is Okada which is one of the biggest and fanciest casinos which makes it sadder that decided to buy cheap flimsy chips for everything under 10k pesos ($175). The casino is very large with hundreds of slots and tables. I stayed here comped a few times when I found enough slot plays to warrant them comping me. I played some poker here during the AAPT tour that was running there in late July/early August. I played the biggest game they had which was 500/1k ($9/$18). I won 300k the first night and then lost it all back a few nights later.

The chip is green with 3 pink edge inserts. There are 3 pink okada logos around the chip. The logo is 7 circles which sort of look like a flower to me. The centre inlay is white with a pink border. The casino name, logo and location are all purple. The denom is black. Like I said the chip weighs almost nothing and is super flimsy. A lot of the chips were damaged and in horrible shape.

Category: Asia
City: Manila, Philippines
Casino: Masters Poker

Masters Poker Manila is a small poker room with about 6 tables. It was near the first hotel I stayed at in Malate which turns out isn’t a very good area. I think I played 50/100 for about a hour before leaving cause again the game was boring. The poker room was also very warm and therefore uncomfortable. I lost about 12k pesos in the game. This is the room I found out about the Philippines and their love of insurance. The house in most poker rooms offers insurance when both players are all in. The player that is ahead can buy insurance against the house at a house edge of like 15-20%. Not only is this gross and absurd but it always takes the player 3-5 minutes to decide whether to take it and for how much. It’s tilting beyond belief and as well it’s horrible for the game because the house is taking chips off the table. I had problems with this in a bunch of rooms I played in all over the Philippines and it was always a waste of time.

The chip is actually very nice in my opinion. It’s red with 6 what I’m going to call double icicle inserts with 3 diamonds all in white. There are 3 pairs of poker diamonds in white around the chip. The centre inlay is shiny red with the room name 5 times around the inlay. The logo is a M and a club intertwined with the location and denom underneath all in white.