Casino Chip of the Day

I know I'm new here and this thread is almost a long as the HB thread. May I pls cut to the chase and simply ask. Are we allowed to offer/raffle/or otherwise give/sell old chips on this thread?

When I created this thread, the intent was to provide a place to discuss a different chip and casino each day, in (hopefully) an orderly fashion, with an emphasis on sharing images of chips that people in this forum have from that casino. I tried to lay the intent out in Post #1 of the thread, and I think we have kept pretty well to the way I described things way back there.

I would really prefer that this particular thread not become a commercial market, and I think that our host has set up a place for such things. If you go to the Home/Forums/Off Topic, you will find a forum area called "Kiosk". Or click on this link to get there. That is where commercial ventures are supposed to be posted, and I think that buying/selling/trading of chips should be conducted there.

If I am incorrect on that point, perhaps the Wizard or one of the other Admin folks can post a correction here.

State: Mississippi
City: Greenville
Casino: Harlow's

Harlow's Casino Resort is a land-based casino located about ten miles south of Greenville and quite close to the US82/278 bridge across the Mississippi River to Arkansas. It opened in November 2007 and is on high, dry ground. With that comparatively-late opening date, it was able to be land-based by conforming with the post-Katrina Mississippi laws allowing casinos to just be within 800 feet of the high water mark, rather than floating on the water.

Being on "high, dry ground" does not necessarily guarantee that a casino won't have problems with the water. The Mississippi River flooded in May 2011 without there being a hurricane at all, just seasonal variation. All of the casinos in Tunica were closed, as were some of those farther south.

Waters were quite high in the Greenville area, too. Aerial photos showing Harlow's surrounded by water are available at this page. Near the bottom of that page are photos of downtown Greenville, showing the riverboat casinos Bayou Caddy's Jubilee and Lighthouse Point under high-water conditions. There are several pages of those photos taken on different days during that period of flooding. If you are interested in seeing them, use the link at the top of that page, above the first photo.

According to Wikipedia, where the page on Harlow's is even worse than most, the developer/owner's planned name for the casino was Bali-Ha'i, as in the exotic paradise island in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. Among the many conflicts on that page are the statement that the casino is owned by Rick Schilling and a reference to "the late Rick Schilling." Sometime, presumably prior to his demise, he changed his mind and wanted a name and art deco styling "to bring back that lavish old Hollywood style with even more grandeur." In truth, the casino now belongs to Churchill Downs Incorporated, the folks who bring us the Kentucky Derby.

I have visited Harlow's just one time, in August 2010, winning a grand total of $25 in a 30-minute session of craps.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with three edge inserts in pink, pumpkin, and brown. The center inlay graphic includes both a top hat and a separate cane that I think are intended to represent that lavish old Hollywood style rather than being any sort of reference to Paulson. Just a coincidence, I suppose. There is no hidden hat and cane, or anything else for that matter, that fluoresces under UV light.

Here is my Harlow's chip. It's a Paulson RHC, very similar to Doc's.

Harlow's is so very different from Bayou Caddy's and Lighthouse Point (now the Trop, i guess) that it's hard to think about them being in the same small town. If Vegas had just the Lucky Club, Jokers' Wild, and Bally's it would approximately represent the difference between the 3 casinos. The downtown casinos are small and charming, but hardly make an effort to be anything other than locals casinos. Harlow's is out of town a bit, near the highway, and has a very nice-looking hotel. I suppose they get more business from travelers and destination gamblers. I liked the style of Harlow's, but I'm not sure I'd have thought it was old hollywood style. Unless it's explicitly stated, I think that probably is indistinguishable from a more generic "upscale" style.

I have two very good friends, a high school classmate and her husband, who live in the Tunica area. She is a retired school teacher, and they are both opposed to the casinos in Mississippi.

I didn't really understand why, since my experiences suggested that the casinos not only provided employment but also brought outside revenue into the area. I suspected that the casinos paid higher taxes than the farms they replaced, thereby supporting the local infrastructure. My friends' viewpoint was that the casinos preyed on locals who were already poor and should not be gambling at all with what little money they had, and that the casinos were extracting money from the local economy rather than adding to it. As a school teacher, she had apparently seen too many cases of children who were suffering from their parent's (and that singular-rather-than-plural form is intentional) gambling habits.

I could not see that viewpoint at all, until 2010 when I visited Greenville, where my friends had lived previously. My impression of Bayou Caddy's Jubilee (developed admittedly in a very brief visit) was that it was not making any effort at all to draw players from other areas and only wanted to separate the locals from their money, just as my friends had described. I did not even step into Lighthouse Point, but I suspect it was much the same.

In contrast, Harlow's is indeed a much more upscale establishment, but I don't know how much they draw outside funds to the local economy. If they do it at all, it is probably revenue from the almost-local folks from across the bridge in Arkansas.

I now understand my friends' viewpoint a little better, but I am not at all convinced that it applies well to most of the casinos in the Tunica area or Biloxi, where it seems that a large portion of the players are visitors to the area.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Hard Rock


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.

It seems like recently all of the errors have been in the area between 3 and 6 o'clock. Perhaps it is just a coincidence but when I first saw that this was one of those chips I went straight to that section and there it was. Hmmmm.....

I agree. Almost all of the "errors" are slightly below and to the right of center.

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Harrah's

As an aside from the theme of this thread, I wish a very Merry Christmas to all of you, your kin, and your significant others. Enjoy the day!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program….

There have been (at least) four casinos in Mississippi that have worn the Harrah's name. One was a riverboat that opened in 1993 in Vicksburg as the city's second casino. As a point of trivia, that casino-hotel included Vicksburg's very first escalator. The casino went through a couple of name changes, ending up as the now-closed Grand Station.

The MOGH catalog suggests that the riverboat casino in Natchez started out as a Harrah's, became a Lady Luck, and then became an Isle of Capri. However, they do not have any chips from that casino showing the Harrah's name, and I have been unable to find any other references to it having operated under that name. Thus, there may have been five Harrah's casinos in Mississippi, or perhaps only four.

Anyway, the other three Harrah's not covered in the paragraphs above have all been located in the Tunica area.

The first one was located several miles south of the current Harrah's and was the first casino in the current Tunica gaming area, opening in 1993. Harrah's closed the original property in 1997 before selling it to Isle of Capri in 1999. That company operated it for about three years before closing it again, and the site remains closed today. There have been several public announcements and a persistent rumor for a couple of years that it will be renovated and reopened as the Sportsman Casino, but I have seen no evidence of physical progress.

In 1996, Harrah's purchased the closed Southern Belle, which had operated under that name for just a few months in 1994, and which was less than ¾ mile away from their original Tunica casino. They renamed it the Harrah's Mardi Gras and operated both casinos as neighbors for about a year before closing the older one.

When Harrah's acquired Caesars Entertainment in 2004/5, it acquired three more Tunica-area casinos: Bally's, the Grand, and the Sheraton. Shortly before that, they had acquired the Horseshoe brand, including the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica. At that point, they really dominated the local market, owning five of the nine operating casinos. They chose to sell Bally's and the Harrah's Mardi Gras to Colony Capital, with the first continuing to use the Bally's name and the second being renamed Resorts, which is the name of that division of Colony Capital.

Amongst all of those convolutions, the Grand remained the nicest of their properties in the area, and it was given the Harrah's name, after a bit of renovation, in 2008. And that is the Harrah's casino represented by today's Casino Chip of the Day.

My wife and I have stayed at this Harrah's on three occasions since its name was changed, and overall my gambling results (always at craps) have been quite favorable. In August 2009 I played a single session finishing +$25. In March 2010, I also played a single session and ended +$230. We returned in August 2010, and I played three sessions over two days, with the results being +$600, +$150, and -$300.

For a low roller, that's not bad at all, except for that last session, which was on a crapless craps table where I played because the only other one operating was full. I wrote about those August 2010 sessions here, but I skipped over the one in the middle. That's a rather long post covering stops in several cities, but the last four paragraphs focus on the visit to the Harrah's in Tunica.

We were back in Tunica in July 2012, but we stayed at a different hotel, and I didn't play at Harrah's then. I have a reservation there for a one-night Tunica stop on my Mississippi trip next month. I should get together that evening with my anti-casino friends who live in the area, and I need to find time to collect a Fitz (former Fitzgeralds) chip while I'm in town, so I don't know whether I will play at Harrah's this trip or not.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in red/orange and brown. The center inlay is simple with a slightly darker tone of green than the inlay on my chip from the predecessor Grand Casino. Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.

Quote: Doc

I now understand my friends' viewpoint a little better, but I am not at all convinced that it applies well to most of the casinos in the Tunica area or Biloxi, where it seems that a large portion of the players are visitors to the area.

It definitely doesn't apply as much for Tunica/Biloxi I'm sure, but if you gamble in Tunica during the week, you will see many cars with Mississippi plates that either have DeSoto or Tunica county on them, as well as Tennessee plates with Shelby county on them. Tunica is a sorta a hybrid, imo, between a tourist gambling destination and a bank of local casinos for the Memphis metro area.

Quote: tringlomane

Tunica is a sorta a hybrid, imo, between a tourist gambling destination and a bank of local casinos for the Memphis metro area.

If the casinos are pulling in Memphis (i.e., Tennessee) dollars for employment of Tunica/Desota county residents and adding to the tax revenues for Mississippi and its counties/towns, then I would expect the locals (and a local retired school teacher) to think that was good. My friends seem to think it is the impoverished people from their county who are supporting the predatory casinos.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Harrah's

As an aside from the theme of this thread, I wish a very Merry Christmas to all of you, your kin, and your significant others. Enjoy the day!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program….

There have been (at least) four casinos in Mississippi that have worn the Harrah's name. One was a riverboat that opened in 1993 in Vicksburg as the city's second casino. As a point of trivia, that casino-hotel included Vicksburg's very first escalator. The casino went through a couple of name changes, ending up as the now-closed Grand Station.

The MOGH catalog suggests that the riverboat casino in Natchez started out as a Harrah's, became a Lady Luck, and then became an Isle of Capri. However, they do not have any chips from that casino showing the Harrah's name, and I have been unable to find any other references to it having operated under that name. Thus, there may have been five Harrah's casinos in Mississippi, or perhaps only four.

Anyway, the other three Harrah's not covered in the paragraphs above have all been located in the Tunica area.

The first one was located several miles south of the current Harrah's and was the first casino in the current Tunica gaming area, opening in 1993. Harrah's closed the original property in 1997 before selling it to Isle of Capri in 1999. That company operated it for about three years before closing it again, and the site remains closed today. There have been several public announcements and a persistent rumor for a couple of years that it will be renovated and reopened as the Sportsman Casino, but I have seen no evidence of physical progress.

In 1996, Harrah's purchased the closed Southern Belle, which had operated under that name for just a few months in 1994, and which was less than ¾ mile away from their original Tunica casino. They renamed it the Harrah's Mardi Gras and operated both casinos as neighbors for about a year before closing the older one.

When Harrah's acquired Caesars Entertainment in 2004/5, it acquired three more Tunica-area casinos: Bally's, the Grand, and the Sheraton. Shortly before that, they had acquired the Horseshoe brand, including the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica. At that point, they really dominated the local market, owning five of the nine operating casinos. They chose to sell Bally's and the Harrah's Mardi Gras to Colony Capital, with the first continuing to use the Bally's name and the second being renamed Resorts, which is the name of that division of Colony Capital.

Amongst all of those convolutions, the Grand remained the nicest of their properties in the area, and it was given the Harrah's name, after a bit of renovation, in 2008. And that is the Harrah's casino represented by today's Casino Chip of the Day.

My wife and I have stayed at this Harrah's on three occasions since its name was changed, and overall my gambling results (always at craps) have been quite favorable. In August 2009 I played a single session finishing +$25. In March 2010, I also played a single session and ended +$230. We returned in August 2010, and I played three sessions over two days, with the results being +$600, +$150, and -$300.

For a low roller, that's not bad at all, except for that last session, which was on a crapless craps table where I played because the only other one operating was full. I wrote about those August 2010 sessions here, but I skipped over the one in the middle. That's a rather long post covering stops in several cities, but the last four paragraphs focus on the visit to the Harrah's in Tunica.

We were back in Tunica in July 2012, but we stayed at a different hotel, and I didn't play at Harrah's then. I have a reservation there for a one-night Tunica stop on my Mississippi trip next month. I should get together that evening with my anti-casino friends who live in the area, and I need to find time to collect a Fitz (former Fitzgeralds) chip while I'm in town, so I don't know whether I will play at Harrah's this trip or not.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in red/orange and brown. The center inlay is simple with a slightly darker tone of green than the inlay on my chip from the predecessor Grand Casino. Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.

I stayed at Harrah's Tunica in October when in town for the Texas A&M-Mississippi football game. I was really impressed with the hospitality of the staff at the casino, and their effort to provide good customer service.

I have that $1 chip.

Quote: Doc

The center inlay graphic includes both a top hat and a separate cane that I think are intended to represent that lavish old Hollywood style rather than being any sort of reference to Paulson. Just a coincidence, I suppose. There is no hidden hat and cane, or anything else for that matter, that fluoresces under UV light.

One wonders if there was any sort of trademark conflict since, to the causal observer, the Paulson THC edge impressions look like they are part of the casino's Top Hat & Cane motif. And then this begs the question: Are there other casinos in the area that use Paulson THC chips?

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Are there other casinos in the area that use Paulson THC chips?

The Bayou Caddy's Jubilee chips that rdw4potus and I posted were both from a different manufacturer, and the MOGH catalog shows only three Paulson H&C chips from there: a promo chip, a roulette chip, and a 25¢ chip.

Lighthouse Point had gone to all slots by the time either rdw or I got there, but the MOGH catalog does show H&C chips from when that casino had table games. Those two casinos have combined and become the Trop. I plan to get there for a chip in January, but for now I can only say that the MOGH catalog's displayed chips from there are all from a different manufacturer.

State: Mississippi
City: Bay St. Louis
Casino: Hollywood

There are two Hollywood casinos in Mississippi, both belonging to Penn National Gaming, and I am presenting them in alphabetical order of their cities. Bay St. Louis, a town of population 8,209 per the 2000 census (yes, I'm out of date), is on the Gulf Coast, adjacent to its like-named bay of water and about 15 or 20 miles from the Louisiana border.

The Hollywood Casino is on the north side of town, adjacent to the Bay, and it took a bit of sign following for me to find it. Once I did, it seemed like a reasonably nice facility, particularly considering that it really was located out in the boondocks.

This casino replaced the Casino Magic, which had been in operation from September 1992 until August 2005, when it was mostly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. According to Wikipedia, "Its gaming barge floated over 7 mi away and ended up in a forest."

The Casino Magic Corporation had been purchased by Hollywood Park/Pinnacle Entertainment, which sold the Bay St. Louis casino to Penn National in 2000, three years before Penn National purchased Hollywood Casinos Corp. They continued to operate this casino under the Casino Magic banner until the hurricane destroyed it. When it reopened in August 2006, they changed to the Hollywood Casino name.

I am not completely certain (a geezer's fuzzy memory, I suppose) whether the new casino was rebuilt floating on a barge like the old one or is based on solid land as the amended laws permitted by then. Is there someone in the forum who is more familiar with this casino and can help me out here?

I will make a partial excuse for my lack of recall of the details by saying I was there but one time, in March 2010 on my way from Biloxi to New Orleans. I was only in the place for half an hour, during which I broke even at craps and collected my souvenir chip.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with three edge inserts in red, yellow, and black. UV light reveals the repeated casino name, and I doubt anyone will have much difficulty picking out the "error." Only the red edge insert fluoresces.

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Hollywood

The Hollywood Casino in Tunica is referred to as a "riverboat" casino, though it is several thousand feet from any river. I've looked at the satellite images on GoogleMaps, and I can't even figure out what water it might be floating in. There is a small lake nearby that looks like a storm water retention pond for the parking lot and several others that serve as hazards on the neighboring golf course. I guess I'll have to take a closer look some time when I'm in Tunica and see where the water is that this riverboat is supposed to be paddling. I don't know that I will have time to check it out when I am there a week and a half from now.

The casino was acquired in January 1994 by Hollywood Casino Corporation as an under-construction project of Summit Casinos of Nevada. Hollywood completed the construction and opened it under its own flag in August of that year. Penn National Gaming acquired it in 2003, when they purchased the entire Hollywood corporation.

This Hollywood Casino is located in a cluster of casinos at the end of Casino Strip Resort Boulevard, as opposed to the cluster of casinos at the end of nearby Casino Center Drive. Those two roads are connected by Casino Way. The folks in Tunica don't seem to have been overly creative with street names when the casino development phase was under way.

The Hollywood's closest neighbors include Resorts Casino, Sam's Town, and the remnants of the Harrah's/Isle of Capri that might someday (insert here whatever the smiley is for "skeptical") become the Sportsman Casino.

I must have gotten my souvenir chip from the Hollywood - Tunica when I visited the area in 2006, because I can find no record of having been or played there since. I have played in at least five other Hollywood casinos in the interim, and they all seem to blur into one in my memory. I think TIMSPEED has grand things to say in endorsing Penn National and the Hollywood chain. ☺

The chip shown below is another white RHC Paulson with three very wide triangular (?) edge inserts in red, purple, and dark green. The center inlay is mostly black with a textured look to the printing, as if it were on a piece of denim. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo in the center, and both the red and purple edge inserts fluoresce.

Quote: Doc

State: Mississippi
City: Bay St. Louis
Casino: Hollywood

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with three edge inserts in red, yellow, and black. UV light reveals the repeated casino name, and I doubt anyone will have much difficulty picking out the "error."...

Hehe, perhaps the casino licenseholder wouldn't consider it an, "error".

That one was so easy to find that I considered challenging folks to find it in just the small image, without clicking to get the larger one.

If it is an error, perhaps it can be "forgiven."

Quote: Doc

I think TIMSPEED has grand things to say in endorsing Penn National and the Hollywood chain. ☺

I do?

Quote: TIMSPEED

I do?

Assuming we didn't catch you in the middle of a wedding, perhaps I misremembered. I thought you had treated us to some grand complaints about how Penn National had downgraded/destroyed the nature of some casino in the process of Hollywoodizing it. Sorry if I was off base.

Quote: Doc

Assuming we didn't catch you in the middle of a wedding, perhaps I misremembered. I thought you had treated us to some grand complaints about how Penn National had downgraded/destroyed the nature of some casino in the process of Hollywoodizing it. Sorry if I was off base.

Do you remember what casino?

Not at all, so I probably made it up. Senility works that way sometimes.

It's quite a stretch, but this is another possibility. I found a post where Tiltpoul declared the Hollywood in Lawrenceburg, IN as having "ABSOLUTELY THE WORST SERVICE", so maybe he is the one who has the grand, negative things to say about Penn National and Hollywood. If so, perhaps the fact that I first met the two of you the same night (WoVCon 1.5) caused my feeble brain to misremember who made the complaint. In any case, sorry I made the false reference.

Quote: Doc

Not at all, so I probably made it up. Senility works that way sometimes.
It's quite a stretch, but this is another possibility. I found a post where Tiltpoul declared the Hollywood in Lawrenceburg, IN as having "ABSOLUTELY THE WORST SERVICE", so maybe he is the one who has the grand, negative things to say about Penn National and Hollywood. If so, perhaps the fact that I first met the two of you the same night (WoVCon 1.5) caused my feeble brain to misremember who made the complaint. In any case, sorry I made the false reference.

Had to be...I've never been to a Hollywood/Penn property...

deleted

Here are my chips from the last few days. It took me much longer than I'd anticipated to find a stable wifi source on my holiday trip, but I think I should be able to keep up again now.

I've stayed at Harrah's in Tunica a few times. I like the hotel(s) there quite a bit, but it's odd for a casino resort that (some of) the hotel(s) are separate from the casino. The casino itself has a strange lack of food options. It's like they just forgot to add the non-food-court restaurants. But the gaming is good enough, especially for Harrah's. And the layout is nice and straightforward.

Penn National has no soul. And they make up for it with bad rules. It's an awesome situation. I think it is Tiltpoul who previously expressed strong feelings on that subject. Though I think TIMSPEED would share them if he'd ever visited a Penn National property.

I'm sure there are some locals who play in Tunica, but those counties aren't populous enough to support all of these casinos. Without tourists and people from Memphis, the Tunica area would be home to the Isle in Lula and the Fitz. Maybe just the Isle...

All three of these chips are Paulson RHCs. That seems to be the chip-of-choice in Mississippi!

Quote: rdw4potus

The casino itself has a strange lack of food options. It's like they just forgot to add the non-food-court restaurants.

Of course, they have Paula Deen's, and they have something called '37 as their upscale dining place, though I've never been there. I think (in my fuzzy recollection) that they used to have a Toby Keith's that was supposed to serve as their mid-range bar/restaurant, but it was closed by the time I tried to go there. It is no longer even mentioned on their web site.

Quote: Doc

I think (in my fuzzy recollection) that they used to have a Toby Keith's that was supposed to serve as their mid-range bar/restaurant, but it was closed by the time I tried to go there. It is no longer even mentioned on their web site.

Yep, I saw that place get constructed and shutdown within 2 years over various Tunica trips. Ate there once, and it was okay, but that place was consistently dead. But Harrah's Las Vegas has Toby Keith's I <3 This Party Pit and it seems to survive. Go figure.

This talk of places to eat in Tunica reminded me of something I should have included in my Hollywood Tunica post this morning.

Completely separate from the casino, and pre-dating all of the casinos in the state, there is the Hollywood Cafe in Robinsonville, MS. It is located about six miles east of the Hollywood Casino. I had dinner there one evening in August 2009 with a group of my high school friends and spouses. The place has an interesting mix of everything southern and soul, including decor, food, and music. Even ignoring the local fame of this little place, it was immortalized in Marc Cohn's 1991 hit song Walking in Memphis, which has the lines:

Quote:

Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
And she said
"Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said "Ma'am I am tonight"

Muriel was a gospel singer and piano player who performed Friday nights at the cafe in the 1980's, and Cohn was inspired to write the hit after being invited to join her on a song during his visit there in 1986.

State: Mississippi
City: Vicksburg
Casino: Horizon

The second riverboat casino to open in Vicksburg was the first Harrah's in the state, opening in 1993 on the Yazoo River. A decade later, it was sold to Columbia Sussex and renamed the Horizon. After that company's bankruptcy adventure, Tropicana Entertainment emerged as the owner of this casino in 2009. Tropicana sold it to Delta Investments and Development in 2011, with it subsequently being renamed Grand Station Casino and closing under foreclosure proceedings just nine months later.

I think I have mentioned all of those facts previously in this thread, but the stuff about Harrah's, Columbia Sussex, Tropicana, and Delta Investments practically seems to swirl around the Horizon Casino, and those things constitute essentially all I know about the place. So I repeated it all. And I even got another chance to mention the Yazoo River.

I picked up my Horizon souvenir chip, shown below, when I visited Vicksburg in 2006. As I have mentioned several times, that was before I was maintaining my gaming log, so I cannot report the results, but I'm am sure that I played craps.

The chip is a dark blue (Isn't that refreshing after all of the white ones?) RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in orange and (maybe) olive. I'm not too sure about those colors. The center inlay is slightly undersized and has a variety of shades of blue. I assume that the inverted "V" makings over the name and around the perimeter of the center inlay are supposed to say "horizon" in some manner, but I have no idea whether they should represent a mountain or waves at sea. Nothing on this chip except the orange edge insert fluoresces under UV light

Quote: Doc

I assume that the inverted "V" makings over the name and around the perimeter of the center inlay are supposed to say "horizon" in some manner, but I have no idea whether they should represent a mountain or waves at sea.

To me, the markings around the perimeter make it look like a bottle cap. (A REAL cap, not a twist-off.)

Quote: rdw4potus

Penn National has no soul. And they make up for it with bad rules. It's an awesome situation. I think it is Tiltpoul who previously expressed strong feelings on that subject. Though I think TIMSPEED would share them if he'd ever visited a Penn National property.

It seems unlikely that we will have Tiltpoul step up in the near future and help clear up my error. I just checked, and he has not posted since late October and hasn't even visited the forum since mid November. He mentioned that he had been busy at work, but this seems like an unusually long absence.

An update on the camera lens issues....

I have reported previously in this thread that the 18mm-70mm lens I use (along with screw-in macro/close-up lenses) for these photo has some problems and has been in for repairs since mid November. The shop made some repairs but was not able to get everything working correctly. I had them ship it off to Nikon two weeks ago, and today I received the quote for the repair cost. I told them to do the work, so I guess I should have the lens back in a few more weeks. The cost was more than I would have liked, but it's a lot less than the cost of buying a new lens.

A few days ago, I thought of another approach I could use to get the images I am missing. I also have a 70mm-300mm lens for the same camera. The macro/close-up lenses don't fit that lens because it has a different diameter. The light bulb finally came on above my head, and I ordered a step-up ring so that I could use the longer lens with the close-up lenses. It's not a great solution, but I thought it should work OK.

I received the step-up ring in the mail today and made the shots. I didn't get the lighting the way I would like, but at least I can show the missing items that I discussed in the earlier posts. If you want to see the updated posts including these new images, click the links below:

Grand Victoria (Indiana) UV image
Belle of Baton Rouge SCV side
Paragon side B
Grand (Tunica) UV image


Edit 1/15/13: I finally got my other lens back from Nikon. I re-shot these four images, and I think they look a little better now.

State: Mississippi
City: Tunica
Casino: Horseshoe

The Horseshoe Casino in Tunica was developed by Benny Binion's son Jack, who had acquired the Horseshoe brand for use outside of Nevada. It opened in 1995, and he sold the entire Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation to Harrah's Entertainment in 2004. Thus, the casino is now one of the three remaining Caesars Entertainment properties in the Tunica area.

As noted on the center inlay of the chip shown below, right beneath the casino's name and the horseshoe logo, this place is located in Tunica's "Casino Center," the cluster at the end of Casino Center Drive that also includes the Gold Strike and the Roadhouse. This is the cluster that rdw4potus has noted he wants to focus on during his next visit to Tunica. His thinking is easy to understand. When my wife and I visited Tunica in 2006, I parked in the Casino Center lot and walked to all three casinos to play craps and collect my souvenir chips, though at that time the Roadhouse was still the Sheraton.

On that visit, my wife formed the impression that the Horseshoe was a western redneck joint, though I'm not completely sure why. She still refers to it as "that boot-skootin' place." I think part of her opinion was influenced by the group of young women who were at the craps table where I played. They were in jeans and boots, were a bit loud, and I don't think they were interested in meeting up with any men. They had their own agenda, but they were pleasant enough as craps-table comrades.

As I have noted, I was not keeping a log of my gambling results at that time, so I don't know how I fared at any of the places that first trip to Casino Center. I have been in the Horseshoe several times since, but I think I have played there only once more. That was in August 2009 when my wife and I were in town on a get-together with some of my high school friends and their spouses. Two of us played craps (+$85 for me) after dinner while our wives played penny/nickel slots for amusement by the graphics; i.e., the Streaker and Texas Tea.

When we visited Tunica last summer, we stayed next door at the Roadhouse and ate one night at the Asian noodle restaurant in the Horseshoe. I don't think such a restaurant fits too well with a "boot-skootin' place" image, so perhaps either something has changed, or my wife's first impression may have been off-target. It wasn't a bad little dinner, either. I didn't play there on that visit because their minimums were higher than at the Roadhouse, the music from the lounge/showroom intruded too loudly on the gaming area, and the tables were crowded. Apparently a lot of folks were more drawn to that setting than I was.

The chip is a white SCV Paulson – yes, I checked, and it is SCV on both sides of the chip. This one has four edge inserts, two each in dark green and hot pink. Nothing on the chip fluoresces under UV light except the pink edge inserts, and they practically fluoresce under visible light – not quite DayGlo, but close.

Here's my chip from the Horseshoe in Tunica. The chip is a Paulson SCV, from the same series as Doc's chip. It has a nice even rounded edge, but much more gunk than I'd like. Hopefully, I'll have success in cleaning it in the coming weeks.

I liked the Horseshoe in Tunica. I think it's my favorite casino in its cluster. Roadhouse was a great casino, but I can't tolerate the fake wood smell for more than 30 minutes or so at a time so Horseshoe wins by default. I'd like to stay at Horseshoe when I visit Tunica next, but I don't know if that'll pan out. Harrah's seems to be comped much more often than Horseshoe (or Roadhouse) is, and I'm not sure if it's worth paying anything to avoid the short drive up the road.

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Imperial Palace

Today's Chip of the Day is from a casino that officially opened for business in December 1997 as the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino Biloxi, the sister property of the Imperial Palace in Paradise, Nevada, aka the Las Vegas strip.

In August 2005, the Ralph Engelstad and Betty Engelstad Trust announced it was selling the Imperial Palace Las Vegas to Harrah's Imperial Palace Corporation, a subsidiary of Harrah's Entertainment, and the sale was completed in December of that year. That same month, the Biloxi edition of the Imperial Palace was the first casino on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to reopen after Hurricane Katrina.

Prior to its official reopening, it was announced that the name of the property would be changed from the Imperial Palace to the "IP Hotel and Casino" in an attempt to prevent any confusion with its former sister property. The property has since undergone another slight name change, to become the "IP Casino Resort & Spa." I'm not sure, but that may have occurred when Boyd Gaming bought the Biloxi IP in October 2011.

I visited this casino on my first trip to Biloxi in March 2010 and won $50 playing craps. As you can see from my souvenir shown below, they were still using chips that said the full "Imperial Palace" name, more than four years after the name was changed. I don't know whether it is proper to claim that I got this chip at the Imperial Palace or not. In any case, I think I will drop by the place on my upcoming visit to Biloxi and get a chip that just says "IP." If so, I'll likely come back to this thread and post another entry as if the IP is a new/re-named casino, different from the Imperial Palace, which is sorta true, no matter when I picked up my souvenirs.

The chip is a white RHC Paulson with four edge inserts, two each in maroon and turquoise. The textured center inlay is marked with both the full "Imperial Palace" name and the script (imitation kanji or kana or romaji?) "IP" logo that was, obviously, in use even before the name change. Just in case there is any doubt about a white chip's value, the inlay states the denomination seven times, though in a small font.

UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo in the center and the fact that the turquoise edge inserts fluoresce. If you happen to notice that the edge inserts seem to have moved with respect to the center inlay and the molded hats and canes, this it just because the two photos (visible and UV) were taken of opposite sides of the chip – I'm not careful at all about that kind of thing.

As I noted when posting my chip from the Grand Casino in Tunica, the UV responses were quite different on the two sides of that chip. There is an even more dramatic difference in the UV fluorescence on the two sides of one of my chips from Missouri. Hope I can remember to comment on it when we get to that chip.

Here's my IP chip. It's a Paulson RHC. I was happily surprised by this property when I visited in summer of 2011. It's a significant step up from the former sister property in Vegas. It's also on the inland side of the peninsula in Biloxi. I suppose that helped limit damage somewhat and speed the reopening after the hurricane struck in 2005. I don't remember seeing many "spa" aspects when I walked around the property, but the interweb does list a full array of relaxation services. There was a big event on-site was when I visited and I had to park in an overflow lot south and east of the property - about halfway to boomtown - and walk to the IP. Signage and traffic control were both great, so finding the overflow parking was no problem. There was a group of drunken guys leaning on my rental when I returned. They were nice enough about letting me out, but I sure do wish a garage spot would have been available.

Quote: rdw4potus

I don't remember seeing many "spa" aspects when I walked around the property, but the interweb does list a full array of relaxation services.

Perhaps my speculation above was correct, and Boyd both changed the name to "IP Casino Resort & Spa" and added the spa facilities/services when they bought the place a few months after your visit.

Quote: Doc

Perhaps my speculation above was correct, and Boyd both changed the name to "IP Casino Resort & Spa" and added the spa facilities/services when they bought the place a few months after your visit.

Doc! You've forced me to go back and find the dates of my trip:-) I made my loop of LA and MS from 9/28/11 to 10/3/11. I would have been at the IP on 10/2/11. Seeing that, I'm wondering if the "event" that caused my parking issues was correlated with the ownership change at the casino. In any event, it does seem likely that the spa was added after that time. Or maybe it's just tucked away far from the casino and hotel lobby (and without signage).

Quote: rdw4potus

I liked the Horseshoe in Tunica. I think it's my favorite casino in its cluster. Roadhouse was a great casino, but I can't tolerate the fake wood smell for more than 30 minutes or so at a time so Horseshoe wins by default. I'd like to stay at Horseshoe when I visit Tunica next, but I don't know if that'll pan out. Harrah's seems to be comped much more often than Horseshoe (or Roadhouse) is, and I'm not sure if it's worth paying anything to avoid the short drive up the road.

If you don't like to get drunk at a casino or have a whirlpool tub in your room (Roadhouse), I agree. Harrah's is a crappy location and you're virtually stuck there unless you drive.

Quote: tringlomane

If you don't like to get drunk at a casino or have a whirlpool tub in your room (Roadhouse), I agree. Harrah's is a crappy location and you're virtually stuck there unless you drive.

Tunica is a crappy location and you're virtually stuck there unless you drive...;-)

Quote: rdw4potus

Tunica is a crappy location and you're virtually stuck there unless you drive...;-)

Fair enough. The g/f and I go to either Memphis or Southaven for an afternoon or evening every visit. Next trip...maybe Grizzlies game (Jan. 14th vs. Clippers)?

Tunica is craps Heaven. No better rules in any other fair size market. Especially crapless craps.

I'm not sure, but I think that craps is the only game I have ever played in Tunica. It had become my favorite prior to my first visit there. I only play the crapless version when it is the only kind available, and I have had a few occasions when all of the regular craps tables were either full or closed. I don't choose that version of the game because I really hate having a point of 2. I'd rather just lose the come-out roll and try again for a more reasonable point.

State: Mississippi
City: Gulfport
Casino: Island View

Gulfport, as its name indicates, is a commercial port on the Gulf of Mexico, a dozen or so miles west of Biloxi. I have no personal knowledge of the history of the Island View Casino, so I turned to Wikipedia. I can't vouch for the accuracy of their page, but I can't refute any of it either. They present an interesting little story, so I'm repeating their history paragraph here:

Quote: Wikipedia

The Island View is the successor to the Copa Casino, which was first located on a docked cruise ship and then a barge-based building at the Mississippi State Docks, across U.S. Highway 90 (Beach Blvd.) from the current location. The Copa and its neighbor, Grand Casino Gulfport, were both destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. When Grand Casino's parent Harrah's Entertainment decided not to rebuild, it sold the Grand site to Copa owners Rick Carter and Terry Green. When Mississippi legislators changed casino laws to permit new casinos to be built on dry land, the duo used the Grand's former hotel as a temporary casino for Phase I of their redevelopment. Currently the Island View Casino is the only casino left in Gulfport after the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The casino opened in September 2006, and they have since constructed a much larger facility across the street from the old Grand hotel and re-established their casino there. The new facility, which includes its own three-wing hotel, is connected to the old hotel by a pedestrian bridge over US90. The highway is three lanes in each direction, with a sizable island in the middle, and the pedestrian bridge must be close to 300 feet long.

On my only visit, on the way from Biloxi to New Orleans in March 2010, my wife and I ate at the Island View's breakfast buffet, and I played craps for half an hour or so, ending up +$50 for the session. With my souvenir in hand, we headed west with three more casinos on our schedule before getting to our hotel, a block off Canal Street in the French quarter.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in black and cranberry (?) and a rather clever center inlay graphic. It fades bottom to top from tan to almost white to sky blue, creating a beach scene, with the v-bird drawings in the sky leading to and becoming the "V" in the casino name. I like it.

UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo and the fact that the not-the-black-one-but-whatever-that-other-color-is edge insert fluoresces.



Party hearty tonight, but be sure you can make it back here for next year!

Here's my Island View chip. It's pretty much the same as Doc's. The pedestrian bridge at Island View is a sight to see. It's almost comically long, and with the new hotel open, it also serves a very limited purpose. I wanted to walk on it when I was there, but it was closed. I think the old hotel was also closed, but I couldn't tell if they were renovating or razing (I guess renovating? it's still there...).

State: Mississippi
City: Biloxi
Casino: Isle of Capri

So what do we have? A new day, a new month, a new year, and (in this thread) the same old State of Mississippi. Well, Happy New Year, anyway, to all of you. I'll try to speak softly, in case your skull is particularly sensitive this morning.

Wikipedia states that Isle of Capri Casinos is a gaming company, "currently operating 15 casinos in six states across the U.S.," and then presents a "List of Properties" that includes 16 casinos. I didn't bother to track down exactly what the discrepancy might be. My collection includes chips from three Isle of Capri casinos in Mississippi alone, and I will present them in the alphabetical order of the cities.

First is the one in Biloxi, located on the beach side of Beach Boulevard at the east end of the Biloxi peninsula. It is just a block east of the Grand Biloxi and steps away from the causeway that runs to Ocean Springs and separates Biloxi Bay from the Back Bay. The casino opened in August 1992 and was originally floating on the Gulf of Mexico. After Katrina, they built the casino on land, inside the hotel structure.

Two weeks ago, in response to TIMSPEED's comment about the yacht basin at Beau Rivage, I posted a borrowed/stolen photo of the Isle of Capri casino, hotel, and dock spaces. That photo shows the entire facility except the parking garage and an open parking lot.

The Wiki list of the properties belonging to Isle of Capri Casinos reveals four brand names used for their casinos, including both "Isle of Capri" and the simpler "Isle." While the chip shown below clearly says "Isle of Capri," the Biloxi casino's web site says, equally clearly, "Isle Casino Hotel Biloxi." The sign atop the building has the single word, "Isle."

Hmmm … has the casino's name been changed? Does that mean I need to pick up another souvenir chip when I get down to Biloxi less than a week from now? I'll certainly drop by to see what their chips say on them these days, but all of the ones shown in the MOGH catalog are marked with the full "Isle of Capri."

I'll check it out, though, and not miss the opportunity to (possibly) get an Isle-Biloxi chip on this trip if they exist, because the name is destined to change again and soon. Last November, the casino hotel was sold to Landry's (or to subsidiary Fertitta Entertainment, according to another source) and will be converted to a Golden Nugget.

Perhaps I should look back at my earlier posts to see whether I got something confused. Nah, why bother. I'll just mention here that the Tilman Fertitta who owns/runs Landry's restaurants and now has the Golden Nugget casinos is not one of the Fertittas that have Station Casinos. Those are his cousins, Lorenzo and Frank III.

Anyway, renovations on the Isle of Capri/Isle/Golden Nugget are supposed to start this month and be completed by March 2014. When they get new Golden Nugget chips, I'll be back to pick up another souvenir!

As for chips in hand, the one shown below is a white Paulson with no hats or canes evident under visible light. Instead, the Isle of Capri name is molded twice into the outer ring of the chip. The two triangular edge inserts are dark blue and a deep maroon, I think. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo and the array of repeated "ISLE OF CAPRI BILOXI." Except for one of them, of course. (Happy hunting!)

Here's my chip from the Isle of Capri in Biloxi. Being the farthest east casino in Biloxi, this was the last casino that I visited before collapsing into bed at the Grand. I have almost no recollection of the Isle. I like the "Isle of Capri" name stamp on the chip. That's a classy touch.

This'll be a good location and structure to be a Golden Nugget. The property is on the upper end of the scale for an Isle casino, so it should be an easy switch to the GN brand. That said, some part of the conversion is going to take 15 months, apparently. Either way, I'll probably wait that 15 months to return to the deep south to pick up margaritaville and L'auberge chips if this casino will change as well.

Quote: rdw4potus

I'll probably wait that 15 months to return to the deep south to pick up margaritaville and L'auberge chips if this casino will change as well.

rdw:
As I have stated numerous times, part of my rationale for gathering $1 chips for my collection is that I must have been to the casino myself, and if it is at all possible, I must have played there to acquire the chip (three exceptions so far.)

I suspect that is a "rule" for your collection as well. If I am mistaken on that, let me know, and I can pick up some $5 souvenir chips for you when I make my swing through Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida next week. I doubt you are interested in that, but I'll offer.

Quote: Doc

rdw:
As I have stated numerous times, part of my rationale for gathering $1 chips for my collection is that I must have been to the casino myself, and if it is at all possible, I must have played there to acquire the chip (three exceptions so far.)

I suspect that is a "rule" for your collection as well. If I am mistaken on that, let me know, and I can pick up some $5 souvenir chips for you when I make my swing through Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida next week. I doubt you are interested in that, but I'll offer.

Hi Doc,

Thanks for the offer, but I think I have to decline. I only collect chips from casinos where I have played. I, too, have made some exceptions to my rule in some circumstances. mostly, when i'm at the casino and the pit is closed. I also purchased my current Sahara chip, since I played there and simply cannot find the "earned" chip in my apartment. There are a handful of casinos, mostly in South Dakota, where I played before I started collecting. I'm on the fence about whether I must return to the utter middle of nowhere to collect those chips, or if I'm comfortable buying the chips since I played there in the past. In any case, I have not yet played at several casinos in your path, and I have chips from the others. So, I'll have to duplicate your trip later:-)

Hmmm. Just caught an error in this thread's directory that must have been hanging around here unnoticed for months.

While I was out of the country in October and November, rdw4potus took the lead role in this thread and posted his chips from Nevada casinos I have never visited. During that period, one of our Admins kept the directory updated, since he could edit my Post #1. In the process, he revised the format of that directory, spicing it up a bit.

I just noticed that somewhere along the way (and I'm just guessing that it happened when the directory was re-designed), we lost the list and links to the few casino chips I have from Arizona. Not a big deal, but it caused me a little confusion when I tried to count how many of my chips I have posted so far. (Correct total to date of my chips = 225.) Anyway, I fixed that post, and the links to the Arizona chips are again in the directory.

While on this topic ....

Since I no longer carry a computer with me when I travel, I have suspended posting my chips to this thread each time that I've been away from home. I now have a tablet that should make it possible to read and post short comments in the forum, and I did post one chip a little over a month ago using that tablet, but composing decent daily discussions of chips, providing links to the images, updating the directory, and such without a real computer just seems like it would be a hassle.

I have mentioned a couple of times recently that I have another trip coming up, so I needed to decide how to deal with this thread -- let it be idle as I did several times, or keep the posts going somehow.

Once again, rdw4potus has kindly agreed to take the lead in my absence and breathe fresh life into the thread. (Thanks, rdw!) I will be leaving home this coming Sunday morning, and I expect to get back home late on Monday of the following week, so rdw has agreed to post a Casino Chip of the Day from his collection from January 6th through the 14th (at least). Unless an Admin covers this again, I will update the directory when I return.

The last time that rdw4potus and I communicated on this topic, he had not yet decided just which portion of his collection he would present this time. I think he is leaning toward covering either Arizona or Illinois casinos that I have not yet visited, so we could add his posts during this period to the existing sections of the directory in Post #1. Perhaps between now and the time I get on the road, rdw will have made his decision and can let us know what to expect.

When I get home, we will figure out the most convenient day to make the swap back to my posting the daily chip. When I do, I will resume posting Mississippi chips, including some that I expect to pick up on this trip.

State: Mississippi
City: Lula
Casino: Isle of Capri

Lula, Mississippi is an extremely small town (population 370, per the 2000 census) about 20 miles south of the town of Tunica and about 30 miles from the closest of the Tunica Resorts area casinos. Six or seven miles outside of Lula, at the US49 bridge to Arkansas, is the Isle of Capri Casino-Lula.

I had a little trouble digging up the history of the casino, but (relying heavily on Wikipedia) maybe this covers it. A Lady Luck casino boat operated at Mhoon Landing (Tunica) from September 1993 until the following April. It closed due to poor attendance, and the boat was relocated southward to the vicinity of the US49 bridge, where it opened in June 1994 as the Lady Luck Rhythm and Blues.

A second boat and a land-based entertainment pavilion were added in 1995. Both boats are barges floating in their own small ponds, in that boat-in-a-moat tradition. The second boat was known as the Lady Luck Country Casino. A hotel on the Arkansas side of the bridge was purchased soon afterward to accommodate some of their guests, and a hotel was constructed on the site of the casinos in 1999.

Then, Isle of Capri Casinos purchased the entire Lady Luck chain in 2000 and changed the names of all the casinos, including the double casino in Lula.

I can think of no plausible reason to locate a casino there other than to draw on the possible market of Arkansas residents interested in gambling in Mississippi. There is no bridge (or ferry, I think) across the Mississippi River in the Tunica area, and US49 is the only crossing point between I-55, some 66 miles to the north in Memphis, Tennessee, and US82/278, some 103 miles farther south beyond Greenville, MS. If people from much of that whole section of Arkansas want to come to Mississippi to gamble or do anything else, then the bridge next to the Isle of Capri is their opportunity.

Of course, the local market for Arkansas gamblers may be limited, because in the immediate vicinity of the US49 bridge, there are only the two small towns of Helena and West Helena. This is not a densely populated section of the country.

I have visited this Isle of Capri only once, in August 2009 while I was waiting for the rest of my high school friends to arrive in the Tunica area. My wife and I rode down to Lula, and my GPS directed us on a "short cut" through a section of town that I wish never to revisit. There weren't any problems, but I was glad that it was mid-day. We just had one of those you-don't-belong-here feelings.

At the Isle of Capri, I won $150 in a 45-minute session of craps. I would be quite pleased about that, except I blew all of those winnings and more at another casino in a session starting less than an hour later. Oh, well.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two triangular edge inserts in dark green and pink. Yesterday's Casino Chip of the Day from Biloxi had "Isle of Capri" molded into the chip. That is an older casino, but I don't know when they started using the name-molded-in chips there. If the corporation already has/had that mold, why not use it for all of the casinos with the same name, just using different center inlays and different edge inserts? Maybe my opinion that this feature adds a touch of class is not widely shared. On the other hand, they may have felt that having the Paulson logo molded in eight times on each side eliminated their need (?) to have a similar hidden image that fluoresces.

The center inlay of today's chip has the same Isle of Capri trademark graphic and a background that fades from medium brown, with a slight rose tint I think, to white. The dark markings on the bird's feathers are a tad lighter than on yesterday's chip, and the two on its crest have changed completely to the lighter marking. I don't know that Isle of Capri makes much effort to keep their trademark consistent – hey, at least the birds on the $1 chips from all three of their Mississippi casinos are primarily red; the bird on my Isle of Capri chip from Lake Charles, LA is green! Today's chip also does not have the 12-convex-lobed pattern around the perimeter of the inlay, which we saw on yesterday's chip.