Casino Chip of the Day

Or maybe the Pacific dolphins were selected by the same person who chose the saguaro cactus for the Bally's AC chip?

Quote: Doc

State: New Jersey
City: Atlantic City
Casino: Tropicana

This Tropicana chip has different center inlays on the two sides, with one just having the denomination inside a center circle and the casino name and city (no state) around the outside on top of the molded name. The other side shows a red/orange-suited harlequin character in the center holding a five-card (poker?) hand and the casino name, city, and denomination around the outside. I think it's an interesting touch that the back of the harlequin's cards have a diamond shape, like the Welcome-to-Las-Vegas sign -- that shape is used in the Tropicana logos used by both the Las Vegas and Atlantic City properties, and perhaps by the other Tropicanas.

The harlequin is pretty creepy. It seems more fitting for Harrah's, Orleans or Rio, the Mardi Gras themed places.

State: New Jersey
City: Atlantic City
Casino: Trump Plaza

The name "Trump Plaza" is used to refer to places in Palm Beach, New York City, New Rochelle, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Jersey City, and even Atlantic City, which is the one being discussed today.

In 1980, Holiday Inn acquired Harrah's. By 1982, Donald Trump had been acquiring Boardwalk properties to build a casino, but the project was on hold. He was approached by the CEO of Holiday Inn to manage construction of their casino hotel there, and he took the role. I am not sure just what ownership role Trump initially held, but the place opened in May 1984 as Harrah's Trump Plaza. In 1986, Trump bought Holiday Inn's share and renamed the place Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. If you happen to have your own Harrah's Trump Plaza chip, please post an image now, since I don't have one to represent that edition of the casino.

Lacking detailed records, I am not sure whether I visited the Trump Plaza while strolling the boardwalk on my first visit to Atlantic City in 2004, but my wife and I stayed there on a return visit in September 2008. By that time I was making reasonable efforts to note which casinos I visited whether I stayed or just played, but I still wasn't keeping written notes of the gaming results, so I cannot report any more here. I'm haven't been back to Trump Plaza since 2008, but I am still getting email promos of essentially zero value.

Recently, Trump Entertainment Resorts agreed to sell the Trump Plaza casino at the fire-sale price of $20 million to Meruelo Group of California, which owns the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. They expect to close the sale by the end of May 2013. I don't know whether there are any issues related to Meruelo acquiring a license from NJCCC. This casino sale has been discussed in this thread.

My souvenir chip shown below is another of the white, custom Paulsons with the name and denomination molded into the chip, this time with four, narrow, black edge inserts. Instead of the center inlay we have seen on quite a few of these recent chips – oversized to the point of covering the molded name – this one has an undersized center inlay with a highly-textured surface. The casino name is in red, and the denomination is in black. The inlay includes above the casino name a leafy gold cluster surrounding a red oval topped with a red and yellow crown. Inside the oval is a fancy script that I think says "TP", which makes sense, but it is very difficult to read.

UV light reveals a Paulson logo in the center and nothing else fluorescing.

What is the "Trump" property in Las Vegas named?

Quote: Ayecarumba

What is the "Trump" property in Las Vegas named?

The tower just says Trump, and the interweb suggests that it's just Trump Hotel. I've never been there, so I don't know if there's a slots-only casino associated with the property. But I suspect that it's like the Clarion where part of the first floor has machines.

Their own web site refers to it as both "Trump Hotel Las Vegas" and "Trump International Hotel Las Vegas". It includes hotel rooms/suites, condo residences, and time-share units, but no casino. At least not yet. The only casino in Nevada for which I can find a reference to "Trump" is a Winner's Corner convenience store/gas station with slots in Elko. It belongs to Trump, Inc., but I suspect that has nothing to do with The Donald.

Quote: Doc

Their own web site refers to it as both "Trump Hotel Las Vegas" and "Trump International Hotel Las Vegas". It includes hotel rooms/suites, condo residences, and time-share units, but no casino. At least not yet. The only casino in Nevada for which I can find a reference to "Trump" is a Winner's Corner convenience store/gas station with slots in Elko. It belongs to Trump, Inc., but I suspect that has nothing to do with The Donald.

With the firesale of the Plaza, do you think the Trump name is going to disappear from gaming properties? It seems really odd that any business would build a luxury hotel on the Strip and not include a casino.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Quote: Doc

Their own web site refers to it as both "Trump Hotel Las Vegas" and "Trump International Hotel Las Vegas". It includes hotel rooms/suites, condo residences, and time-share units, but no casino. At least not yet. The only casino in Nevada for which I can find a reference to "Trump" is a Winner's Corner convenience store/gas station with slots in Elko. It belongs to Trump, Inc., but I suspect that has nothing to do with The Donald.

With the firesale of the Plaza, do you think the Trump name is going to disappear from gaming properties? It seems really odd that any business would build a luxury hotel on the Strip and not include a casino.

I always just assumed the Trump hotel in Vegas had a casino. This thread was literally the first time I learned that it's really just a hotel. Good thing I never made a trip there to explore the casino!

Perhaps someone on the forum remembers the details better than I do. I think Trump was exploring the possibility of a Las Vegas casino and may even have bought a small share of an existing casino in order to trigger a NGC review of his ability to get a license in the state. He built his hotel/condo tower right behind the New Frontier, then that property was demolished for the planned Las Vegas Plaza casino. If that place is ever completed and opened, I doubt Trump would name a new complex "Trump Plaza" right next to another place called "Plaza".

While the Plaza is still a vacant lot next to the Echelon skeleton, I don't think the strip-side neighborhood looks like a good approach scene for Trump to be opening a casino on his site. In the opposite direction, things may look even worse. Trump's property abuts Industrial Blvd., across which there are such classy establishments as Dejà Vu Love Boutique and the Erotic Heritage Museum. I doubt The Donald would want to promote that as the approach to a new casino. Of course, I don't suppose these are much worse than the surrounding neighborhoods in Atlantic City.

State: New Jersey
City: Atlantic City
Casino: Trump Taj Mahal

Today's post brings us to the end of the New Jersey casinos, at least for now, with new casinos, or at least new names on old ones, awaiting future visits for chip collecting.

"Taj Mahal" means "crown of palaces," and the original is a marble mausoleum in Agra, India. It was built by an emperor in memory of one of his wives. Naming a casino after such a masterpiece of art strikes me as a bit arrogant. I would say that is fitting, coming from Donald Trump, but he wasn't the one to come up with the idea originally.

Resorts International got a head start on everyone else and opened the first legal casino in New Jersey. They did well at first, but as competition came to town, they began to struggle a bit. They attempted to regain their lead by expanding and building a new casino to be known as the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, they did not have adequate resources.

I have seen conflicting versions of the conflict between Donald Trump and Merv Griffin over these casinos. I'm of course not sure of the real story, and I'm too lazy to do any serious research on it. The Wiki page on Trump Taj Mahal says, "Trump was attempting to buy the unfinished resort, along with Resorts, but Merv Griffin would not sell." Another page indicates that Trump had bought in significantly to Resorts and had in mind the total acquisition before Griffin showed his interest. Whichever way it really was, they resolved it with Griffin getting Resorts and some other properties and Trump getting the unfinished Taj Mahal. He opened the place in 1990 with his own moniker appended up front. It was leader of the pack in Atlantic City casinos until the Borgata entered the scene. If the sale of the Trump Plaza goes through as planned, then the Taj Mahal will be the only Trump Entertainment casino resort left in the town.

It seems that my records of visiting casinos is not so complete as I believed. My calendar says my wife I have made six visits to Atlantic City. We were in town for one night in August 2004, dropped by for an afternoon in August 2006, stayed there one night in 2008 and made another one-night drop-by in May 2009. I have no written records of having played in any casino on any of those visits. I knew I wasn't keeping records of my gaming until later, but I wouldn't have believed that I hadn't even noted where I went. I remember I hit a bunch of the places for chips in 2004 and only the Borgata in 2006, stayed at Trump Plaza in 2008 and a non-casino property in 2009. After that, my record keeping got a little better. We stayed at Harrah's in August 2011 at the beginning of our Grand Adventure reported earlier, and we made a day visit last July. I have notes of where I went, where I played, and what the outcome was for those visits, but not for the earlier ones.

Thus, I have no records of ever having played at the Trump Taj Mahal, other than the souvenir chip. My credit card records say that when my wife and I stayed at the Trump Plaza in September 2008, we had dinner at the Plate American Café at the Taj Mahal, so I at least went in the place on that trip. I don't know whether I played there then or on the 2004 visit or both. In any case, I have the chip in my collection now.

The chip shown below is quite similar to the Trump Plaza chip posted yesterday. The font for the name, both molded into the clay and printed on the center inlay, is fancier, the graphic is changed, and the edge inserts are orange instead of black, but basically it's the same chip design. UV light reveals that the edge inserts fluoresce and there is a tiny Paulson logo near the onion dome and rotated 90°.

One more story before we leave New Jersey.

Merv Griffin was very visible at Resorts. He often walked the property and would always greet guests with a hello and a handshake. My wife and I were waiting for an elevator there once and when the door opened there was Merv, Alan Thicke and a guy in a suit with a walkie talkie. Suit rudely snarls at us to wait for the next one but Merv wouldn't have it and invited us in. He asked our names, where we were from and how we were enjoying Resorts. He also introduced us to Thicke who needed no introduction because of his television show Growing Pains. Later that evening a nice fruit basket and two show tickets were delivered to our room compliments of Merv.

Resorts has Atlantic City's very first slot machine on display. It has the number 1 on it and is located just off the valet desk near the check in desk. It's worth a look.

Quote: 1BB

One more story before we leave New Jersey.

Merv Griffin was very visible at Resorts. He often walked the property and would always greet guests with a hello and a handshake. My wife and I were waiting for an elevator there once and when the door opened there was Merv, Alan Thicke and a guy in a suit with a walkie talkie. Suit rudely snarls at us to wait for the next one but Merv wouldn't have it and invited us in. He asked our names, where we were from and how we were enjoying Resorts. He also introduced us to Thicke who needed no introduction because of his television show Growing Pains. Later that evening a nice fruit basket and two show tickets were delivered to our room compliments of Merv.

Resorts has Atlantic City's very first slot machine on display. It has the number 1 on it and is located just off the valet desk near the check in desk. It's worth a look.

Wow. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Since we are on the verge of starting a new state in this thread, I thought I might start a short quiz. All of the answers are available from Post #1 of the thread, but I thought it would be interesting to see which folks could figure out (or guess) the answers without looking back. Any takers?

As always, posting your answers behind spoiler buttons would allow folks to read posts without peaking peeking (oops!) at your answers/guesses if they so chose.


(1) We have just finished up the casinos from New Jersey. How many states have been covered thus far in this thread? (How many can you name?)

(2) Nevada has the most casinos. Which of the states covered thus far has the second highest number of casinos represented to this point?

(3) Which state comes in third place?

(4) Which state covered in the thread has the fewest casinos represented by chips posted?

(5) When I run out of states from which I have souvenir chips, what other categories have been identified for grouping chips to be posted?


Tie breaker: How many total casinos have been represented thus far in this thread?

Quote: Doc

Since we are on the verge of starting a new state in this thread, I thought I might start a short quiz. All of the answers are available from Post #1 of the thread, but I thought it would be interesting to see which folks could figure out (or guess) the answers without looking back. Any takers?

As always, posting your answers behind spoiler buttons would allow folks to read posts without peaking at your answers/guesses if they so chose.


(1) We have just finished up the casinos from New Jersey. How many states have been covered thus far in this thread? (How many can you name?)

(2) Nevada has the most casinos. Which of the states covered thus far has the second highest number of casinos represented to this point?

(3) Which state comes in third place?

(4) Which state covered in the thread has the fewest casinos represented by chips posted?

(5) When I run out of states from which I have souvenir chips, what other categories have been identified for grouping chips to be posted?


Tie breaker: How many total casinos have been represented thus far in this thread?

Thank you Doc, and RDW for shepherding this thread. It is a lot of work, and I appreciate and enjoy it very much.

I have not looked at the first post in the thread.

On a side note: I'm home again, and my chip cleaning is complete. Results were mostly positive, but not as good as I'd hoped. I'm going to take new chip pics this weekend. I'm going to hold off on posting new chips in the thread until the new pics are taken, and I'll catch up in with pics in this thread by sunday afternoon.

Ayecarumba: I appreciate your active participation in this thread and in this quiz, but your guesses do not earn you a particularly impressive grade. As they say, "Thanks for playing."

Not surprisingly, rdw4potus had very good answers on all but #5. It wasn't meant to be a trick question, but maybe I wasn't clear enough. I did NOT ask about what happens when I run out of chips to post. I asked about when I run out of states. Good answer to the wrong question.

Quote: Doc

Ayecarumba: I appreciate your active participation in this thread and in this quiz, but your guesses do not earn you a particularly impressive grade. As they say, "Thanks for playing."

Not surprisingly, rdw4potus had very good answers on all but #5. It wasn't meant to be a trick question, but maybe I wasn't clear enough. I did NOT ask about what happens when I run out of chips to post. I asked about when I run out of states. Good answer to the wrong question.

Darn! I just mis-read #5. Oh, well. I did have to re-read #2 to avoid an error there. I suppose the nature of that error will become clear in 4 months or so.

State: New York
City: Salamanca
Casino: Seneca Allegany

It's a new day and a new state for the Casino Chip of the Day thread. It seems reasonable for this thread to follow New Jersey with New Mexico, except I have not yet been to any of the New Mexico casinos. That will change in less than two weeks, so I plan to add the New Mexico category in the not-very-distant future, once I have at least a partial set of the casino chips from that state. For now, I will go on with the next state represented in my current collection, which is New York.

This raises an issue related to maintaining the directory in post #1 of this thread. To this point, I have been following the original plan, beginning with chips from Nevada (because this is the WizardofVegas.com site) and then covering the states in alphabetical order, limited by which states are represented in my collection. Within each state, I have presented the chips in alphabetical order (sorta), but there have been later additions to some of the sets. The directory currently presents the states in that order and the chips in alphabetical order, with the later additions asterisked to note that they were not posted in that sequence.

Input requested -- Should this sequence of states/categories be maintained in the directory, accepting that New York will come before New Mexico and that soon Pennsylvania will come before Oklahoma and other such oddities? Instead, should the directory have the states in strict alphabetical order, with other categories after that, with each state/category noted as to when it was initiated in the thread? Would that be of greater use for someone who might reference this thread in planning a trip or just looking for a chip image? Is there some better way to manage that directory? Does anyone care? I will be quite interested to hear comments on this, but for now I will just continue with today's Casino Chip of the Day....


Since my older son finished grad school at Cornell, I haven't had much reason to travel to upstate New York except when passing through on my way to/from Canada. On such trips, like most of my trips, I generally look for opportunities to add to my chip collection. While I have some New York casinos on my Chips-To-Get list, I have only visited two casinos in the state thus far, and both of them are operated by the same Native American tribe. Sticking with the alphabetical sequence, today's chip is from the Seneca Allegany Casino in Salamanca.

The town of Salamanca is on Seneca Nation lands in a very rural wooded area of southwest New York, almost in Pennsylvania. It is adjacent to the Allegheny River and is surrounded by half a dozen named state forests and by Allegany State Park. Yes, there seems to be considerable disagreement in many locations as to the proper spelling of Allegany/Allegheny. The major connection of the region to other population centers is I-86, which passes by the south side of the community. About the only developed tract south of the interstate highway is the Seneca Allegany Casino and Hotel complex, snuggled up against the mountains and the state park. The spelling of Allegany/Allegheny is not the only complexity in the area: There is a town of Salamanca (population 481) that abuts the city of Salamanca, if you really like calling a community of population 5,815 a "city."

While I haven't researched the topic, I found an interesting comment on the Wiki page for the Seneca people, relating to the tribal lands around Salamanca:

Quote: Wiki

In 1990 the Seneca Settlement Act resolved a long-running land dispute between the Seneca and the State of New York. The dispute centered around 99–year leases granted by the Seneca in 1890 for lands now in the city of Salamanca and nearby villages. The settlement cropped up again in the early 2000s, as issues arose over use of settlement lands for casino gaming operations.

I expect that it was difficult for the state to give up control of land after controlling it for almost a century. How dare those Seneca be on our land before we got here! And after the Feds acknowledged the tribe's right to the land and the state leased it from them, how dare they want it back at the end of the lease! The nerve.

The Seneca Allegany Casino opened in May 2004. The CasinoCity.com site says the casino has 2,000 gaming machines and 36 table games, while the casino's own web site notes that they offer Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Caribbean Stud Poker, 3-card Poker, Mississippi Stud Poker, Blackjack Switch, Blackjack Super 7's and Let It Ride, in addition to machines in denominations up to $100. It is not quite so dinky an establishment as one might expect in such a way-out-of-the-way part of the state, and it is only a couple hundred yards from an I-86 exit.

My wife and I stopped by Seneca Allegany the last week of May 2008, on our way home from a visit to Niagara Falls, Ontario. My calendar notes that we spent an hour at the casino, and I expect that I played craps, but I have no record of my gaming.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with three wide edge inserts in red, green, and olive/gray. The casino name and denomination are in black, with the word "casino" in orange for a reason that escapes me. There is a green/black graphic of a mountain, which seems appropriate. UV light reveals the Paulson logo in the center and the fact that the red and green edge inserts fluoresce.

Quote: Doc

Input requested -- Should this sequence of states/categories be maintained in the directory, accepting that New York will come before New Mexico and that soon Pennsylvania will come before Oklahoma and other such oddities? Instead, should the directory have the states in strict alphabetical order, with other categories after that, with each state/category noted as to when it was initiated in the thread? Would that be of greater use for someone who might reference this thread in planning a trip or just looking for a chip image? Is there some better way to manage that directory? Does anyone care?

I would recommend strict alphabetizing (with some adjustments for internal consistency regarding leading "The's", or "Casino's", etc). Future users will find it much more convenient to find a particular casino that way.

I am concerned about the longevity of the images. Some of the entries contain "quoted" references to images that have since been updated, are now out of date. Each user, (or a very helpful admin) needs to fix the links in their own entries.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I am concerned about the longevity of the images. Some of the entries contain "quoted" references to images that have since been updated, are now out of date. Each user, (or a very helpful admin) needs to fix the links in their own entries.

I have a question about this. I'm torn about what to do with the new pics that I take this week. I was originally planning to replace the old images that I've posted in this thread. But the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning toward NOT doing that. We've talked about the images that I've posted, including discussion about imperfections and whether it's the front or back, etc. I'd hate to remove the basis for those conversations, but the new images will be superior. Should I leave the old images as they are?

Quote: rdw4potus

I have a question about this. I'm torn about what to do with the new pics that I take this week. I was originally planning to replace the old images that I've posted in this thread. But the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning toward NOT doing that. We've talked about the images that I've posted, including discussion about imperfections and whether it's the front or back, etc. I'd hate to remove the basis for those conversations, but the new images will be superior. Should I leave the old images as they are?

Yes, keep the old ones. You can add the new and improved ones right next to them. I don't think storage capacity is an issue for the Wizard... yet.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I would recommend strict alphabetizing (with some adjustments for internal consistency regarding leading "The's", or "Casino's", etc). Future users will find it much more convenient to find a particular casino that way.

I am concerned about the longevity of the images. Some of the entries contain "quoted" references to images that have since been updated, are now out of date. Each user, (or a very helpful admin) needs to fix the links in their own entries.

I agree with Ayecarumba. Maintain the directory as much as possible in alphabetic order, much easier for future reference. Chronological order will become very convuluted with more posters and chip additions from existing posters.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I don't think storage capacity is an issue for the Wizard... yet.

Does this site even store images? I think that if my hosting site were to be down, then you might not be able to see the images I post here. I think the WoV site just stores the URL links, but I'd be interested in hearing about it if I am wrong.

I agree that the old images should be left, particularly if something about them has been discussed. New images can be added to the same posts, but a "current" post would be nice, telling us we should go back and check out the additions.

As for keeping old posts working, that can be a hassle. I know that there have been links that I have posted that worked when the post first went up but later did not work, not because the link was no longer valid but because something here must have changed. Often, the URL in the link appears in the post rather than the image. When I have been looking back through this thread and others and have seen such things, I make the correction to get it working again. Usually a space has been introduced -- it's hard to know whether the space was there originally and it was OK then but not now or whether a spurious space got added to my post later. I haven't been motivated enough to go back through the 273 pages of posts in this thread. If you see any broken links in my posts, let me know, and I will try to get them fixed.

At the moment, I'm thinking that revising post #1 to make all the states alphabetical (including moving Nevada way down the list) might be worthwhile. I'd still like to hear comments from others on this.

Quote: Doc

At the moment, I'm thinking that revising post #1 to make all the states alphabetical (including moving Nevada way down the list) might be worthwhile. I'd still like to hear comments from others on this.

I think there are two issues here:
1. maintaining a table for people who want to find info about a specific state/area/casino.
2. maintaining an index for people who want to follow and catch-up in this thread.

Is it possible to do both? Could you/we (don't mean to volunteer you...) both alter the existing info to be as alphabetically consistent as possible to satisfy #1 while also adding a section that lists the casinos in thread-date order to satisfy #2? That way, #1 would function like the index to a book, while #2 would function more like a table of contents.

Here's my (current) thinking on the index:

(1) Right above the first state in the list, where I already have a list of "subsequent edits", I can add a list of state names in the order that the states were first discussed/presented.

(2) The state blocks would be in alphabetical order, with a note between the state name and the first chip to indicate the date of the first chip posted from that state. (Is this important?)

(3) Within each state/category block, the individual casinos would be listed in a reasonably alphabetical order, accepting that I have had some difficulties with this occasionally. Other than Nevada and maybe California (including the card rooms) and Oklahoma, I don't expect any category to have so many entries that it would be hard to find a casino.

(4) I will follow the states with categories of Cruise Ships, Canada, Bahamas and Caribbean Islands, "International", and whatever else becomes appropriate. Maybe it would be better for "International" to be split up by continent, though I have not collected anything myself outside of North America, Europe, and those islands. I do have the one chip from Asia that I received as a gift and will be posting.

This would not provide a chronological list, and we don't really have one now, considering all of the * and ** entries that are already there. Would it add very much functionality to have the equivalent of a calendar or table of chips by date? If I added that to what I described above, then in order to avoid confusion I would likely need to include date, casino name, and state/category, so it would probably need to be one line per casino. We already have more than 300 casinos covered, so post #1 would start to get pretty long. I don't know what the forum limits are or what would happen if a single post were so long that it should be split over multiple pages. I think it would become cumbersome, but I'm willing to entertain discussion of that.

Some web pages have sortable tables where you click a header tab (casino name, state/category, post date, etc.) and view the info in the order you prefer, but I don't know how to do that or even whether it is possible with this site's setup.

Input?

I don't think the entry dates are important at the index level. Each individual entry has a pemanent time stamp, so I think that will be enough.

Perhaps a "drill-down" list would be helpful. The "master" list can just be a few major categories: "States", "Countries", "Other", clicking on each link would lead to a page with more specific lists, until you reached a list of links to each casino. For example, clicking on "States" would lead to a list of 50 states. Click on "Nevada" and it would bring up the alphabetical list of Nevada casino links.

State: New York
City: Niagara Falls
Casino: Seneca Niagara

Perhaps yesterday's discussion of possible/appropriate revisions to the directory in post #1 distracted from the Chip of the Day. No one had any comments about the Seneca Allegany casino, so I don't know whether no one has been there, no one cares about curiosities of Salamanca, or maybe I just shouldn't have mentioned the index.

Today, we have a related casino that I absolutely know that some of the forum members have played in. Perhaps we can get more response, though I don't know that those folks follow this thread. Someone, and I think it was SOOPOO, said that Seneca Niagara was his "home" casino, and at least a couple of our Canadian members have mentioned checking out the gaming on the south (really the east) side of the river.

The casino opened in Niagara Falls, NY on New Year's Eve 2002 in the former Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center. It is not nearly so close to the waterfalls as are the casinos on the Canadian side, but it is still less than a mile away, just down the street from the Rainbow Bridge connecting the two cities of Niagara Falls. Way back in this post a year and a half ago, I posted some off-topic, reduced-resolution photos I had taken of bridges, including the Rainbow Bridge. I use that photo as my computer desktop background image, so I'm looking at it a lot of the time. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do like bridges. In the photo, that is Ontario to the left and New York to the right.

According to the Seneca Niagara Casino's web site, they have over 4,200 slot machines and over 100 table games including Blackjack, Craps, and Roulette, plus a poker room. The casino is located on tribal land, but the Seneca Gaming Commission owns quite a few surrounding properties, including commercial ventures, that are not on tribal land.

While I mentioned yesterday the interesting long-term leasing of Seneca land in Salamanca by the State of New York, there is another interesting tribal-governmental issue in Niagara Falls. According to Wikipedia:

Quote: Wiki

The Seneca Gaming Corporation is non-sovereign and therefore taxable, but is left off of the city tax rolls. If taxed, the corporation would be the largest payer of taxes in the City of Niagara Falls.

That Wiki page says that this tax issue was the subject of a class-action lawsuit in 2010 arising from residents angry over a 4% tax hike to be passed in 2011. Apparently the non-tribal folks didn't like paying increased taxes that seemed to subsidize the tribal casino's off-reservation commercial activities. I guess I can understand that. I have not searched for the results of that lawsuit. Anyone from the area know more details?

I said yesterday that my wife and I had visited the Seneca Allegany casino on a trip home from Niagara Falls, Ontario in May 2008. Well, we had previously visited the Seneca Niagara casino on our way home from a visit to both Toronto and Niagara Falls, Ontario in June 2007. Those are months that Canada works for me – I don't think I could handle February there.

The chip shown below is quite similar to the chip posted yesterday from the other Seneca casino, except for the graphic. It is a white RHC Paulson with three wide edge inserts, this time in fuchsia and what seem to be two shades of purple. I'm not sure at all what the graphic represents, but to me it looks a bit like a chain of red plastic coat hangers. Or maybe a hanger conveyor. Dunno.

Whatever it is, it surrounds a double circle containing the denomination, all in red. The name of the casino surrounds the graphic on a pale purple background. UV light again reveals a hidden Paulson logo and the fact that only the red insert fluoresces.

Discussion of NA casinos gets amongst the most heated and controversial ever. It opens a big can of worms a separate thread would be useful to not go off in a tangent from your chip thread.

That is certainly the strangest graphic yet. Have no idea what it is representing. Maybe the coat hangers are for the casino to hang your shirt on after you lose it.

I immediately thought of this great thread when I was at the cage yesterday. The cashier checked every one of my black chips with a UV light. It was the first time I've seen it at this casino.

Because of a computer situation at work (i.e. virus), my online access has been greatly curtailed. Therefore, no more WoV at work. :(

As luck would have it, this occurred right when we got to the NJ casinos, and I live in NJ. Whatever.

And because I lead a busy life, dealing in a poker league several nights per week, I kinda ignored this thread for the last 2 week. I'll try to catch up....

Quote: Nareed

It seems odd to charge for parking at a casino at all. That is, until you remember two thigns: 1) Vegas is unique and 2) even Disney charges for parking (or it did in Florida in '06)

It IS a weird system to charge for parking, and then find ways to give it away, and/or reimburse the person.

Except AC is unique in that it's a fairly congested inner-city type environment with more residents, and more cars, than there is parking, while still trying to fool themselves into thinking they are a resort town.



P.S. Nareed's quote above is from 12 pages ago, so forgive me if this (or any of my next few posts) has already been addressed.

Quote: kenarman

When Disney bought ITT Sheraton and had control of Casesars Palace . . .

I find this shocking. Disney, with it's family oriented focus, is very anti-gambling. Disney cruise lines is the only major cruise line that does not have casinos on board.

To think that Disney owned a casino is baffling.

Quote: Doc

At first glance, it appears that UV light reveals a hidden ".1", but that is not the case. It is a mostly-obscured Paulson logo, obscured by the black of the center inlay. The "decimal point" is where the tip of the cane peaks through the white "$", and the "1" is part of the white denomination numeral illuminated by the Paulson hat.

Fascinating. Depending on angle I look at the screen, I can't anything other than the "1". But, from certain angles, the top hat and cane is easily visible. There also appears to be a very slight glow to the white section of the outer ring.

By the way, the color is way off on the regular light photo. It's a white chip, not pale yellow.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

To think that Disney owned a casino is baffling.

In later posts, the accuracy of kenarman's memory was called into question. It's been a few years, and memories do that sort of thing sometimes.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

By the way, the color is way off on the regular light photo. It's a white chip, not pale yellow.

Yes, I seem to have some color shift problems on a lot of these photos, particularly with the edge inserts. I don't know why.

Quote: Doc

Input requested -- Should this sequence of states/categories be maintained in the directory, accepting that New York will come before New Mexico and that soon Pennsylvania will come before Oklahoma and other such oddities? Instead, should the directory have the states in strict alphabetical order, with other categories after that, with each state/category noted as to when it was initiated in the thread? Would that be of greater use for someone who might reference this thread in planning a trip or just looking for a chip image? Is there some better way to manage that directory? Does anyone care? I will be quite interested to hear comments on this, but for now I will just continue with today's Casino Chip of the Day....

I bow to the desire to have Nevada first, but think the remaining states be in alphabetical order.

I would even recommend that ALL states be listed. Just put a comment under some of them such as, "This is a non-casino state." or "This state is not represented in Doc's collection, yet." Etc.

And as long as we're talking about it, I think it's unnecessary to include the * and ** indicators for chips added out of sequence or by other members, but I wont put much effort into that argument.

State: North Carolina
City: Cherokee
Casino: Harrah's Cherokee

After this thread's brief, two-day visit to the casinos of New York, today we have an even-briefer visit to the only casino in the state of North Carolina. Fortunately, we get to compensate for that shortage of NC casinos by posting more than the usual number of chip images in this thread, as explained below. I think this is the longest Casino Chip of the Day post I have ever made in this thread.

There have been a couple of threads on this forum discussing Harrah's Cherokee, particularly in regard to the major expansion in gaming there just last year. Both RaleighCraps and I have identified this as our "home" casino, since we both live in North Carolina and don't have other local options. I guess the shortage of casinos is one reason, or at least one rationalization, for my travelling so often, such as my upcoming trip starting a week from today.

The casino is operated by Harrah's/Caesars under contract with the owners, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, one of three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. The other two are known as the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, both located primarily in Oklahoma.

I was curious about the Cherokee seal that appears on one side of the first chip below, particularly the non-Roman characters that appear at the bottom. I learned that the characters are from the Cherokee alphabet developed for the tribe in 1821 by Sequoyah, a Cherokee silversmith. That language option is not offered by Google Translate, so I had to dig a little deeper for info on the meaning of the script and on the full seal.

Yesterday, onenickelmiracle warned me that discussion of Native American casinos gets heated and controversial. I don't really want that here, but I risk a bit more of it by presenting the following paragraphs.

In the search for more info on that seal, I came across a web site that I believe is operated by a member of the Cherokee Nation. That web site is full of rants, criticizing all of the Cherokee tribes, or at least their leadership. Reading the site is a bit like listening to AM talk radio – there is a lot of info presented, but the rants are so strong I don't know which parts to believe. Much of it is quite plausible, but there is certainly a possibility that it is distorted – after all, this is the internet. I'll just pass along a couple of the comments.

The site indicates that the current seal of the Cherokee Nation (i.e., the larger of the groups in Oklahoma) was based on a very old, genuine seal of the tribe. The new seal and a corresponding flag were developed by a designer in 1979 under commission from the tribe. According to the web site, the tribal leadership hired a non-Cherokee who knew nothing of Cherokee culture, and he made several errors. He put the seven-pointed star upside down, which was later corrected, and he used the wrong kind of foliage for the wreath. The Cherokee words on the seal mean "Cherokee Nation," or as close as they possibly can for a language that does not include a word meaning "Nation." I find that a bit ironic.

The site also makes some derogatory statements about the Eastern Band, saying that they published a falsified history and stole their seal design from the Cherokee Nation. It points out that their seal says "Seal of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation," which is a misrepresentation – they are the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, while Cherokee Nation is the name of a different tribe that does not have an eastern band. Of course, if they didn't use "Cherokee Nation" in their name on their possibly-stolen seal design, then the Cherokee writing on the seal would not be appropriate. Yes, I see lots of potential for conflict, even among related Native Americans.

In the early 1990s, the North Carolina tribe opened a small casino that offered electronic bingo and poker plus pull-tab machines. This was challenged and stopped by the U.S. Attorney in Asheville, since there was no non-tribal gaming in North Carolina and no tribal compact with the state to allow such games.

In 1997, an agreement was reached between the state and the tribe to allow them to operate Class II gaming, and the ensuing casino (operated under contract by Harrah's) was quite a success. They offered bingo, "skill-based" slot machines, and video blackjack. The video blackjack had a live "dealer" and chips but no real cards, only a video display for the hands of each player and the dealer. This was very much like the iTable game I played at the Southland Park casino in West Memphis, Arkansas, except that chips were used to track each hand's play rather than credits in a computer.

My wife and I first visited Harrah's Cherokee in July 2006 to check out the place. I played $15-minimum video blackjack for a few minutes, decided that wasn't really a game that I liked (or trusted) and we left. I had no interest in going back, but I did have a souvenir $1 chip to add to my collection. We spent the rest of our time in Cherokee visiting the various exhibits and performances that the tribe puts on to explain their history and culture to tourists.

In 2012 (with lead-in efforts making big progress in late 2011), the state and the tribe reached agreement on a compact to allow Class III gaming. They changed most of the machines to the Class III type, and "real" table games were operating by August 2012. There has been substantial expansion of the offerings since then. This really does appear to be a successful venture, and the rules are quite attractive.

My wife and I made a day trip to check it out in September, an overnight visit in November, and another day trip just over a week ago. On that last visit, I bumped into RaleighCraps, who was wearing his Wizard of Odds shirt. I reported the encounter in this thread later that night, and RaleighCraps noted it a couple of days later in another.

I like the casino as it is now operated, though I would really prefer to see $5-minimum craps. So far $10-minimum is the cheapest I have seen. There were $10, $15, and $25 tables operating during my last visit.

The first chip shown below is the one I picked up in 2006 when I played video blackjack. It is the one that I have on display with the rest of my chip collection under the glass on my desktop. It is a white RHC Paulson with three edge inserts in blue, green, and peach/pink. The center inlays are different on the two sides of the chip. One side has that tribal seal in the center with the casino name, city, state, and two denomination marks around the perimeter. The other side has a large denomination mark in the center over a sun image background, with the casino name, city, and state around the perimeter. UV light reveals a Paulson logo in the center and the fact that only the green edge insert fluoresces, with its fluorescence looking more blue than green.



When I got home from the casino a week ago, I found that I still had two small chips in my pocket. That wasn't intended, and if I knew I had them, I'm sure I would have played and lost those too while talking to RaleighCraps. The $1 chips in play now are different from the one I got in 2006. I don't collect chips to cover all the different series, but since I have this one at the moment, I decided to post it, too.

This one is a white SCV Paulson (yes, SCV on both sides) with six edge inserts in two groups of three: lavender, yellow, and blue. The center inlay is plain black/gray with a white graphic of a mountain range (appropriate for the casino's location in the NC mountains) and white lettering for the casino name, city, state, and two denomination marks. UV light reveals only the Paulson logo in the center.



The other chip that I discovered in my pocket is a $5 chip, a type that I am too cheap to collect. I checked with rdw4potus, and this is a different design from the one in his collection, so I decided I would post it here, too. This one is a red (naturally) RHC Paulson with nine edge inserts in three groups of three, with each group having black, white, and green inserts. The center inlay is slightly larger than the chip depression for it, but it is not nearly as big as many of the inlays that I refer to as "oversized." The inlay is a slightly darker shade of red than the clay of the chip, and it has white lettering for the casino name, city, state, and a denomination mark in the center. UV light reveals only the Paulson logo in the center, distorted a bit by the way it covers/penetrates the denomination mark.




Edit 2/24/17: In this post, I presented images of two additional chips from the Harrah's Cherokee casino. One is just another $5 chip from a different/later series of chips for the casino, while the other is from a rare chip mold.

Quote: Doc

Does this site even store images? I think that if my hosting site were to be down, then you might not be able to see the images I post here. I think the WoV site just stores the URL links, but I'd be interested in hearing about it if I am wrong.

No. The site just stores the text you enter - and that includes the text of the url of the photo. If the site where the photo exists is down, then a user here will see the Missing Image place holder.

Only big sites such as FaceBook and eBay etc, who have multiple ware-house size rooms full of servers, make their own copies of referenced images.

Some BulletinBoard software will offer upload options, but then the images are placed at the bottom of the posts rather than inline. But they also allow inline linking to images stored elsewhere, and don't make copies of them.




On a related note, JB's instructions for linking images adds to the confusion. The example links to an image at the root level of WoV, so it doesn't need to specify a domain or directory. So even if a user manages to read the Click here for formatting codes page, he doesn't get adequate info, resulting in the oft seen "How do I post images?" question.

Based on the discussion a couple of days ago about how best to arrange the directory in post #1 of this thread, as of this morning I have done a major revision there. The only thing that I think is still hanging on that edit, is that to this point I still have the * marking for those chips that were not presented in sequence. Since the directory list is no longer really attempting to show the posting sequence, these notations seem superfluous, and I will probably delete them. I've just left them in place for now.

I also revised the block of "subsequent edits" to explain the revised directory presentation. For those (few) of you who care about the existence of a directory of the thread at all, let me know what you think of this. I did keep (for now anyway) a copy of the old post #1, so it is possible to go back to the old configuration if that is preferable.

I've loaded the first batch of new photos onto Photobucket. Here is my catch-up for NJ, NY, and NC:

New Jersey:



















New York




North Carolina

Those are some nice new photos of some nice chips, rdw. Without going in to comment on each one, I'll just note that your Harrah's Cherokee chip looks like the same series as my older $1 chip, from 2006. When were you at Cherokee? On the other hand, the $1 and $5 chips that I picked up just a week ago have very different center inlays from each other, so I don't know how many series of chips they have gone through already.

One question related to your post, and this is because I have never used photobucket. Is the way you have the larger photos linked to the small ones the best/only way to do it now? I ask because that takes me to a viewer page for scrolling through your collection, and I'm not sure that is what you intended. For example, contrast this link to your old Golden Nugget chip photo with this link you provided to the new photo. They give very different results (not just different photos). I notice "beta" in the URL, so I don't know whether this is something temporary.


Edit: I looked a little deeper, and it seems that if you delete the "beta." from the url and change the leading "s" to "i", then it works as it did before. In other words, try this link.

Quote: Doc

Those are some nice new photos of some nice chips, rdw. Without going in to comment on each one, I'll just note that your Harrah's Cherokee chip looks like the same series as my older $1 chip, from 2006. When were you at Cherokee? On the other hand, the $1 and $5 chips that I picked up just a week ago have very different center inlays from each other, so I don't know how many series of chips they have gone through already.

One question related to your post, and this is because I have never used photobucket. Is the way you have the larger photos linked to the small ones the best/only way to do it now? I ask because that takes me to a viewer page for scrolling through your collection, and I'm not sure that is what you intended. For example, contrast this link to your old Golden Nugget chip photo with this link you provided to the new photo. They give very different results (not just different photos). I notice "beta" in the URL, so I don't know whether this is something temporary.


Edit: I looked a little deeper, and it seems that if you delete the "beta." from the url, then it works as it did before. In other words, try this link.

I visited Cherokee during the first great race to total rewards promo in 2011. I played the electronic blackjack to get the chip. I had wanted to stay in the hotel, but it was sold out. So I stayed in Ashville and drove back and forth to the casino during my 2 day stay. It was kind of an odd trip - there was a motorcycle rally in the area and the roads were absolutely filled with bikers.

I HATE the photobucket beta site. It's asinine. The lists don't load if they're longer than 1 page, the site randomizes the order of items (after I alphabetize them prior to uploading), and it NEVER shows a truly full size image. I guess that for as long as it is an option, deleting the "beta" is the way to go. Those images are still about half-size, but it's better than the beta site. I just hope that they don't kill those links when they fully adopt the beta version of the new site.

Edit: I see absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in the coding of the links to the Revel and Resorts chips, but one goes to the image only, while the other loads through to the photobucket slideshow page. I don't get it.

Quote: rdw4potus

I just hope that they don't kill those links when they fully adopt the beta version of the new site.

I agree. And your revised links (without the viewer) load much quicker for a user on this site.

There is a bit of a trick when driving to the casino from Asheville. After exiting I-40 to US-74 (Exit 27), do not take the US-19 exit that is marked "Cherokee" and "Maggie Valley". That big "Cherokee" sign makes it look as if that is the way you should go. Even my GPS says to go that route, perhaps because it is fewer miles with a similar speed limit, but it is a terrible, winding mountain road. If you stay on US-74 to Exit 74 then you get 4-lane highway all the way. Much easier and quicker.

Quote: Doc

I agree. And your revised links (without the viewer) load much quicker for a user on this site.

That's the unfortunate part - I have changed nothing. Sometimes the links go where they're pointed (to the non-beta site) and sometimes they redirect to the beta site's slideshow. I just clicked the Revel link, got the beta site, closed my browser, opened my browser and reloaded the page, clicked the Revel link, and got the normal page.

Quote: rdw4potus

Edit: I see absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in the coding of the links to the Revel and Resorts chips, but one goes to the image only, while the other loads through to the photobucket slideshow page. I don't get it.

Yep. One of your Resorts photos/links is working just fine, but if I click on the other one (which seems to have the proper coding) it forwards to a page that has the "beta." coding. I know almost nothing about web coding or operation, so I don't think I can help much here. Does photobucket.com offer any sort of user help?

Quote: Doc

Yep. One of your Resorts photos/links is working just fine, but if I click on the other one (which seems to have the proper coding) it forwards to a page that has the "beta." coding. I know almost nothing about web coding or operation, so I don't think I can help much here. Does photobucket.com offer any sort of user help?

No, they don't offer user help. Not in any meaningful way. Just promotions about how great the Beta is. But it's about 1000% worse than the old site. I'll try to find a plan-B in the next couple days.

State: West Virginia
City: White Sulphur Springs
Casino: Greenbrier

I have come up with yet another justification (or just a rationalizing example) for that just-in-the-nick-of-time revision of the post #1 directory I made yesterday. OK, so it isn't really a watertight reason, but it is convenient for me.

Following yesterday's Casino Chip of the Day from the only casino in North Carolina, the next state represented in my collection is Pennsylvania. If I started today posting the ten chips I have from casinos in Pennsylvania, I would be part way through the state when I head out on another trip and turn the thread over to rdw4potus once again, for him to post chips from casinos I have never visited in states already touched on in this thread.

I think it works out a little neater for me to post the full set of chips I have from six casinos in West Virginia, then turn things over to rdw4potus for a week and a half or so and pick up with the Pennsylvania casinos after I return. Or – if I really get myself in gear quickly – I could return and immediately start posting New Mexico chips that I will be picking up on the trip. This little detour from the alphabetical sequence of states will wind up being obscured in the directory, where I will slip New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and eventually other states into their proper positions.

Yes, I did refer to chips from six casinos in West Virginia. Those of you who are most familiar with gaming in the state might have flinched with the thought, "Hey! There are only five casinos in West Virginia!" The MOGH catalog does show a slot token from Charles Town Races and Slots, back before it became a full casino and took the Hollywood name, but I don't have one of those, and that's not what I am referring to. Well, I guess maybe you'll just have to wait and see. ;-)

After all of that intro, today's Casino Chip of the Day is from the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs. And yes, that is the name of the town, using the British spelling instead of the Americanized "Sulfur." And for that matter, Greenbrier is spelled with "-ier" and not "-iar" even though there have been some errors in that regard in this forum.

I am going to limit my discussion of the casino in this post because I started an entire thread with my review of the place when I visited there in April 2010. I included a fair number of photos in a follow-up post in that thread, not just the chip I am posting here.

Beyond the long-secret facility hidden at the Greenbrier (discussed in my review), the fairly unique feature of the Greenbrier casino is that players must be guests of the resort (and I am not using the term "resort" lightly), staying in their hotel or participating in a conference or event that overflows their facilities. There are a couple of other ways to gain entry, such as owning a residence on the property or being a member of their sporting clubs. In any case, employees and players are not bothered by riff-raff wandering through the table games areas soliciting spare change.

The Greenbrier casino officially opened on July 2, 2010, some three months after I visited and got my souvenir chip. That is easily explained in that the main casino was still under construction when I was there and did not open until July. I included some construction photos in my review. During my visit, they had a small Tavern Casino in operation, in a bar area underneath their steak house. That gaming area is now described on their web site as available for private functions.

About a year after I was there, odiusgambit visited the Greenbrier, started a discussion thread about the place and posted a couple of blog entries. (If there is a way to link to a blog entry, I haven't figured it out. Right now, those entries are near the bottom of the page at this link, but as odiusgambit posts additional entries, that link will not point to the right page any longer.)

I think there have been other threads about the Greenbrier, too, so maybe several members can comment here about their experiences and impressions. And perhaps even post images of the souvenir chips they collected.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with four pale yellow edge inserts. The oversized center inlay has a blue background graphic of one of the gazebos (I think) at the Greenbrier and black printing of the logo of the overseeing West Virginia Lottery, the casino name in script, the town, state, and denomination. UV light reveals just a hidden Paulson logo near the center.

That's a really beautiful chip. But I suppose one should expect no less from a resort like the Greenbrier. I've never been to the Greenbrier. It's in pretty much the one part of the country that I have no non-gambling reason to visit. I suppose I'll eventually drive down to collect a chip and see the resort, but that hasn't happened yet.

Is "White" Sulphur a different element than "Yellow" Sulphur?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Is "White" Sulphur a different element than "Yellow" Sulphur?

And, if it also smells like sulphur, is that what you want from your springs?