Casino Chip of the Day

I've never really played that game. These tix at Beau Rivage, like most (but not all) of the shows I have been to in Las Vegas, had assigned seats printed on them. I thought the tip the maitre d' thing was for lounges, etc., where they assigned everyone's seats upon entry.

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Boomtown

This is the second straight day for a chip from Biloxi, but the hotel casino décor is quite different this time. As you walk in the front entrance to Boomtown, you pass a stuffed steer – not too much like the entrance to Beau Rivage via the Shops at the Promenade.

The riverboat casino was built by Boomtown, Inc. and opened in July 1994. That company was acquired in 1997 by Hollywood Park, now Pinnacle Entertainment. In 2000, Pinnacle sold this casino to Penn National Gaming. Although the boat was located on the bay side of the Biloxi peninsula and somewhat protected from the full force of Hurricane Katrina, it was closed from August 2005 until June 2006 for repairs.

Although I have been to Biloxi several times, I don't think I have played at Boomtown but once, in March 2010. Perhaps the fact that I lost $200 at craps on that visit has dampened my desire to return.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in green and dark blue. The center inlay shows a stage coach and has the old-style font I have mentioned before for the casino name. UV light reveals, for the second of three days in a row, an array of the casino's name. Happy hunting. ☺

Quote: Doc

L'auberge du Lac opened in May 2005 and is owned by Pinnacle Entertainment. Wikipedia claims that the place was completed in 2003 but gives no history on why it didn't open then. Anybody know the story?

The Pinnacle web site now just calls the place "L'auberge Casino Resort – Lake Charles." I guess that may be an adjustment related to their recently having opened "L'auberge Casino & Hotel – Baton Rouge," which I have not yet had the opportunity to visit. Maybe next month.

That is my neighborhood casino.
Wikipedia is wrong, the construction started in 2003 and completed in 2005.
A few months after opening, hurricane Rita in 2005 caused big damage to the casino.
(Rita also forced the permanent closure of another casino (Harrah's ) in the same area.)
Since 2006, it became the dominate casino in Lake Charles.

Sometime in 2011, they changed the official name of the property to the current name.

Thanks a bunch, pokerface. I know that for each of the casinos I mention in this thread there just has to be someone on this forum who knows much more about the place than I do and should be able to correct my errors. Mostly, I'm just posting what I saw on a quick visit and what I can dig up on the web to accompany the photo of my souvenir chip. I really need the input like yours to make the thread more accurate, rather than my just passing along my misconceptions and repeating the blatant errors from other spots on the web. I seem to recall that there was someone posting a year or two ago that they were from Mississippi, but I don't remember who it was -- they could probably straighten out a lot of misinformation that I am likely distributing this month, if only they would.

Quote: Doc

Thanks a bunch, pokerface.

Doc, we all enjoy reading your posts in this thread (and in others) very much!
I am sure most people will be glad to contribute in some way whenever we can.

I think that I represent many forum members who never post but visit this sight almost every day. This is my favorite thread so keep up the great work Doc. I do have some questions that I'm sure you've already answered but the search function hasn't been too helpful. My casino of choice is Horseshoe Bossier City so I'm only familiar with RHC Paulson chips. (Mostly only reds. That's why the dealers probably say "here comes 10 dollar Brian" every time I walk in :) )

Are these molded from clay composite? They seem to be just plastic to me. As a matter of fact I was a little disappointed the first time I saw one. I guess I was expecting a more "glassy" and heavier feel.

Can It be assumed that if a chip has the hat and cane logo that it is a Paulson?

What does RHC stand for?

Are chip diameter, thickness, weight, and quality different between manufacturers?

Do you prefer one manufacturer over another?

Sorry if you've answered these before and again, keep up the great work.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Beau Rivage

It certainly looks as if I'm the only one interested in this thread any more, but I'll keep it up a little longer. If I get enough feedback that I'm just using up bandwidth and storage space, I'lll probably call it off. Has anyone else even been to Mississippi?

Please do not stop. This is my favorite thread, but I have not been in a casino east of Laughlin so I have little to add, but I find it very interesting.

My first post in this thread:

Holy crap! Please don't stop! This is the best thread in the forum.
Unfortunately, I never have anything to add, so I simply read.
On fair weather days, I grab a few beers, go on the porch and start
re-reading from the beginning just for the hell of it.

I started collecting $5 chips about 2 years ago. I have 52 so far.

Thanks Doc!

Thanks to all for the recent posts of support. Guess I was just interpreting the lack of replies and lack of chip images from others as an indication that interest had waned. I'll plow on...

MakingBook: Glad to hear there is another collector around. Please post images any time we get to a casino represented in your collection and don't already have the same chip posted. You are, of course, aware that rdw4potus has a huge collection of $5 chips, right? I can explain my choice of $1 chips in any of three ways: (1) The chip I kept from the very first casino I ever visited was a $1 chip. (2) I'm too cheap to have a nominal $5 invested in each of the items (309 so far) in my collection. (3) In consideration of displaying the whole collection together as I do, the $1 chips give a much greater variety of colors -- mostly whites, but quite a few in blue, brown, gray, and other shades. Reason (3) makes a good story, but (1) and (2) are much more believable as my rationale.

10DollarBri: You should be aware that I am a novice at the topic of casino chips, certainly not an authority, and it's quite possible that I disseminate misinformation through my ignorance. Along the way in this thread, I have learned a little, and some of my early posts are a little embarrassing now. Current posts may be similarly embarrassing in the future if I learn even more. I'll try to answer a couple of your questions here, and maybe a few more later.

First, if you are searching for something in this forum, and if you know what you want to search for, many of us have learned that it is more effective/efficient to skip the built-in search function and use Google, just adding "site:wizardofvegas.com" as one of the search items. That might help you in the future.

There have been a number of discussions here about the proper terms for describing the materials used to manufacture chips. We even had some debate once about the meaning of the word "plastic." About the best I can offer is this: there are no current chips that are really made out of clay. There are several manufacturers who describe their product as clay composite, and Paulson is one of those. BTW, Paulson is now a division of Gaming Partners International. All of the currently-produced chips with the hat and cane logo are from Paulson, but years ago there were other manufacturers who also used it. I have seen a page that discusses this history, but I would have to search for it.

RHC stands for "Reversed Hat and Cane", acknowledging that two of the logos around the perimeter of the chip have their canes pointing in the opposite direction from the other six. SCV and LCV are for "Short Cane Version" and "Long Cane Version" the other two Paulson designs that have hats and canes around the perimeter. All three of those are described in detail here, about half way down the page.

Chipco describes the material of their top-of-the-line chips as "ceramic", while Bud Jones (now another division of GPI) calls theirs "plastic injection molded".

With regard to "Are chip diameter, thickness, weight, and quality different between manufacturers?", even within one manufacturer, they offer several grades of chips, different weights, and different sizes. The variety gets broader when you consider multiple sources.

If you would like to dig in some more about chips, let me suggest that you look at the very first post of this thread, where I maintain a directory of the chips that have been posted. At the bottom of that post is a spoiler button labeled "Handy reference links". Click on that button and explore some of the links that are provided.

As for my preference, I have indicated that I think I like best the Paulson chips that have the casino name molded into them. I have this bias that such a feature adds just a bit of class.

If a casino has a 16 foot aircraft carrier for a craps table I tend not to go there. Boomtown is one and Hollywood the other in the South Mississippi market.

State: Mississippi
City: Vicksburg
Casino: DiamondJacks

When I posted my chip from DiamondJacks in Bossier City, LA, I said the casino was originally an Isle of Capri casino and was sold to Legends Gaming in 2006, with that new owner filing for Chapter 11 reorganization last summer. The next day, I made a follow-up post when I discovered that they had an agreement to sell the casino to Global Gaming, owned by the Chicasaw Nation of Oklahoma, with the sale subject to approval by the bankruptcy court and gaming regulators.

All of that info applies also to the DiamondJacks casino in Vicksburg, and I haven't seen any further update.

I may have missed the opportunity to acquire an Isle of Capri - Vicksburg chip when I visited the city in April 2006. The sale to Legends had taken place in February of that year, but I'm not sure whether the casino name and chips had changed by the time I was there. I think they had not yet and that I skipped that casino (not even knowing that it had been sold) because I had just visited another Isle of Capri in another Mississippi town just two days earlier.

I did my best (though not really successfully) to make up for that oversight by picking up the chip from DiamondJacks when I returned to Vicksburg in August 2010. Unfortunately, it was an expensive chip, costing me $125 at the craps table. If the Chicasaw close on the purchase and give the place a new name, I'll be back to get another chip.

The chip shown below is similar to the one from DiamondJacks in Bossier City – both are white RHC Paulsons with the same graphics on the center inlay. The Vicksburg chip has a gray center inlay, differing in that regard from the other one, and it has three edge inserts in red, purple, and green. UV light reveals the repeated casino name, giving three days in a row for a search-for-the-"error" exercise.

If anyone has an Isle of Capri Vicksburg chip, please post an image for us to see, since it is too late for me to add one of those to my collection. By the way, Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. has purchased another Vicksburg casino and recently changed the name of the place. Fortunately, they did not add to the confusion by re-using the Isle of Capri - Vicksburg name. More about that later.

My trip to Houston was much more intensive than I was led to believe it would be, which means I'm much farther behind here than I thought I'd be. And I didn't make it to Lake Charles, either. So I still don't have a chip from the Isle (unless I find the one I lost...)

Here are the chips that I have from the last week of Doc's postings:












I really liked the casinos in Greenville. They're cute little boats, easily accessible by land. They're docked right downtown, with a park nearby. As I walked between them, I played with a group of kids in the park. It was an idyllic day, water rushing by, picnickers, warm-but-not-hot sun.

Quote: rdw4potus

My trip to Houston was much more intensive than I was led to believe it would be, which means I'm much farther behind here than I thought I'd be. ... I really liked the casinos in Greenville. They're cute little boats, easily accessible by land.

Welcome back to the land of the living and posting! I thought we were going to have to send out a search party.

With regard to the Greenville casinos, did Lighthouse Point have table games when you were there? I missed out on that chip, but I'm looking to get back to the renamed Trop.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Boomtown The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in green and dark blue. The center inlay shows a stage coach and has the old-style font I have mentioned before for the casino name. UV light reveals, for the second of three days in a row, an array of the casino's name. Happy hunting. ☺

This is the first time I recall the UV names being "off-kilter" from the insert image. I also note that the mis-spelled UV name is almost off the chip.

I think DJTeddybear mentioned some time back, that the UV image could be laid out in a separate process, and this example may demonstrate that it is done that way.

Of course, it could also mean that your chip is a counterfeit, and getting the UV and non-UV images to square up is very difficult for a fraudster. Hmmm..

Quote: Ayecarumba

Of course, it could also mean that your chip is a counterfeit, and getting the UV and non-UV images to square up is very difficult for a fraudster. Hmmm..

As I have said before, who the heck would bother to counterfeit a $1 chip? I think that even in mass quantities they cost an established manufacturer more than 50¢ each to produce.

Also, as for the names being off-kilter, note that the font is slanted (something like italics) so that the individual letters are vertical with the visible image. Just someone's preference, I suspect.

Quote: Doc

Welcome back to the land of the living and posting! I thought we were going to have to send out a search party.

With regard to the Greenville casinos, did Lighthouse Point have table games when you were there? I missed out on that chip, but I'm looking to get back to the renamed Trop.

It did not, just Harlow's and Bayou Caddy's. I'll have to re-do this loop, maybe next summer, and grab L'Auberge and the Trop, as well as the Margaritavilles. And I guess maybe the Isle in Lake Charles, but that's a long way out of the way (not that it's a short drive from Bossier City to Biloxi...)

Hi Doc I expect that you track it as well but this thread has had over 600 views since Saturday morning. Hardly a dead thread, keep up the good work.

Actually, I haven't paid any attention to views or how the number climbs. I just figured a lot of people clicked on all of the threads, then closed the tabs they weren't interested in without even reading what had been posted. I had it in my mind (perhaps incorrectly) that if people were really interested they would have said at least something about a chip or what they thought about a casino or just complained about some lame quip I made, even if they didn't have something substantive to contribute -- that's the way most threads here seem to behave. Maybe 595 of those 600 readers really were interested but couldn't come up with something that warranted making an entry. Thanks for the encouragement, though.

On the subject of Beau Rivage....
I knew the place was ballin'...but I didn't know they had a private DOCK with spots for LARGE boats (on the left side of the image Doc posted)
Sweet! Next time I have my 42' DINGY on the Mighty Miss', I'll have to remember to park it there...haha

Quote: TIMSPEED

Sweet! Next time I have my 42' DINGY on the Mighty Miss', I'll have to remember to park it there...haha

Yes, the Beau Rivage can provide space for some sizable watercraft, and I'm sure they could accommodate your needs. But the Beau isn't the only option for you in Biloxi. Down Beach Boulevard to the east there is a much smaller casino-hotel, the Isle, formerly known as the Isle of Capri-Biloxi. It appears that they can provide docking space for some fairly impressive craft, too:



Would you feel you were slumming if you parked your dingy next to one of those? What kind of craft do you think they have dropping in at the more upscale Beau Rivage?

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Fitzgeralds

Today a tale of of a succession of casino businesses that keep having problems…

After Lincoln Fitzgerald died in 1981, the Lincoln Management Corporation was formed to run his two Reno casinos, Fitzgeralds and the Nevada Club. Eventually, the company owned and operated four casinos under the Fitzgeralds brand. However, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2000, and subsequently sold all its properties.

In December 2001, Majestic Star, then owned by Don Barden, acquired three of those, including the Fitzgeralds in Tunica, which had opened in 1994. Majestic Star had its own problems, turning over control to other leadership in 2008, filing for bankruptcy in 2009, suing Barden in 2010, and proposing the end of his ownership role through their reorganization plan. Barden died in May 2011, and the company exited bankruptcy at the end of last year, newly owned by ex-lenders and with Minnesota-based Wayzata Investment Partners the largest shareholder. Problems continued; one casino was sold this year, and there were layoffs in Tunica this fall.

Somewhere along the way – and I haven't been able to figure out just when – it seems that the name of the Tunica casino evolved from "Fitzgeralds" to "The Fitz," though I'm not sure they changed the signs on the building and the entrance gate. The Associated Press article describing the layoffs calls the place "Fitz Casino & Hotel Tunica" and refers to it as "the former Fitzgerald's." Recent promos and the casino's web site refer to the place as "the new Fitz", perhaps in recognition of the place being out of bankruptcy.

To a chip collector, this naturally raises the question of whether Fitzgeralds and The Fitz should be considered different casinos that warrant separate representation in a collection. I have confirmed through the MOGH catalog that there are chips displaying each of those names, but that catalog has them all displayed together. Geez, my list of chips to get just keeps getting longer; I thought I had the Tunica area casinos covered until the Sportsman opens, if it ever does.

Does anyone know when the name changed to The Fitz? Does anyone know whether the name really even changed?

Their web site seems not to be a reliable source of info – consider this path on the web: If I start at www.fitzgeraldstunica.com, where they describe the "new" Fitz and are ready to accept hotel reservations, and click on "Corporate" at the bottom of the page, I am transferred to www.majesticstar.com, which seems reasonable. There I can click on an "Investors" tab that takes me to a list of SEC filings through February 2012 and other links. From there, I can select "Financial & Investor Information," which takes me to a page that claims that the deposed and deceased Don H. Barden is Manager, Chairman, President, and CEO. As a result, my confidence in other linked info is not very strong. Perhaps the difficulties continue to permeate the organization. If they can't make a basic web site work, or if perhaps they believe a man who has been dead for more than a year and a half is still their CEO, will they ever be able to operate a chain of casinos profitably?

I first visited Tunica and collected my Fitzgeralds chip in 2006. As with the other Mississippi casinos I visited in 2006, I do not have records to report on my gaming results.

The chip shown below is a white ceramic Chipco Pro Tech model with a satin (smooth) finish. The MOGH catalog says this chip was issued in 1994 when the casino opened but that an identical chip with a linen (textured) surface was issued in 2003. It seems reasonable to expect that in 2006 I would have obtained the 2003 version instead of the 1994 one, but I checked and confirmed that mine has a very smooth surface. The shamrock logo appears three times on what is basically a very simple layout. In the photo, you can barely see the two blue bands on the edge of the chip. I may have asked this before, but I don't remember getting an answer: Is is proper to call this "lucky" four-leafed (eight-lobed) version of the plant a "shamrock"?

Here's my chip from the Fitz. It's a Paulson RHC, and it reflects the shortened name. I collected this chip in 2011, during my LA/MS trip. I thought that the Tunica Fitz was at least as nice as the property in downtown Vegas, though it's a bit isolated in Tunica. Tunica was not what I expected it to be. There are a couple clusters of walkable casinos, but mostly things are quite spread out. I'd expected something more like Shreveport or Biloxi where the casinos would more-or-less have physical proximity even if walking was impractical. But the Tunica "strip" is very long - perhaps more like the Boulder Strip than the Las Vegas Boulevard strip.

Quote: Doc

Yes, the Beau Rivage can provide space for some sizable watercraft, and I'm sure they could accommodate your needs. But the Beau isn't the only option for you in Biloxi. Down Beach Boulevard to the east there is a much smaller casino-hotel, the Isle, formerly known as the Isle of Capri-Biloxi. It appears that they can provide docking space for some fairly impressive craft, too:

Isle-Biloxi waterfront

Isle-Biloxi close-up

Would you feel you were slumming if you parked your dingy next to one of those?

I wouldn't. I'd just let the air out of my "luxury watercraft", and roll it up... hehe. Are luxury yacht accomodations provided at many other businesses that front the Mississippi? How wide is the river where the casinos are located? I picture it like trying to drive a 42 ft. RV down Lombard Street in San Francisco.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I wouldn't. I'd just let the air out of my "luxury watercraft", and roll it up... hehe. Are luxury yacht accomodations provided at many other businesses that front the Mississippi? How wide is the river where the casinos are located? I picture it like trying to drive a 42 ft. RV down Lombard Street in San Francisco.

They're in Biloxi, so I think they're actually on the Gulf. Beau is quite exposed, while the Isle is somewhat protected by Grand Bayou island.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Fitzgeralds

Somewhere along the way – and I haven't been able to figure out just when – it seems that the name of the Tunica casino evolved from "Fitzgeralds" to "The Fitz," ...

I think this is a general problem with companies that have family names, but are no longer owned by the family. The Las Vegas version of Fitzgerald's completely dropping the name is one way to go, but walking away from the equity in the brand seems a waste. It wasn't all positive, but people knew it.

I wonder what will happen to "Wynn" after it's namesake passes on.

Quote: rdw4potus

Tunica was not what I expected it to be. There are a couple clusters of walkable casinos, but mostly things are quite spread out.

I'm certainly not sure, but I think that in the early planning, folks expected (or at least allowed for) Tunica to become a major destination, with lots of golf courses, amusement parks, more hotels and casinos, etc. I think the various clusters of casinos, plus the Harrah's complex and the stand-alone Bally's and Fitzgeralds, were a way of staking out casino territory amongst the farm land, with the expectation that farming would disappear in favor of major tourism and that the area would fill in. Something like the way Disney staked out a lot of land in Florida for Disney World after finding they were hemmed in and stifled at Disneyland California.

deleted

It troubles me to see Doc posting that the lack of replies is depressing.
Doc: Our lack of comment does not indicate a lack of interest, only a lack of anything worthwhile to add.


Two lurkers recently said it best, so I'll just quote them (emphasis added):

Quote: 10DollarBri

I think that I represent many forum members who never post but visit this sight almost every day. This is my favorite thread so keep up the great work Doc. . .

Quote: kenarman

I have so little to add your posts Doc since I have never been anywhere near that part of the US. It will likely have to wait until I transition from semi to full retirement since I would want several weeks to tour the area.

I hope I am not the only one reading your posts and you decide to end the thread since it is the first thread I read each day.

Bottom line: Keep up the good work!

Quote: DJTeddyBear

It troubles me to see Doc posting that the lack of replies is depressing.
Doc: Our lack of comment does not indicate a lack of interest, only a lack of anything worthwhile to add.


Two lurkers recently said it best, so I'll just quote them (emphasis added):

Quote: 10DollarBri

I think that I represent many forum members who never post but visit this sight almost every day. This is my favorite thread so keep up the great work Doc. . .

Quote: kenarman

I have so little to add your posts Doc since I have never been anywhere near that part of the US. It will likely have to wait until I transition from semi to full retirement since I would want several weeks to tour the area.

I hope I am not the only one reading your posts and you decide to end the thread since it is the first thread I read each day.

Bottom line: Keep up the good work!

Lurker #one still here :)

Doc, some of us can not afford to collect chips. All our money is tied up in non-durables : Food, clothing,etc.

But that does not mean we don't like this thread

State: Mississippi
City: Robinsonville
Casino: Gold Strike

The Gold Strike was originally the Circus Circus Tunica, opening in 1994 as a tent-shaped structure that did not have a hotel. Losing business to competing casinos, Circus Circus started an expansion and renovation program in 1997 that added a hotel tower, theater, and other amenities. As part of that upgrade, the name was changed to Gold Strike Resort and Casino. Circus Circus Enterprises was renamed Mandalay Resort Group after the opening of the like-named property in Las Vegas and subsequently was purchased in 2004 by MGM-Mirage, now MGM Resorts International.

The Gold Strike is the only MGM property in the Tunica Resorts area. It shares a parking lot with two Caesars properties, Horseshoe Tunica and the Tunica Roadhouse (formerly the Sheraton).

The entrance road to these casinos and the shared parking lot is known as Casino Center Drive, which extends as half of the loop around the parking lot. I don't remember seeing signs, but according to GoogleMaps, the other half of the loop, and the road out to the back between the Horseshoe and Roadhouse, is known as "Bally Blvd." Interestingly, that "boulevard" in total runs about a mile and a half, almost all of it a dirt/gravel road that meanders through open fields and across the levee, skirting the Bally's Casino property but not giving access to the casino or parking lot. There's got to be a story there somewhere.

My souvenir chips from the Horseshoe, Roadhouse, and the former Sheraton all declare those casinos are/were located in "Tunica", while the chip shown below from the Gold Strike right next door says the casino is in Robinsonville. I don't think they are really within the limits of either town, but "Robinsonville" is closer to the truth by a factor of four or five. That's just not the name that was selected for promoting the area to casino patrons. I should note that other Gold Strike chips go with the flow and say that the casino is in Tunica.

The Gold Strike hotel is reportedly the second tallest building in Mississippi, falling just short of the height of sister MGM property Beau Rivage.

My wife and I have never stayed at the Gold Strike, but we have dined in their Atrium Café several times, and we attended a performance of the Taganai Circus (another Cirque du Soleil copy-cat) in their Millennium Theater in 2006 with a couple of our very good, anti-casino friends who live in that area. They enjoyed the café and the circus, but getting from one to the other we had to quickly skirt the gaming area to protect their sensitivities.

I have played craps at the Gold Strike a couple of times, including in 2006 when I got my souvenir chip, but I do not have records of my gaming results for any visit except in March 2010. I posted previously about an amusing incident on that visit, for which I came out $40 ahead overall.

The chip shown below is a bland, white/cream/beige Chipco Pro Tech ceramic chip with little else for me to comment upon.

Here's my Gold Strike chip. It lists the "Tunica" location. The MOGH lists the issuance date on this series as 2008, which means that this chip was in play for about 3 years before I picked it up. It's in good shape considering the traffic at the casino.

I think that Gold Strike was the Tunica casino that I was the most surprised by on my trip. It was much much more upscale than I'd expected. I actually spent a lot of time at the property (relatively - I went to 18 casinos that day...) because I wanted to see everything. When I return to Tunica, I think I'll spend most of my time in this casino cluster. It's home to three above-average walkable casinos, all of which are affiliated with national comp systems. That's a home-run!

I like that chip, rdw. As I have said before, I have always viewed it as adding a touch of class to have the name of the casino molded into the chip. Of course, the MOGH catalog just describes this chip as a "house" mold, but I suspect it is from Paulson. It would really be useful to look at this under UV light to see whether there is a hidden hat and cane. Yeah, you need to get a UV lamp and re-photograph your entire collection before you take over the lead for this thread. ;-)

Quote: Doc

Yeah, you need to get a UV lamp and re-photograph your entire collection before you take over the lead for this thread. ;-)

I am planning on doing the re-photographing with a digital camera that is not attached to my cellphone. I also want to reorganize my collection on Photobucket. I'll probably take a weekend and do that. Maybe longer. I suppose you might as well tell me where you got your blacklight;-)

Quote: rdw4potus

I suppose you might as well tell me where you got your blacklight;-)

I first purchased the little LED flashlight from Amazon. I bought it for $1.79 plus $2.99 S&H, but the same vendor is now offering it for $5.20 plus S&H. Several vendors sell the same thing, so if you are interested in minimum cost, search for "9 LED 400 nM UV Ultra Violet Blacklight Flashlight".

The flashlight is fairly good for checking out a chip, but for photographing them, I got a compact fluorescent UV tube that fits into a standard lamp base. I bought it at Spencer's Gifts in a local mall for $10.71 including tax. Spencer's also offers a lower-price, incandescent, UV bulb that I read is much worse, basically just providing a violet glow to everything. If you want really good results, there are some full-size fluorescent UV tubes that require a tube fixture, maybe the 4-ft kind. I didn't want to go to that expense or trouble.

you may need eye protection too. UV can burn your retinas

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Grand Casino

Again, there is a minor challenge in alphabetizing the chips. My collection includes three present and former casinos in Mississippi whose names are "Grand" Something or Other. I just named the image for today's chip as "Grand.jpg", ignoring the "Casino" that may be part of the name, and my computer thinks that the "." should make that fall later in sequence than the ones that have an underscore separating "Grand" from the second part of the name. If I'm going to ignore "Casino", then I think the plain old "Grand" should come first. And that's the way it is, at least in this thread. For today, anyway.

The Grand Casino opened in Tunica in June 1996 as a property of Grand Casinos, Inc. At the time, it was supposedly the largest casino between Las Vegas and Atlantic City. In 1998, it was sold to Park Place Entertainment, about the time that was spun off from Hilton, with Park Place subsequently changing name to Caesars Entertainment (I), being purchased by Harrah's Entertainment, and again changing name to Caesars Entertainment (II), the current owner.

Along the way, in May 2008 the Grand was renamed Harrah's Tunica, allowing this collector once again to get souvenir chips from two casinos in the same facility. More info on that will be coming just one letter down the alphabet.

The casino gaming areas, of course, are on a floating barge, this time in a lagoon. I don't know to what extent it is a natural body of water and how much was constructed/dredged to permit the casino to get a license. Entering the casino, you are well aware of boarding a boat. There are long, open boarding ramps where you can look down and see the water and the fish. They even have those little dispenser machines with pelletized food to feed the fish -- a slot machine for your coins before you even get into the casino.

The place has three hotels; one adjacent to the casino was constructed in 1997, and two other, somewhat larger hotels were completed in 1999 and 2001 a half mile to the east across the highway on the shore of a rather pretty little lake, or maybe several connected lakes. Right across the lake, they have their golf course; just down the road is their RV center, and to the west of the casino lies their trap, skeet and sporting clays facility. Overall, it’s a pretty extensive development on what I think used to be entirely cotton and soybean farmland. (Maybe some other crops, too, but that's a whole business area I know nothing about.)

My wife and I stayed at the Grand just one time before they changed its name. That was in April 2006, before I was keeping my gambling records straight, so my complaints/cheers about losing/winning money in this casino will have to wait until I post my chip from the Harrah's.

The chip shown below is an RHC Paulson in a sickly pale gray-blue color, with three pinkish edge inserts that make it look even more anemic. The center inlay is a little undersized and has a background that fades from medium blue to lighter to almost white. I have no idea why they have the "A" and "S" in the name in exaggerated sizes, and the "A" seems to be wearing a spilled pot of gold coins as a crown.

When I started preparing this write-up, I typed the quip, "Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light, so perhaps it's just dirty, without certain biohazards that should concern me."

Then I took a look at the MOGH catalog entry for this casino and saw that they reported this chip as having two variations of hidden Paulson hat and cane logos. Even in their photo, the UV image was very faint. I examined my chip again with my UV flashlight and could still see nothing at all.

Just to be sure, I dug out my UV fluorescent tube and put it in a lamp, since it provides a much more intense UV illumination than my little flashlight. Under that light, I could see an extremely faint Paulson logo, one that I wasn't sure I would ever be able to photograph. Before giving up, I turned the chip over, and the hidden image practically jumped out at me! The center inlays on the two sides look identical under visible light, but there is a notable difference (at least on my chip) in the degree of fluorescence of the hidden images. Even the brighter one is so dim it cannot be seen using my UV flashlight.

Now the major difficulty in presenting the UV photo in this post is that I am still short the lens that I use to take these photos. ( *#%@*%!!! ) The shop that had it for almost a month said they fixed some things but they couldn't get everything to work right, so I had them ship it off to Nikon. Don't know when I'll get it back, but when I do, I'll add a UV photo of this chip from the Grand Casino, along with the other three photos I've already admitted that I owe this thread. If I weren't such a cheapskate, I'd likely go buy another lens. But I am, so I won't.



Edit 12/28/12: Here is the UV image I promised.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Grand

I am amused that the coins spilling from the "Pot O' Gold", defy gravity. At my first glance at the small image, I took it as a mountain scene reminiscent of the Grand Canyon.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I am amused that the coins spilling from the "Pot O' Gold", defy gravity.

I think the black line, parallel with the top of the "GR ND" and touching the top of the "A", is supposed to be some sort of surface that the coins have been spilled on. Of course, the pot must have properties of a cornucopia, because it looks to me as if those coins couldn't possibly fit into it or even reasonably be piled on top.

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Grand Biloxi

Back to Biloxi for today's Casino Chip of the Day, to the casino hotel where I have stayed for each of my visits to this Gulf city. The Grand Biloxi is Caesar's entry in the Mississippi coastal market, and it's located across the street from the Gulf beach.

The original casino opened in January 1994 and was known simply as the Grand Casino. As with the Grand Casino in Tunica, this one was built by Grand Casinos, Inc., and it was later sold to Park Place Entertainment/Caesars Entertainment. It was a barge casino anchored just off the beach, as was the way most casinos were built in Biloxi, with a hotel on the beach. When Harrah's Entertainment bought Caesars, they announced that they were going to turn the place into a Horseshoe-branded establishment.

Then the storm hit. The casino barge was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, which lifted it from its moorings, rotated it 90°, washed it to the north, ashore and all the way across US92 (Beach Boulevard), and dropped it a block or two west of where the new casino was later constructed. Here is a link to a photo of what the boat looked like after the hurricane. I had a link to another site with additional photos of this casino and others following the Katrina devastation, but those photos seem to be missing now, and the site is marked "last updated December 2012." Either they got tired of those photos on their site, or there was some glitch in the update.

The reconstruction involved demolition of the remnants of the barge and the beach-front hotel, with erection of all new facilities. They acquired the adjoining waterfront property that had been the site of the Casino Magic, another casino boat that washed ashore and was destroyed, plus the property on the north side of Beach Boulevard from there.

They built first on the north side of the highway and were back open for business (as the Grand Biloxi) just under a year after the storm hit. For that initial construction, the casino was significantly scaled down. While the barge had 106,000 sq. ft. of gaming space, the new building had only 35,000 sq. ft. I was quite surprised at its small size when I first saw it. The plan was to build additional facilities across the street.

On the beach side, they started building a Margaritaville casino, connected to the Grand Biloxi by a pedestrian bridge. The money wasn't working right, and they stopped with not much more than the foundation and some rebar/concrete pillars in place, terminating the agreement with Jimmy Buffett. The dead construction project looked/looks terrible as a view out the front window – at least as bad as a few of those on the north strip in Las Vegas. I understand that the city has told Caesars they must complete the construction or tear it down. I'm not sure at all what will be the outcome.

Since I am a small-town guy and such a low roller, the small casino meets my needs. It has three craps tables, one of them crapless. I've never seen all three open at once, but I've never been unable to find a spot to play, and they have a few penny slots that entertain my wife. We have eaten at their buffet, their steakhouse (LB's), the Lobby Grill, the Grand Café, and the Cuu Long Souper Pho bistro next to the Asian-themed high-limit area. We have enjoyed every meal at the property.

The surprising thing, perhaps, is that there is no entertainment venue at all. And this from a casino that, in its earlier form, issued commemorative chips when they hosted a concert by Pavarotti in 2000.

The chip shown below is another white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in blue and lime. The center inlay has a pale lime background. I can't decide whether the background graphic is supposed to represent some kind of gear wheel or the paddle wheel of a riverboat. Any other suggestions? UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo in the center, with nothing else fluorescing.

The devastation from the hurricane is amazing. It looks like post WWII Hiroshima.

I think the center inlay pattern is a stylized sun. It fits the motif on the hotel website.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I think the center inlay pattern is a stylized sun. It fits the motif on the hotel website.

Yes, I certainly see the green/white sunburst pattern on the web site, but those rays all seem to continue to expand radially. The pattern on the chip has the "spokes" each tapering to an end -- the green fades to white points, and the ones just above the "D" and just below the "G" have starburst patterns of their own at the tips. I don't know what this represents. There are 16 of them, so maybe they are white-flame candles on a Sweet Sixteen birthday cake. How's that for an out-there suggestion? Grand?

Quote: Doc

Yes, I certainly see the green/white sunburst pattern on the web site, but those rays all seem to continue to expand radially. The pattern on the chip has the "spokes" each tapering to an end -- the green fades to white points, and the ones just above the "D" and just below the "G" have starburst patterns of their own at the tips. I don't know what this represents. There are 16 of them, so maybe they are white-flame candles on a Sweet Sixteen birthday cake. How's that for an out-there suggestion? Grand?

Here's an image of a collectible token from silverstrikers.com, that reinforces my sunburst theory:


Note that on the coin, the "Pot" with the coins spilling out in the logo is above the invisible table. It was still undersized though. I guess magical things are like that... Therefore, my big wallet is clearly not magical.

State: Mississippi
City: Vicksburg
Casino: Grand Station

Let's start today's post with a simple trivia question about geography.

The city of Vicksburg, Mississippi was the site of a major siege and battle in the U.S. Civil War (or the War Between the States, or the War of Northern Aggression, depending on your biases) and is home to a National Cemetery and National Military Park commemorating the battle there. Downtown Vicksburg fronts the river forming the state line between Mississippi and Louisiana.

Question: What is the name of that river?

Answer: The Mississippi River, of course. That's obvious. Yes, obvious but also incorrect. It is the Yazoo River, named for the Yazoo tribe. It flows 188 miles through the state of Mississippi, discharging into the Mississippi River just south of Vicksburg (though Wikipedia mistakenly says "north.")

The Louisiana-Mississippi border (heading south along the Mississippi River) takes an odd detour near Vicksburg, hooking left (northeast) away from the main river, through a lake and some undeveloped low lands, then hooking right and following the Yazoo River back down to the Mississippi River and on southward. I suspect, but I don't really know, that the Mississippi River may have once flowed along the path that the state border takes, joining the Yazoo some 2 1/2 miles farther up that river than it does now. If so, the river's shift to today's path would be in keeping with a description of the river by Mark Twain (third paragraph of this page), one which is often quoted in relation to the dangers of extrapolation.

I mention that geography question, because today's Casino Chip of the Day is from the only casino riverboat on the Yazoo River. Plus, I thought it was a fun topic.

The Horizon Casino Hotel, to be discussed about a week from now, was sold by Tropicana Entertainment in March 2011 to Delta Investments & Development, a Nevada-incorporated company whose investors were Gateway Gaming of South Carolina and Tangent Gaming of New York. They renamed the casino Grand Station and re-opened under that name in June, delayed somewhat by the spring 2011 flooding of the river.

I heard about the renamed casino some time late in 2011, and when I made my loop of Louisiana casinos in February 2012, I made my departure from that state via I-20 and Vicksburg to pick up a Grand Station souvenir chip. I played craps, and I was there while a new dealer was trying to learn the game. She had lots of help and oversight, and she was trying hard, but she had a long way to go. I managed to lose $25, which wasn't too painful, and headed on my way with my chip.

Perhaps the flood at opening was some kind of omen for this casino venture. Things did not go well. Bally Gaming had loaned Delta money to buy equipment (presumably much of it from Bally Gaming) plus to renovate the casino. Delta was unable to repay, and Bally foreclosed, claiming they were owed $3 million. The casino closed on March 28, 2012, less than seven weeks after my visit. It caught most everyone by surprise, with both patrons and employees being ushered out of the casino by officials, right in the middle of the day. I have not heard whether patrons were able to cash out their chips or not.

Latest info that I can find says that the hotel has been sold to a New Orleans real estate developer who planned to convert it to a condo and marina resort. Both Delta Investments and the City of Vicksburg have tried to convince him to buy/operate the casino, too, but I don't think any buyer has been found, and the casino remains closed.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in the Halloween colors of black and orange. The center inlay has tones of gold and crimson, with plenty of flourishes to the script. Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light. Since the casino was only open for nine months, any chip you find from Grand Station should be in pretty good condition.



Edit 6/30/14: I just learned from this blog that back on May 18, 2013, the Grand Station riverboat, aka Horizon, -- or at least the remaining shell of the barge -- was finally removed from its docking station. It had been sold for the "Grand" price of $10,000 to Keys Recycling Center, presumably to be scrapped.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi

The Louisiana-Mississippi border (heading south along the Mississippi River) takes an odd detour near Vicksburg, hooking left (northeast) away from the main river, through a lake and some undeveloped low lands, then hooking right and following the Yazoo River back down to the Mississippi River and on southward. I suspect, but I don't really know, that the Mississippi River may have once flowed along the path that the state border takes, joining the Yazoo 2 1/2 miles farther up that river than it does now. If so, the river's shift to today's path would be in keeping with a description of the river by Mark Twain, one which is often quoted in relation to the dangers of extrapolation.

I haven't used that well known Mark Twain passage to try and to try and get some of the more vocal global warming proponents to realize that any time lines being espoused are projections and not hard facts. It seldom works however since critical thinking skills seem to be missing from much of the younger generation.

I visited Tunica for the first time after the name change at the former Grand property there. But, I do have chips from the Grand property in Biloxi and from the former Grand Station casino in Vicksburg. I thought Grand Station was nice enough, and the closure is just shocking. Why pay for the name change from Horizon if the tenure of the new property was only going to be 9 months? I stayed at Grand in Biloxi on the last night of my journey in summer 2011. i thought the hotel was OK, but it wasn't as nice as I'd expected - certainly not "grand" in any appreciable way. The casino was also cramped and lacked flow.

Both chips are paulson RHCs. The grand station chip is in fantastic condition, since I picked it up only a couple months after the name change. the Grand chip is more worn and dirty, and I'm sure it's also seen much more play.

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Hard Rock

Construction of the Hard Rock Casino was completed, and the place was set to open in Biloxi on September 1, 2005. Unfortunately, on August 28, just four days before the scheduled opening, all coastal Mississippi casinos were ordered closed in anticipation of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. The place was destroyed but eventually opened in June 2007, with considerable conflict among the parties, I think.

The Wiki page, as usual, has lots of questionable info. For one, it says that the owner is Premier Entertainment. That company did own the hotel and casino, but there were lawsuits following the storm and reconstruction. I tried to read through one of the court records, but I quickly remembered some of the many reasons I never went to law school. I think the outcome was that Premier Entertainment no longer has any sort of operations, but I'm not clear who the current owner of the casino hotel really is. The Hard Rock corporate web site doesn't seem to go into who the franchise holders are.

I have been to Hard Rock several times, and I think it is very nice. It is, however, a little too … well, er, uh … hard rock for my tastes, but that likely says at least as much about me as about the casino. While I have been there several times, I can only find a record of having gambled there once, for just a 15-minute session of craps in March 2010, during which I broke even before my wife and I headed down the block (with my souvenir chip) to Beau Rivage to meet up with RaleighCraps and his wife.

The chip shown below is either blue with very wide white edge inserts or white with very wide blue edge inserts. With the oversized center inlay, it's difficult to determine just what the underlying colors are, though I suspect it is really a "white" chip. In any case, it was produced in the familiar RHC Paulson mold.

UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo and the repeated "Hard Rock Biloxi." Of course there is at least one "error" in the array – I'm sure you can find it. There could be a lot more, but the black upper half of the center inlay makes it extremely difficult to read the fluorescing text there.

The slogan/motto at the bottom of the chip is one shared by the Hard Rock Casino and the late Indian guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba, born Sathyanarayana Raju, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi, who (at least the original) was considered a god by his followers. If you don't follow all of that, just try Google. Anyway, talk about unexpected camaraderie for a casino!

Here's my chip from the Hard Rock in Biloxi. I like the Hard Rock casinos. They're generally a lot of fun, and this one is no exception. My chip is a Paulson RHC. it's a little odd that the inlay appears to extend out half-way onto the tophats. Why not buy chipco or bud jones chips if the inlay is to be that large?

I like the oversize inlay. It says to me, "I'm so big, I can't even fit on a regular chip!".

Somewhere I have seen a reference to names for the various sizes of center inlays, but I can't seem to dig it up tonight. I just criticize them as "slightly undersized" or "oversized," based on how close they come to matching the central recess formed by the mold. Can any of you find the names of the different sizes?