Casino Chip of the Day

State: Louisiana
City: Baton Rouge
Casino: Belle of Baton Rouge

When I visited Baton Rouge last February, there were two casinos in town, and they were both riverboats docked on the Mississippi River, right next to the main downtown area, about a mile and a quarter apart. The new L'auberge Casino is downsteam a ways from town, about seven miles straight line. The more southern of the downtown casinos is the Belle of Baton Rouge, and it is located just upstream of the I-10 bridge over the river.

As is the case with many of the riverboat casinos, a substantial part of the complex is built on land, with the boat housing the gaming facilities. In Baton Rouge, being on solid land near the river usually means being across the levee. I'm not sure, but I suspect that the streets near the waterfront are often lower than the river, relying on the levee for their protection. I'll have more to say about river levels when this thread gets to the other "downtown" casino, which is positioned outside of the levee.

Gaining entrance directly to the Belle casino (without coming from the hotel) involves starting at street level, elevating to the top of the levee (possibly by driving to an upper level of the parking garage), and then walking one of the bridges out to the boat. The one time I have visited the Belle, I was rewarded for that effort by having the best session of that Louisiana trip, +$250 at craps. Actually, I won at all four casinos I visited that day, but this was the "big win" location.

The Belle of Baton Rouge has had an interesting history, all while tied up at the same spot in the river. It opened for business under that name in November 1994, but in August 1999 it became the Argosy Casino. Then, in October 2005, the name was changed back to Belle of Baton Rouge. I haven't bothered to track down the ownership history during these name changes, but the casino currently belongs to Tropicana Entertainment.

The chip shown below is another white Paulson hat and cane chip, with the Long Cane Version of the pattern clearly shown – how can I go so long between LCV Paulson chips and then wind up having them two days in a row? After that "well, it could be LCV/SCV" thinking yesterday, I figured I should think about this one, too. The MOGH catalog shows various Belle of Baton Rouge (current edition) $1 chips like this that are LCV, SCV, and LCV/SCV. So I pulled yet another chip out from under the glass, and whadayaknow – this one turns out to be LCV/SCV, and I don't have a photo of the SCV side.

As I reported when I didn't have a photo of the UV hidden image on my Grand Victoria chip, the lens I use for taking these photos is in the shop, so I owe this thread another image in this post, and I will take care of that when I get my equipment back.

The chip has two triangular edge inserts in green and turquoise. (Anyone got a better name for the color?) At least I got my shot of the chip under UV light before I had lens problems, and you can see the hidden Paulson logo fluorescing on this chip also.



Edit 12/28/12: Here is the additional image I promised, showing the SCV side of this chip.

Quote: Doc

... how can I go so long between LCV Paulson chips and then wind up having them two days in a row?

... whadayaknow – this one turns out to be LCV/SCV, and I don't have a photo of the SCV side.

Perhaps there are a few LCV/SCV chips within that long string without any LCV chips.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Perhaps there are a few LCV/SCV chips within that long string without any LCV chips.

Could be, but no.

I checked again, and although there have been quite a few RHC Paulson chips in that period, I did not post any LCV, SCV, or LCV/SCV chips between the Western (September 10) and and the Amelia Belle (yesterday). Of course, I am not considering the chips that rdw4potus posted while I was out of the country -- I only get to see one side of those chips.

State: Louisiana
City: Bossier City
Casino: Boomtown

There are two Boomtown casinos in Louisiana, so I am presenting them in the alphabetical order of their cities. Today's Boomtown Casino is one of three riverboat casinos clustered within about three-fourths of a mile of each other along the Bossier City (eastern) side of the Red River, with the Margaritaville Casino under construction just half a mile further upstream. There are two more casinos in the same immediate area but docked on the Shreveport side of the river.

I wonder how much this concentration of such gaming facilities is related to the fact that casino-deprived Texas begins only about twenty miles to the west. Seems I recall some Texan posted on this forum that he considered one of the Shreveport/Bossier City establishments to be his "home" casino because it was only half a day's drive away, closer than the ones in Albuquerque.

The casino originally opened in October 1996 using the name Casino Magic!, and yes, the exclamation point was part of the casino name, though the owner was Casino Magic Corporation, without the extra punctuation. In 1998, Pinnacle Entertainment (then named Hollywood Park, Inc.) bought Casino Magic Corp. and continued to operate the riverboat under the same name.

That casino officially closed at the end of June 2002 and re-opened under its present name the following day. There were renovations to the boat involved in this, but I don't know to what extent they occurred before/after the name change. In this renaming, Pinnacle made use of their ownership of the trademark they acquired when they purchased/merged with Boomtown, Inc. back in 1997. I have no idea why they waited four years to change the name on this boat after they bought it.

I had not visited the Shreveport/Bossier City area in the past forty years, so when I planned my trip last winter, I didn't have a lot of mailers offering me great room rates at the casino hotels. Instead, my wife and I stayed at a little chain motel about a quarter mile from the driveway into the Boomtown parking lot. My bankroll had a rather typical roller-coaster day as I scrambled around the casinos in the area, but at least the Boomtown crap table only managed to drain $25 from my wallet.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson chip with two triangular edge inserts in olive and dark green. The center inlay has an overall gold tone and an old-fashioned style font for the casino name. I don't know whether that font is an official corporate logo, as some of the same-named casinos use it on their chips while others do not. UV light reveals the Paulson logo, with nothing else fluorescing, except for a couple of smudges.

DJTB has pointed out that such stray fluorescence may have come from manufacturing sloppiness, but in this case, there is no fluorescent clay that should have been present during the chip pressing. My guess is that some other chips used in the house, perhaps some of the $5 ones, are made with a fluorescent clay component and that there was transfer to this chip during handling and scraping together in play. That's just a guess, but you can see some small red streaks on the H&C logos in the 4 and 8 o'clock positions in the visible-light photo, and these correspond to the locations of the stray fluorescence.

Here are my Belle of Baton Rouge and Boomtown Bossier chips. I have been to each property once, during a 5 day trip last fall when I drove from New Orleans to Lake Charles to Shreveport to Tunica to Biloxi and back to New Orleans. The Belle is pretty close to my mental image of a modern riverboat casino. In other words, it was exactly what I was expecting. I really didn't do much there - I played a little BJ and moved on. My chip from the Belle is a Paulson LCV (at least on this side of the chip...). It has very little surface dirt/gunk, but also a very satisfyingly rounded edge. I'm not sure how that's come to be, but I approve.

I am generally very impressed by the Bossier/Shreveport casinos. I don't think they feel much like boats at all. They don't strike me as having a situation like at HSI or even Amelia Belle or the Belle of Baton Rouge where there's this very pointed "I'm getting on the boat now" moment, and I take that to be a sign that they're very well presented. Boomtown is an odd member of the Pinnacle family. The Boomtowns are nice casinos, I had fun and I'd go back (maybe next month - I'll be in Dallas...), but Pinnacle's other properties are, well, the Pinnacle. River City, Lumiere Place, L'Auberge, and Belterra are top of the line casinos. They'd fit in center-strip in Vegas. I don't know, maybe Boomtown would too, but in the role played by Bill's. My chip from Boomtown Bossier is a somewhat-dirty, somewhat-chipped Paulson SCV (at least on this side).

Sorry, rdw, but you missed a little on that Boomtown chip. It's an RHC Paulson, not the SCV. The two logos at the 1:30 and 7:30 positions have their canes in reversed directions from all of the others. I'm pretty sure you know the difference between these versions of Paulson chips, but in case anyone else doesn't, the topic is covered at this FAQ page at the MOGH site, about half way down the page. I suspect rdw4potus just got tripped up by the recent discussions of SCV and LCV vs LCV/SCV, with the last of those being the chips with different patterns on opposite sides.

I suspect it is much easier for the Bossier City and Shreveport casinos to have smooth transitions from land to riverboat, compared to the other boats you mentioned. I'm not sure of this, but I suspect that the Red River has much less seasonal change in its level than the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. If I'm right, it shouldn't be necessary to have the extremely long ramps like at the Belle of Baton Rouge or the entrance deck changes like at Horseshoe Southern Indiana.

Quote: Doc

Sorry, rdw, but you missed a little on that Boomtown chip. It's an RHC Paulson, not the SCV.

So, you're saying I should take more than 30 seconds to examine the chip, possibly looking at more than one icon before posting? We're not all retired, you know;-)

Quote: rdw4potus

We're not all retired, you know

I'll repeat one one of my favorite quips: Unemployment can be really nice, as long as you can afford it.

Quote: Doc

Unemployment can be really nice, as long as you can afford it.

Perhaps I'll be $500MM richer after tomorrow night!

Quote: rdw4potus

Perhaps I'll be $500MM richer after tomorrow night!

If that were to be the case, would you consider that your new bankroll amount?

Are the Louisiana riverboats actually able to cruise away under their own power? I would enjoy a cruise if one were offered... anywhere.

I just realized that this thread could be a great reference for the future while planning out vacations...not all of the casinos on this list have a detailed review, but almost all of them at least have a cursory "here's the atmosphere at this place" kind of a recap from Doc and/or rdw4potus. I haven't been reading every post so far, but I'll probably come back and make use of it in the future! Thanks for keeping the index updated, Doc.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Are the Louisiana riverboats actually able to cruise away under their own power? I would enjoy a cruise if one were offered... anywhere.

I don't know whether they are "able" to do it or not, but I'm confident you won't see that happen. The casinos don't want to create any barrier to one more or a hundred more customers coming aboard at just any old time, so they stay right there at the dock. Now there are a several cruising casinos in other states, but they only do that because they are not allowed to operate at shore.

There are also cruising riverboats elsewhere, and I have been on the ones that make short trips at Tunica and New Orleans. They are a lot of fun it their own right, but those don't have casinos on board.

Quote: Doc

I don't know whether they are "able" to do it or not, but I'm confident you won't see that happen. The casinos don't want to create any barrier to one more or a hundred more customers coming aboard at just any old time, so they stay right there at the dock. Now there are a several cruising casinos in other states, but they only do that because they are not allowed to operate at shore.

There are also cruising riverboats elsewhere, and I have been on the ones that make short trips at Tunica and New Orleans. They are a lot of fun it their own right, but those don't have casinos on board.

I imagine there is some value to the casino to having a, "captive" audience (sort of like a cruise ship). I propose that a hotel/casino with both land and functioning "cruise" gambling options could be viable.

Similarly, I suspect many of the proposed high speed, or luxury rail operations between Las Vegas and Southern California hope to get the first bite out of the visting apples by opening up gaming as soon as the train crosses the border (and "mysteriously" slows down or is delayed as it traverses the last 30 miles to Metro Las Vegas).

Quote: Ayecarumba

I imagine there is some value to the casino to having a, "captive" audience (sort of like a cruise ship).

I've been on a fair number of cruise ships, and having passengers "captive" in that way doesn't mean they are going to gamble. I think that only a small percentage of the folks on the cruise ships that I have been on spend any time at all in the casino. The main effect of it being a captive population there is that they can offer some less favorable games, such as craps offering double odds at best, sometimes single, and always charging vig on the buy. I didn't check out the rules for other games on my recent cruises, and I don't play slots, but I guess they aren't competitive with most land casinos.

For a riverboat casino, where most of the attendees are there specifically to gamble, I think the house would do better to keep the boat in port and operate the games in a way that encourages players to stay on board and keep playing until they are broke, rather than risk the chance that they pull out leaving a whale on the pier.

Quote: Doc

For a riverboat casino, where most of the attendees are there specifically to gamble, I think the house would do better to keep the boat in port and operate the games in a way that encourages players to stay on board and keep playing until they are broke, rather than risk the chance that they pull out leaving a whale on the pier.

Here's a close corollary: I've been "stuck" both on and off the boat at HSI during ramp level changes. Obviously, the people waiting to enter the boat would rather gamble than stand around. People waiting to exit the boat usually keep gambling, but there's also usually a small line waiting to exit while the ramp level is changing. So there's almost certainly a net-negative impact associated with captivity in that setting, but I think it's probably a small effect if the group sizes are approximately equal in size.

Quote: Doc

I don't know whether they are "able" to do it or not, but I'm confident you won't see that happen. The casinos don't want to create any barrier to one more or a hundred more customers coming aboard at just any old time, so they stay right there at the dock. Now there are a several cruising casinos in other states, but they only do that because they are not allowed to operate at shore.

There are also cruising riverboats elsewhere, and I have been on the ones that make short trips at Tunica and New Orleans. They are a lot of fun it their own right, but those don't have casinos on board.

Several years ago they had a cruiseboat casino based in a Vancouver BC suburb. It didn't need to be a boat for gambling regulations but the owners thought it would attract more clients.

They found that people didn't like to get trapped on the boat once their bankroll was gone and the bulk of their customer went back to using the nearbye land based casino. After about a year of 2 hour Fraser River cruises they just left the casino at the dock and stopped cruising.

State: Louisiana
City: Harvey
Casino: Boomtown

The second Boomtown Casino in Louisiana is a riverboat docked on the south side of the little town of Harvey, which is the suburb of New Orleans on the south ("west") side of the Mississippi River. It is commonly referred to as Boomtown New Orleans, but the chip itself notes the more specific location. The casino was opened in August 1994 by Boomtown, Inc., which was acquired in 1997 by Hollywood Park, now known as Pinnacle Entertainment.

Pinnacle/Hollywood also acquired at that time the Boomtown casinos in Biloxi, Verdi (Reno), and Las Vegas. They immediately sold the Vegas establishment (now the Silverton) and later sold both of the others. I assume it was a term of the sales, but the Biloxi and Reno casinos continue to operate under their Boomtown names, while Pinnacle still holds the trademark.

I cannot find the name of the waterway on which the Boomtown New Orleans Casino is floating, but it is so straight, so uniform in width, and with such neat nooks for the watercraft and docks that I assume this must be a man-made channel or canal connecting the Mississippi River with one of the other natural streams through the swamp.

I visited this Boomtown during a two-night stay in New Orleans in March 2010, a few weeks after the Mardi Gras zaniness had died down in the city. After reporting yesterday about a small loss at craps at the other Louisiana Boomtown, I am pleased to report that the crap table at the New Orleans edition boosted my bankroll by $125.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with an oversized center inlay and four edge inserts, two in blue and two in lavender. I think this is the original $1 chip for this casino, but I have not been able to confirm the issue date. Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.

While the name of the casino as printed on the perimeter of the chip is in a reasonably conventional font, that "old-fashioned" font I mentioned yesterday is used in the sign hanging between the two stacks on the boat shown on the center inlay. (I'm not sure you can see that detail clearly even in the medium-sized image of the chip that you get by clicking the small one.)

Yes, I'm fairly certain that center inlay photo is the real Boomtown riverboat in Harvey. There is a good image available by zooming in on GoogleMaps satellite view, with the 45° view feature activated. Google even lets you rotate the image so that you can look at the boat from almost head on (facing west). I really enjoy some of the features that Google offers.

Here's my Boomtown Harvey chip. I don't have much to add to what Doc's said. I went, I saw, I was conquered.

It seems to me that the photo that this illustration is based off of was taken from an area near Incline Village, looking across the north end of the lake at the Dollar Point area in CA. Either that or this is an artist's interpretation of the layout of the lake! Really doesn't matter, just something to think about I suppose.

EDIT: This was supposed to be a response to the comments on the Crystal Bay Club chip.

Quote: amidnitespecial

EDIT: This was supposed to be a response to the comments on the Crystal Bay Club chip.

Based on the timeliness of that comment, I guess I should welcome you to the thread! I have only been to that area of the lake one time, so I'm not really a good one to critique the pictures.

Hope you find time and interest to wade all the way through the thread and that you enjoy it.

State: Louisiana
City: Kinder
Casino: Coushatta

My wife and I spent last night at the Harrah's Cherokee resort -- they offered the room for free, and I felt we could afford that. This morning's post is my first chance to check out my ability to use my new Google Nexus 7 tablet to post to this thread while travelling. A few years ago, I decided that retired status was adequate justification not to take a laptop computer along with me on my travels, and I have since been using just my cell phone for email and web access away from home.

For a long time, that generally meant no browsing of most web pages, but the Samsung Android phone I got a year and a half ago gave a significant improvement. I still had some trouble editing and posting, and I decided that a tablet might have enough usefulness to be worth the cost. I picked up the Nexus 7 at a Black Friday sale last week, and so far I have been pleased. It is a much more reasonable device for me to travel with than a full laptop, since I don't need full computer capabilities on the road. Probably don't really need one at home either.

As for this post, well, I prepared a draft at home on my desktop computer – I try (not always reliably) to have drafts prepared a day in advance, and anticipating this trip I started this one way back on Monday. After I got it to "first draft" level, I moved it to the Nexus 7 and brought it along with me to post from the hotel, hoping that wifi access would be available. They charge $10.95 per day for access, which I'm charging to the room. A little later I'll find out whether they will comp that on a comped room.You can see my posting results for yourself, even though I was not sure what to expect at the time I first typed these words. I already had a chip from Cherokee from some years ago, and I'll post an image of it some time in January, I expect.

As for the casino for today's Casino Chip of the Day, the Coushatta Casino Resort is located just outside the small community of Kinder, in the southwestern portion of Louisiana between Lake Charles and Alexandria. It is an excellent example of a land-based casino in Louisiana, being far removed from any of the rivers and swamps. It makes me wonder once again why so many of the Louisiana casinos are still on riverboats. Does anyone know the history of the restrictions there?

The casino is a tribal casino (which could answer the question above), owned and operated by the Coushatta tribe, which seems appropriate in some way, since I am posting from a tribal casino hotel. The Coushatta tribe is not one of the older "recognized" tribes, having only been acknowledged by the federal government in 1973 and electing their first tribal government in 1985. They opened the casino in 1995.

I thought the place was a pretty nice casino when I visited last February, particularly since it is older than most of the tribal casinos I have visited. I don't know details about their history of expansion and renovation, but their web site says they have "continued to expand both in size and services." Also according to their web site, the gaming floor is 100,000 sq. ft., they have 500 hotel rooms, six "fabulous" restaurants, a "luxury" RV resort (Is that just for luxury RVs?), and a live entertainment venue. Recent performers included Boston, Gary Allan, Alabama, Dierks Bentley, and Larry the Cable Guy. I guess that's not a bad lineup for a venue way out on its lonesome in Kinder, LA.

Unlike many of the tribal casinos, the Coushatta offers craps – I think they are automatically eligible to offer that game in their casino because it is available in non-tribal casinos in Louisiana. And they even let me leave the place while $10 to the positive side with the dice.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in purple and yellow. The center inlay is slightly smaller than the central depression in the chip surface and includes a central icon that hints at the tribal connection of the establishment. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo also in the center.

Quote: Doc

It is an excellent example of a land-based casino in Louisiana, being far removed from any of the rivers and swamps. It makes me wonder once again why so many of the Louisiana casinos are still on riverboats. Does anyone know the history of the restrictions there?

I think you're asking why there are still riverboat casinos when the riverboat requirement is no longer in effect.

Yeah, I realize that you're not sure that rule was cancelled. But on the assumption that it's OK to build on land, why have a riverboat? Simple. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

In other words, you might not choose a riverboat for a new casino design, but since the damn thing is already built and open for business, why mess around?

Quote: kenarman

Quote: Doc

I don't know whether they are "able" to do it or not, but I'm confident you won't see that happen. The casinos don't want to create any barrier to one more or a hundred more customers coming aboard at just any old time, so they stay right there at the dock. Now there are a several cruising casinos in other states, but they only do that because they are not allowed to operate at shore.

There are also cruising riverboats elsewhere, and I have been on the ones that make short trips at Tunica and New Orleans. They are a lot of fun it their own right, but those don't have casinos on board.

Several years ago they had a cruiseboat casino based in a Vancouver BC suburb. It didn't need to be a boat for gambling regulations but the owners thought it would attract more clients.

They found that people didn't like to get trapped on the boat once their bankroll was gone and the bulk of their customer went back to using the nearbye land based casino. After about a year of 2 hour Fraser River cruises they just left the casino at the dock and stopped cruising.

Thanks kenarman, you may have just saved me a ton of money... However a two hour Fraser River cruise still sounds inviting. Too bad.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Quote: kenarman

Quote: Doc

I don't know whether they are "able" to do it or not, but I'm confident you won't see that happen. The casinos don't want to create any barrier to one more or a hundred more customers coming aboard at just any old time, so they stay right there at the dock. Now there are a several cruising casinos in other states, but they only do that because they are not allowed to operate at shore.

There are also cruising riverboats elsewhere, and I have been on the ones that make short trips at Tunica and New Orleans. They are a lot of fun it their own right, but those don't have casinos on board.

Several years ago they had a cruiseboat casino based in a Vancouver BC suburb. It didn't need to be a boat for gambling regulations but the owners thought it would attract more clients.

They found that people didn't like to get trapped on the boat once their bankroll was gone and the bulk of their customer went back to using the nearbye land based casino. After about a year of 2 hour Fraser River cruises they just left the casino at the dock and stopped cruising.

Thanks kenarman, you may have just saved me a ton of money... However a two hour Fraser River cruise still sounds inviting. Too bad.

I was always going to do the cruise with them but delayed putting it into my schedule while in Vancouver for too long. I was on the boat many times after it was permanently docked and enjoyed the atmosphere on board. Sadly it is no longer there as it and the land based casino were combined into a much larger facility but that did give them room for a craps table :-)

Here's my Coushatta chip. I visited Coushatta during my giant loop of the casinos in LA and MS. In retrospect, I really should have also visited Southland Park on that trip, too. Anyway...The trip to Coushatta from Amelia took about 10 hours. There was a giant flaming wreck on I-10, and traffic was at a crawl. I thought I was lucky because the accident was near Lake Charles and I was exiting before that. Alas, the detour of the closed interstate matched much of the route to Coushatta (26 to 190, also 165 south to I-10, which bit me again when I left Coushatta to head to Lake Charles) I was a little tired and frustrated when I arrived at Coushatta, but I thought it was a very good casino. Like Doc said, it's a little old for a tribal casino. But they've kept it updated well, both in terms of the decor and the games that they offer.

Coushatta's website says they're 2 and a half hours from Houston, but there's no way the drive can be accomplished in that amount of time. Google maps puts it at 2:51, but I don't think I've ever made the drive even to Lake Charles in that amount of time. I-10 is just to slow leaving the Houston area to make those times reasonable. I'm not trying to say that a 3:30 drive to Coushatta isn't worth it - it is - it's just that advertising a 2:30 drive is disingenuous.

My chip from Coushatta is a Bud Jones. It looks like their $1 and $2.50 chips are Paulsons, and the rest are Bud Jones. I wonder how that comes to happen. Did they place those orders at the same time? Did they replace only some of their chips at some point?

Quote: Doc

State: Louisiana
City: Kinder
Casino: Coushatta

I note that in the UV image, the diamond in the center seems to be on top of the hat. Is that deliberate, or is the diamond actually gold leaf or some other material that registers brighter than the UV ink?

Quote: Ayecarumba

I note that in the UV image, the diamond in the center seems to be on top of the hat. Is that deliberate, or is the diamond actually gold leaf or some other material that registers brighter than the UV ink?

Check some of the other UV images.

It's just the way the UV ink interacts with the various other colors.

I.E. When printed on a white background, it glows light blue. When there are other colors involved, it glows in other colors.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I note that in the UV image, the diamond in the center seems to be on top of the hat. Is that deliberate, or is the diamond actually gold leaf or some other material that registers brighter than the UV ink?

I think DJTB gave an appropriate answer about the UV images. The center figure is nothing special, certainly nothing like the Golden Acorn chip from California.

State: Louisiana
City: Charenton
Casino: Cypress Bayou

For the second day in a row, we have a chip from a Louisiana tribal casino, this one owned and operated by the Chitimacha tribe. Rather than hinting at the affiliation with a Native American ikon on the center inlay of the chip, this one states the Sovereign Nation status right up front in the text.

Charenton is another of those small towns out in the bayou west of New Orleans, about 35 miles from Amelia, which I have previously mentioned. The casino is located a mile out of town, about where Martin Luther King Road becomes the Ralph Darden Memorial Parkway. I was curious, so I did a very cursory search and could not figure out who Ralph Darden was. No, I don't think it is named for the still-alive musician from Jai-Alai Savant, which I had never heard of either until undertaking the unsuccessful search. I thought Google was supposed to have all of the answers these days.

I am not completely clear on the relationship between the Cypress Bayou Casino and Shorty's Casino. They appear to be two joined casinos or two separate gaming areas in the same casino. There are chips in use with both names – of course I will be posting a Shorty's chip a little over a week from now – and both kinds of chips are in use in both gaming areas.

The MOGH catalog presents the chips with the notations that Cypress Bayou opened in December 1993 and closed in April 2006, becoming Shorty's. In contrast, the casino's web site currently emphasizes the Cypress Bayou name, apparently proclaiming that it is not closed. On its "Our History" page, they say they started out as a bingo hall in 1988, became a full-time casino in 1993, discontinued bingo in 1994, and added table games later that year. After reporting further expansions through at least 1998, the site makes the cryptic comment that, "We took a break for a few years, but came back strong with the opening of the Bayou Side (formerly known as Shorty's) in April of 2006."

For the purposes of this thread, I'm just treating Cypress Bayou and Shorty's as separate casinos that are physically joined, something like Bally's and Paris in Las Vegas. That might not be accurate, but it's easier than trying to dig for the truth at a tribal casino. And its probably at least as reasonable as the way I treated Foxwoods and MGM Grand at Foxwoods as two casinos.

The chip shown below is another white RHC Paulson with two very wide green edge inserts and a blue center inlay. I'm not a forester, but my assumption is that tree in the center is supposed to be a cypress tree, though in my ignorance I usually identify them by the knees sticking up out of the water in the swamps.

Here's my Cypress Bayou chip. I followed the ACG's guidance, and thought that Cypress Bayou was the only casino in town. I was initially confused, because the Shorty's signs are prominent when approaching the property, and Cypress Bayou - while larger - is also farther back on the property and farther down the road. I entered the property unsure of what Shorty's was, but also not caring since I just wanted a Cypress Bayou chip. I had a bit of a sad moment when I realized that the pit at Cypress Bayou was closed.

At the time I visited (about 16 months ago), the signage inside the property made it look like Shorty's was a sportsbar. And it does have a giant bar in it, which was good because my thirst was the only reason I walked down the giant hallway to get to Shorty's at all. But it also has/had many many tables. In fact, since the pit at Shorty's was open while the pit at Cypress Bayou was closed, I cheated a bit and collected both of my chips from the pit at Shorty's.

I have an issue with the name of this casino. If Morongo can operate a casino under their tribal name, I don't see why the Chitimacha tribe shouldn't do the same.

The MOGH says this is an RHC chip. It's so worn that I'm having a hard time even finding the reversed canes on the image.

I just booked a last-minute bargain fare, and I'm traveling to KC for the weekend. I may miss the next couple days, but I'll catch up on Sunday when I return home. I should also have 15 to 20 new chips when I return.

7th link down
Ralph Darden, Chairman Chitimacha Tribe, Passed away in Februalry of 1998.

Quote: Doc

State: Louisiana
City: Charenton
Casino: Cypress Bayou

That's alot of green for a $1 chip. Are the $25 chips similar to the rdw's nickle, in that they are mostly green with small inserts? I could see a stack of these with the green lined up, being pretty easy to mis-read.

rdw's chip is worn, but clean. Was this how it was received, or did he clean it himself. By the way, how did the dentist tools work our?

The inserts look like an Irish flag. Or perhaps a Mexican flag if one is hitting the tequilla instead of the whiskey.

Quote: rdw4potus

I have an issue with the name of this casino. If Morongo can operate a casino under their tribal name, I don't see why the Chitimacha tribe shouldn't do the same.

Maybe they didn't want to? Or maybe because it's a different state.

Quote: miplet

Ralph Darden, Chairman Chitimacha Tribe, Passed away in Februalry of 1998.

Thanks, miplet. I knew it had to be there somewhere. Rather than calling my search "cursory", I should just have said "inadequate" or maybe "incompetent."

Quote: rdw4potus

I had a bit of a sad moment when I realized that the pit at Cypress Bayou was closed. ... The MOGH says this is an RHC chip. It's so worn that I'm having a hard time even finding the reversed canes on the image.

Both pits were operating when I was there last February.

The faded but reversed canes are in the 9:30 and 3:30 positions (with respect to the center inlay) on the side of the chip that is showing. If you can tell that it has hats and canes around the perimeter, it should be easy to identify the RHC version. All of the others (LCV, SCV, and LCV/SCV) have a circle that runs between the edge of the chips and the hats and canes. If the circle isn't there but the hats and canes are, then you've got an RHC Paulson. Or, I suppose, one of the other designs but with a full 1/16 inch of clay missing all the way around the chip.

Have fun in KC.

Quote: Ayecarumba

rdw's chip is worn, but clean. Was this how it was received, or did he clean it himself. By the way, how did the dentist tools work our?

I did wash it with warm water, but I didn't clean this chip as much as I tried to do with some others. When it's so worn down, there are less places for gunk to hide, I suppose.

The dentists tools are on backorder. I guess tiny tools are a big xmas gift? So I'm still waiting for those, which means I also haven't taken my new pictures. And now with upcoming trips to KC (and northern OK) and STL, I may wait for more of a lull in the collecting to start the cleaning and re-photographing.

Quote: Ayecarumba

That's alot of green for a $1 chip. Are the $25 chips similar to the rdw's nickle, in that they are mostly green with small inserts? I could see a stack of these with the green lined up, being pretty easy to mis-read.

The $25 Cypress Bayou chip shown in the MOGH catalog is a very bright green, much different from the edge inserts on the $1 chip. It has four triple edge inserts, or 12 small inserts in clusters, depending on the way you like to count them.

Quote: rdw4potus

I have an issue with the name of this casino. If Morongo can operate a casino under their tribal name, I don't see why the Chitimacha tribe shouldn't do the same.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Maybe they didn't want to? Or maybe because it's a different state.

I respect that they chose to use a name that was not associated with the tribe. It insulates their tribe's name from the commercial aspect of the business. There could be tribe members who do not want to be associated with the casino for moral or religious (but probably not financial) reasons. Plus, it may be a tough name to market in that area due to a contentious history with the local community.

Quote: rdw4potus

I did wash it with warm water, but I didn't clean this chip as much as I tried to do with some others. When it's so worn down, there are less places for gunk to hide, I suppose.

The dentists tools are on backorder. I guess tiny tools are a big xmas gift? So I'm still waiting for those, which means I also haven't taken my new pictures. And now with upcoming trips to KC (and northern OK) and STL, I may wait for more of a lull in the collecting to start the cleaning and re-photographing.

DJ mentioned that he saw a cleaning system at G2E. Any idea what they used for a solvent? The plastic/clay seems pretty impervious, but the colors do seem to fade (perhaps due to exposure to sunlight?)

Quote: Doc

The $25 Cypress Bayou chip shown in the MOGH catalog is a very bright green, much different from the edge inserts on the $1 chip. It has four triple edge inserts, or 12 small inserts in clusters, depending on the way you like to count them.

If the $5 chip had bright green edge inserts, they'd have a nice little pattern going there, where the inserts on each chip were the primary colors of the chips above and below in sequence. The $100 chip even has bright green and purple inserts, though no $500 chips exist.

Quote: Ayecarumba

DJ mentioned that he saw a cleaning system at G2E. Any idea what they used for a solvent? The plastic/clay seems pretty impervious, but the colors do seem to fade (perhaps due to exposure to sunlight?)

One of these days I'll remember to dig thru my pile of stuff I brought back from G2E. I'm 99% sure I have a copy of their literature...

This post has nothing to do with souvenir casino chips, but I thought I would follow up on a comment I made yesterday.

Quote: Doc (yesterday, regarding staying at Harrah's Cherokee)

... hoping that wifi access would be available. They charge $10.95 per day for access, which I'm charging to the room. A little later I'll find out whether they will comp that on a comped room.

Well, I made it a little difficult on myself to figure out whether I was really charged for internet service at Cherokee. I never saw the initial bill for the room and room charges (two meals and the internet service), and I told the desk to apply my points to the bill. That left a balance of $4 that couldn't be paid with points -- it was the waitress's tip at breakfast in Paula Dean's Kitchen -- and that was all that was to go on my credit card. Apparently they didn't notice that I added a tip on the previous evening's dinner charge at Brio Tuscan Grille. That probably got confounded by the fact that I paid part of the tab with a "food credit" coupon from a mailer.

I've checked the web site to see how many points were used to pay the bill. I saw my balance yesterday, when the web site still hadn't reflected the deduction, and comparing the balance today, it appears they used points to pay for the two meals but not for the internet service. There is still a minor discrepancy -- I think there was another 148 RCs ($1.48 value) deducted that I can't account for, but that's not enough to be the internet fee. There is also the issue that the reservation says that there would be a $2 tax imposed on the comped room, but I can't see where I paid for that, unless that's the 148 RCs and I missed something else.

I guess I'm also curious about the whole issue of taxes at a tribal casino. Who would get that $2 room tax if it were paid? The room charge receipt for dinner shows a line with $3.22 for "tax", but the breakfast receipt shows $1.61 for "tribal levy". Is the state getting any of this or just the Sovereign Nation of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians? In any case, I think I'm only paying $4 cash/credit total for the room, dinner, breakfast, tips, and internet access. Guess I can afford that.

Of course, the results in the gaming room are where everything is really supposed to be paid for. I played three sessions of craps. While I am a low roller who prefers $5 tables, the minimum weeknights at Cherokee seems to be $10, and I understand they get all of their tables crowed on weekends, perhaps at higher minimums. Early Wednesday evening, I bought in for $200, and that disappeared in a blink. I bought in for another $100, and that vanished, too. On my first turn with the dice, I had made two come-out naturals and hit a point of four. That was the only point hit by any shooter in two trips of the dice around a full table. Man, it was a cold table.

I left and went to dinner at the Brio, then came back for another try. I bought in for another $200 and was down more than a hundred of that before one shooter hit a point (maybe two), and I felt the nose dive ease just a little. When the dice got to me, I decided the table was still so cold that I wouldn't waste even a $1 on the Fire Bet for my own shooting, though others were playing it for every hand. As it turned out, I hit five unique points, repeating several of them. The guy standing next to me jokingly complained that I was making my points too quickly and not hitting enough of the place bets he had out there. I never set a point of 8.

I got nothing extra for hitting those Fire Bet points, but some of the other players, and the dealers, made some good money off my hand. I'm not sure how much I made on my own shooting, but I wound up $315 to the positive for the session, putting me +$15 for the day. Yes, craps is like a roller coaster ride.

Thursday morning after breakfast, I had my final session before getting on the road and a visit to the Biltmore Estate. I bought in for $200 and ended up another +$50 before heading out. During that session, there was a gentleman at my end of the table who was playing for much higher stakes than I was. When I got there, the chips in his rack were down to his last few hundred dollars, but he had a lot in action. Later I saw that his standard bet was $60 pass with $600 odds, with place bets of $150 on 6 and 8 and $200 buys on everything else but the point. He then pressed his place/buy bets frequently.

When I got to the table with his rack looking depleted, he had a $2,000 buy bet on the 4, and it hit, so he was back in business for a while. Later, I saw him buy in for another $5,000, placing a fair wad of currency back in his pocket. I assume he had made a significant buy-in before I arrived, and I never saw any indication that anyone was working on a CTR. How do they handle that? I'm sure they knew exactly who he was, but when/where/how do they fill out paperwork for buy-ins that total $10K or more? Tribal casinos do have to submit that paperwork, don't they?

State: Louisiana
City: Bossier City
Casino: DiamondJacks

I have previously admitted to occasional difficulty in alphabetizing these casinos, but this time I even had difficulty in typing the name. As I checked into it, I realized that the name of the casino really is just one word – DiamondJacks – with no space in the middle, in spite of the capital J. I didn't notice this until I started this writeup, so I had to go back and edit some of my file names.

The MOGH catalog lists the chips from this casino under "Diamond Jacks" (with the space), but I'm going with what the chip and the casino's web site say. Hey, I'm wasn't even sure whether "Jacks" was a reference to the cards or maybe some owner named Jack, sorta like if the place had belonged to Diamond Jim Brady. They could leave out the apostrophe just as easily as the space.

DiamondJacks is on the Red River in Bossier City, right next door to Boomtown. Parking lots of the two properties (employee lots, I suspect) essentially touch, even though the two riverboats are slightly around a bend and completely out of sight of each other. The DiamondJacks boat is now in its own lagoon off the river, though I don't know that it was always completely surrounded by land.

DiamondJacks was originally an Isle of Capri casino boat, opening in 1994 and changing hands and names in 2006. This DiamondJacks and its namesake in Vicksburg, MS belong to Legends Gaming, LLC headquartered in Frankfort, IL – nope, no senior executives named Jack. The company incorporated in 2004 and filed for Chapter 11 reorganization this past summer.

I visited this DiamondJacks just once, last February about 15 minutes after I stopped playing at Boomtown. It was the fifth and last of the Shreveport/Bossier City casinos I played in that afternoon and evening. I won $110 at craps, putting me $85 ahead for the day. Ahh, the good feeling of financial recovery before bedtime.

The chip shown below is another white RHC Paulson, with two triangular edge inserts in light and dark gray. Or perhaps even black. The center inlay shows a red diamond worn like a crown plus a background pattern of diamond ikons. This time, UV light does not reveal a hidden hat and cane logo, but it does expose the coverall array of the repeated casino name. Once more I leave the search-for-the-error exercise to each of you. Did you see it the first time through?

Having seen other examples, I started my search where they are usually found, and located it fairly quickly.

It's good to hear that you have been up on many of your sessions. Too bad about the Firebet. Alan Mendelson would definitely ask you for push ups...

Quote: Ayecarumba

Alan Mendelson would definitely ask you for push ups...

Well, he'd never be able to collect many from me. Have you ever looked at any of the photos of me that have appeared on this forum? I'm not a push up kind of guy.

State: Louisiana
City: Shreveport
Casino: Eldorado

The Eldorado is one of the two adjacent riverboat casinos on the Shreveport side of the Red River, this one being right next to the US79/US80 bridge across the river to Bossier City. It originally opened as the Hollywood Casino in December 2000 and changed name and ownership in October 2005.

This Eldorado is owned by the Carano family, which also owns the Eldorado in Reno but not the one in Henderson. They are part owners of the Silver Legacy in Reno, too.

I have visited the Eldorado Shreveport just once, an afternoon last February as the third of the five Shreveport/Bossier City casinos I hit that day. I managed to win $65 at craps to briefly pull back to exactly even for the day so far. They haven't invited me back, but that could have something to do with the fact that I didn't sign up for a player's card.

The chip shown below is a white Bud Jones design with the BJ logo in the 4:00 position on the center inlay. It has a dozen small gray edge "inserts". UV light reveals that a portion of the central graphic fluoresces pink and that there is a hidden logo-script "e", which I once described as an epsilon.

Back at the end of last April, when I posted the chip from the Eldorado in Reno, I made this comment:

Quote: Doc

Along about next October, or maybe November, depending on how many days I travel and skip posting, when this Casino Chip of the Day thread finally progresses to the Carano family's casino in Louisiana, we will see a very similar chip that is used there.

I guess I traveled more than I expected – didn't have that three-week cruise booked back in April – so we are later getting to this post than I predicted, but get here we did. Compare the chip below to the one in the earlier post, and you can see the similarities. The visible light images have a couple of the colors different, and the Reno chip has the BJ logo in a different location and revealed only under UV light. That UV image was included as part of this post I made at the end of May as I was catching up on UV photos.

Usually when I see these Bud Jones chips with the sunburst grooves, they are at the roulette table.

Quote: Doc (back on Saturday)

This DiamondJacks and its namesake in Vicksburg, MS belong to Legends Gaming, LLC headquartered in Frankfort, IL – nope, no senior executives named Jack. The company incorporated in 2004 and filed for Chapter 11 reorganization this past summer.

I didn't have the full story when I wrote that and probably still don't now. However, I just stumbled across a report from last August that Legends Gaming was planning to sell its casinos to Global Gaming, which is owned by the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. The bankruptcy court and gaming regulators must approve. Apparently the buyer and seller had an agreement in place at the first of August, but they were still awaiting court approval in October. I haven't been able to find any further updated info on this.

Sorry to be so out of date in my reporting. Do any of you know more about the status than what I have here?

State: Louisiana
City: New Orleans
Casino: Harrah's

Adjacent to downtown New Orleans, there is a section of the winding Mississippi River that flows due north as it approaches the French Quarter. There, the main part of the city is to the west, on what would normally be considered the "east" side of the river. In that section of the city, just upstream (south) of the French Quarter and just a block from the river on Canal Street, is the Harrah's New Orleans casino. It is the only casino in the downtown area of the city.

I have only been to the Harrah's New Orleans once, back in March 2010, two days after joining RaleighCraps for a session of his favorite game and mine at Beau Rivage in Biloxi. After returning home, I reported on my gaming experiences in the center of the Big Easy. Having only visited Harrah's New Orleans that one time, I can't say from my own experience just when it opened. I mention that because the MOGH catalog says that it opened May 1, 1995, while Wikipedia claims that it didn't open until October 30, 1999.

I think Wiki has the explanation for that contradiction. It says that during construction of the "Harrah's Jazz" joint venture casino, a temporary facility was opened nearby in May 1995 but closed temporarily a week later due to a flood. Subsequently, poorer-than-expected revenues doomed the joint venture, with Harrah's taking over and completing the construction at a much smaller scale than originally proposed.

In the past, there have been two other Harrah's casinos in Louisiana, both of them riverboats no longer operating under the Harrah's name. The one in Shreveport became Sam's Town (to be discussed when we get to that point in the alphabet). The one in Lake Charles started out as Star Casino, became known as the Harrah's Star and later Harrah's Pride of Lake Charles. It was finally closed by hurricane Rita in 2005. Harrah's also operates the Louisiana Downs racino east of Bossier City, but since it doesn't have table games, I don't count it.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with four edge inserts, two in beige and two peach. The MOGH catalog refers to the "beige" inserts as being "gold", but I can't really see that on my sample. The chip's oversized center inlay covers about half of each hat and cane logo around the perimeter. The inlay is festively decorated with a colorful Mardi Gras mask and confetti.

UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo in the center. The MOGH catalog indicates that there is a variant of this chip that has the hidden logo rotated 90° from this one. It also makes reference to "Side 2", but I can see no differences between the two sides of my chip under either visible or UV light.