Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: rdw4potus

It's amazing how Rio Puerco sounds so much better than Pig River.

Not if you speak Spanish.

Quote: Doc

Man! You must have even less of a life than I do.

I don't follow your method though. I don't see where the 35 comes from. Are you sure it isn't 36? My way of looking at it was that on the outer ring there are 18 triangles pointing inward and 18 pointing outward. On the inner ring, there are 18 double triangles pointing inward and 18 double triangles pointing outward. That gives me a total of 108. While the number of triangles may not be infinite, I'd say that it qualifies as "uncountable" for at least one of the two of us. ;-)

And to think that the number of triangles is the most discussable aspect of these chips and casinos.

I got 35 when I counted but I'm not anal enough to recount the number of triplets. You have lived my wifes dream life in your retirement casino hopping through almost 400 casinos. Which guess means you are right I don't have a life. he he

State: New Mexico
City: San Felipe Pueblo
Casino: San Felipe Casino Hollywood

I seem to be presenting quite a streak of casinos for which there is some uncertainty as to the proper "city" designation. The souvenir chip shown below just identifies the establishment's location as "New Mexico," which is probably a good choice. Not much argument there.

The San Felipe Casino Hollywood, no apparent relation to Hollywood Casinos, is on tribal land, giving it a proper designation as being in San Felipe Pueblo, as if any non-local would know where that was. The casino is located two miles outside the village proper, allowing it to be at a somewhat more marketable site adjacent to I-25, about half way between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Officially, it is within the Albuquerque metropolitan statistical area. There are also references to its being located in Algodones, NM, the town about five miles down the road toward Albuquerque. Yes, disregarding the adjacent highway it is a bit out in the boonies. Not so unusual for a Native American property, I suppose.

The casino's extended facilities include a travel center, an RV park, and the Hollywood Hills Speedway – a clay track and grandstand which was promoted upon its opening in 2002 as offering "sprint car races, concerts, monster truck events, and rodeos, among other events."

I have not been able to establish when the casino itself opened or when it adopted the Hollywood name. There is an undated, second anniversary chip shown in the MOGH catalog. There are also a Halloween 1997 chip and a Balloon Fiesta 1998 chip, so those at least place a bound on the opening date.

Of the chips in that catalog, only a couple of the commemorative chips mention the name "Hollywood" at all, which leads me to think that it might not have been part of the original name. One of them that does is that 2nd anniversary chip, so the use of that name was either original or adopted fairly early.

I stopped at the San Felipe casino on a Sunday afternoon while driving from Taos to Albuquerque. I played $3 craps very briefly and quickly lost $60. I now see on their web site that they do offer the free buy on the 4 and 10, which has been discussed here for one of the nearby casinos, but I don't know whether I was aware of that during my visit.

The chip shown below is a white Chipco ceramic chip with a colorful center graphic that I wouldn't dare try to interpret.

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One of my neighbors here in North Carolina says that she is originally from New York, though she lived in New Jersey.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

At least the state is correct. I'm waiting for the NFL to change the names of the Jets and Giants to NEW JERSEY.

I hope not. I'm a proponent of teams having nicknames that are 1) illustrative of their home town and 2) related or apropriate to their sport. The New York Giants fill those two requirements nicely, if in a figurative sense. The "New Jersey Giants" simply would make no sense.

State: New Mexico
City: Albuquerque
Casino: Sandia

The Sandia Resort and Casino is owned and operated, not surprisingly, by the Pueblo of Sandia. The casino is located on the north side of Albuquerque, eight or ten miles from the center of the city and just half a mile off I-25.

According to Wikipedia:

Quote: Wiki

The Tiwa name for the pueblo is Tuf Shur Tia, or "Green Reed Place", in reference to the green bosque (Spanish: forest). However, older documents claim that the original name of the pueblo was Nafiat, (Tiwa: "Place Where the Wind Blows Dust").

It became known as Sandía (Spanish: "watermelon") in the early 17th century, and possibilities abound as to why. Some claim that a type of squash cultivated there reminded the Spaniards of the melons they knew from the Eastern hemisphere. Others suggest that explorers found an herb called sandía de culebra, or possibly another called sandía de la pasión there.

But the most convincing and most-cited explanation is that the Spanish called the mountain Sandía after viewing it illuminated by the setting sun. The Sandia Mountains have a red appearance to them, and the layer of vegetation gives it a luminous "rind" of green when backlit, giving it the appearance of a sliced watermelon.

The MOGH catalog indicates that tribal gaming in the pueblo began with bingo in 1983, with limited card games in play in 1994, some three years prior to a compact being approved. Several of the chips on display in that catalog indicate that in early years of table games the place was known as "Casino Sandia." The catalog even shows a Casino Sandia "Happy Holidays 1994/1995" chip that misspells the city name as "Albuqerque" on both sides. I really don't know the detailed timing of the various name changes, but 1998 through 2001 chips are marked Sandia Casino, while the 2012 series has the Sandia Resort and Casino designation as shown on my chip.

The resort's web site says that their table games currently consist of Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Caribbean Stud Poker, Let it Ride, Three Card Poker, Mini Baccarat and Pai Gow Poker, while they also offer slots, poker, bingo, and keno.

On my only visit to the Sandia Casino, I played $5 craps for less than half an hour, winning just $10, but that was my only positive outcome on a six-casino day.

The chip shown below is a white Chipco ceramic chip. Most of the markings on the chip are black, with the only color being two blue bands on the edge of the chip and a matching blue central flower (?) pattern on one side. The first side shown below has the names of the resort, the pueblo, and the city, the denomination, a couple of circles, and the Chipco International logo.

The side with the blue in the center has numerous concentric circles, the resort name, the denomination, two plus signs, and a large geometric figure that I haven't been able to decipher. It looks just a tad like maybe one white Pac-Man has fallen victim to another. Anyone have better interpretations?

Quote: Doc

State: New Mexico
City: San Felipe Pueblo
Casino: San Felipe Casino Hollywood

The chip shown below is a white Chipco ceramic chip with a colorful center graphic that I wouldn't dare try to interpret.

I'm pretty sure it's the test pattern for the tribe's public access channel.

Quote: Doc

State: New Mexico
City: Albuquerque
Casino: Sandia

The side with the blue in the center has numerous concentric circles, the resort name, the denomination, two plus signs, and a large geometric figure that I haven't been able to decipher. It looks just a tad like maybe one white Pac-Man has fallen victim to another. Anyone have better interpretations?

I like the design of this chip. Something about it strikes me as clean and retro.

The "pacmen" could be a spin on the Sandia Pueblo's seal. Note the desigin on the "belt buckle" below:

Quote: Ayecarumba

I'm pretty sure it's the test pattern for the tribe's public access channel.

That's certainly more creative than my suggestion of cannibal Pac-Men for the Sandia design.

I don't think I understand the Sandia seal design you provided either -- does the top portion represent an orgy? I can't figure out the symbols on the "belt" and buckle either.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I'm pretty sure it's the test pattern for the tribe's public access channel.

Nah, it looks like one big barefoot-toe kick in the teeth for each month of the year.

Quote: Doc

That's certainly more creative than my suggestion of cannibal Pac-Men for the Sandia design.

I don't think I understand the Sandia seal design you provided either -- does the top portion represent an orgy? I can't figure out the symbols on the "belt" and buckle either.

OMG, that's hilarious. I'm not sure if it's also an orgy, or some sort of figurative symbol for something else, but it's definitely a picture of Sandia Peak in a weird black and white scheme.

Finally time for a catch-up post.

Colorado:

Ute Mountain


New Mexico:
Buffalo Thunder


Camel Rock


Northern Edge


Ohkay


Sandia

Thanks for the chip images, RDW. There's a fair amount of design similarity between your $5 chips and the $1 chips I posted. Looks as if you got a much older chip from Sandia. It shows the "Sandia Casino" name and a lot of wear. Do you know when you picked that one up?

State: New Mexico
City: Santa Ana Pueblo
Casino: Santa Ana Star

The Santa Ana Star Casino is located, of course, in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM. Everyone knows where that is, right? No? Well, other sources, including the MOGH catalog, list the casino as being in Bernalillo, NM, and some of the casino's chips have that designation. Of course, I am so geographically challenged that without a map I would have no idea where Bernalillo is, had I not been there myself. If it helps a bit, the casino is about 15 miles north of downtown Albuquerque and about two miles west of I-25.

In the tribe's native Eastern Keresan (or Keres) language, the pueblo name is Tamaya (or possibly Tamaiya – the Wiki article on the pueblo spells it both ways), while the Spanish name is in recognition of the village's patron saint, St. Anne. In addition to the casino, the pueblo hosts a Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa nearby, as well as two golf courses.

This casino opened in 1993 as the first tribal casino in New Mexico and has more than 100,000 sq. ft. of gaming space. They have grown from 64 slot machines at opening to more than 1,400 now. Wiki says they have 37 table games including blackjack, roulette, pai gow, 4-card poker, Let It Ride, craps and poker, though the casino's web site just claims 26 table games. The difference? I'm not sure, but perhaps the casino's figure doesn't include their poker room.

This is the casino that has been widely discussed in this forum as offering craps with up to 10x odds, free buy on 4 and 10, and double the field on both 2 and 12 – all being zero house edge wagers. I played each of those on at least some rolls while there, but I did not draw any noticeable benefit – I managed to lose $200 at a $5 game.

The Icon plastic injection molded chip shown below is gray with six white edge inserts. It is almost identical on the two sides, differing only in the text at the bottom of the center inlay. One side has the pueblo designation, while the other has their trademarked slogan. The center inlay includes a five-point star being penetrated by a flaming feather. Now flaming arrows I am familiar with, but just the feathers????

The MOGH catalog shows Santa Ana Star chips from quite a variety of manufacturers: Paulson, Chipco, Bud Jones, Icon, and Langworthy, though another source indicates that Langworthy owned the molds and was a distributor but did not manufacture chips themselves. I guess the Sana Ana Star wants to be sure they always have multiple supply sources available.

Quote: Doc

Thanks for the chip images, RDW. There's a fair amount of design similarity between your $5 chips and the $1 chips I posted. Looks as if you got a much older chip from Sandia. It shows the "Sandia Casino" name and a lot of wear. Do you know when you picked that one up?

I picked that chip up in October of 2007? (I think 2007. Definitely October - was in town for the balloon festival) It's actually one of the first chips I collected from outside of the midwest. Looks like I'll have good luck finding a newer/better chip in June.

Wait a sec, RDB. I just realized that there are some casinos missing from your recent post of chip images.

I know you said you need to pick up one from Hard Rock Albuquerque and that you hope they don't revert to the old/future "Isleta Casino" name before you get by there. But didn't you get an Isleta chip when you were in town for the balloon festival? And Route 66 opened in 2003, so it should have been there and waiting for you, too. Also, weren't you the one who told me about Fire Rock in the first place?

Were you slack in your collecting regimen when you've been to New Mexico? Shame!

Quote: Doc

Wait a sec, RDB. I just realized that there are some casinos missing from your recent post of chip images.

I know you said you need to pick up one from Hard Rock Albuquerque and that you hope they don't revert to the old/future "Isleta Casino" name before you get by there. But didn't you get an Isleta chip when you were in town for the balloon festival? And Route 66 opened in 2003, so it should have been there and waiting for you, too. Also, weren't you the one who told me about Fire Rock in the first place?

Were you slack in your collecting regimen when you've been to New Mexico? Shame!

I actually haven't proactively collected any chips from the ABQ area. I happened to be at Sandia, so I grabbed that chip. I always have family with me when I visit ABQ, and they're not the casino type. And really, who wants to play cards when there's a balloon museum to visit?

I had what I suppose was a moment of laziness in January, when I drove from Denver to Santa Fe to Durango and back to Denver but I just couldn't bring myself to drive farther south and visit ABQ to collect chips (partly, because I'd just left ABQ to fly to Denver...). So now I have flights booked to visit ABQ a month or so after WOVcon to collect the ABQ and central-NM chips.

Just noticed Seneca Niagara has commemorative chips for their 10th anniversary.
http://www.senecaniagaracasino.com/promotions
You have to look for it, no direct link.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Just noticed Seneca Niagara has commemorative chips for their 10th anniversary.

Commemorative chips seem, of course, to be for the purpose of extracting more money from chip collectors. In contrast, the two collectors who have posted the most chips in this thread both try to avoid the commemorative chips. Different collectors have different agendas.

I suppose I may grab a commemorative chip if I happen to be at the casino during the event that they're commemorating. I wouldn't want it to be the primary chip in my collection, but I'd probably collect a second chip with the commemorative design. But too often that's not the case. The "commemorative" chips remain in the tray and I wind up weeding through "2006-5th anniversary!" chips in 2012.

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State: New Mexico
City: Espanola
Casino: Santa Claran

The Santa Claran Hotel Casino is located in Espanola (or Española), NM, north of Santa Fe and about three miles south of the Ohkay Casino & Resort discussed last week. There is no Wiki page for the casino, but the page for Espanola makes this disturbing comment:

Quote: Wiki

Heroin use in the area increased rapidly beginning in the 1990s. In the period 2001–2005, Rio Arriba County had the highest per capita rate of drug fatalities in the country, with 42.5 deaths per 100,000 population compared to 7.3 nationally, however, in the city limits of Española the numbers are far below the national average at 0.5.

The casino itself is, of course, located on the tribal land in the Santa Clara Pueblo, known in the tribe's Tewa language as Kha'p'oo Owinge, or "Valley of the Wild Roses." I do not know whether the casino is "in the city limits" or "in the area," with regard to the issue noted by Wikipedia.

The casino's web site says they have 650 machines in their 27,000 sq. ft. of gaming and lists their table games as blackjack, craps, and roulette, while the CasinoCity.com site lists both poker and three-card poker among the games. The pueblo also offers a golf club, a bowling center, and ancient cliff dwellings to give some variety to your visit. When I was there almost three weeks ago, I managed to lose $25 at a $5 game of craps. Do you see a pattern in these recent reports of my gaming?

The chip shown below is a rather plain white Icon chip. Perhaps I should take a moment and admit that I have recently misspelled that manufacturer's name as "Ikon" several times in this thread. This morning I went back and tried to correct all of those errors.

This Icon chip has the four suit emblems repeated around the perimeter on each side, in light gray for the black suits and extremely light gray (almost invisible) for the red suits. I don't know how much of that faintness is due to fading, but I have already reported that the images on my Icon chip from Northern Edge Navajo Casino are quite faded. In the case of this Santa Claran chip, the matching chip shown in the MOGH catalog is also quite faded – it is almost impossible to see the red suit emblems there, and I'm not sure at all what color they started off as.

In contrast to the faded "red" pips, the red lettering and graphics on one side of the chip seem to have held up reasonably well. The name has "Santa Claran" in black all caps and "Hotel • Casino" in red small all caps. The denomination mark on that side is in gray, and there are some other indistinct gray swirl markings in the background. I'm not sure what that round red image is that has the black feathers radiating from it. Is that the face of Hammy the squirrel from Over the Hedge? Or maybe one of Disney's chipmunks?

Seriously, the image is more distinct on the casino's web site, though I still have no idea what it means. There is a central figure – maybe a basket or piece of pottery – with a mark that might be a paw print. That is surrounded by red markings in the same pattern as the larger gray "swirl" in the chip background.

The other side of the chip has a large denomination mark, the casino name, and the four suit pips all in gold. There is also a small gold emblem between/beside "Santa" and "Claran" that I think is the same image that I suggested looked like Hammy on the other side, but it is quite small and even less distinct in gold. In the background, the gray swirls are repeated, this time with a gray sunburst pattern in the center. There may even be a colored sun in the middle, but that doesn't show up on the chip in the MOGH catalog, so I think it is just a smudge on my chip.

Here are my Santa Claran chips. I visited this casino in January, during my tour of CO and NM. At the time I visited, the casino had just been re-named from Big Rock to Santa Claran. The hotel is the Santa Claran hotel, and always has been. So the change aligned the two names. I don't think I've ever been in a casino so close to a chip changeover, and it was interesting to watch. For whatever reason, several players had low-denomination Big Rock chips, which the dealer was aggressively taking out of play. Her tray was full of the brand-new Santa Claran chips, so the source of the Big Rock chips is a mystery. Maybe the heroin trade pays in casino chips or something.

FYI: The former Terrible's casinos in IA and MO have reverted to non-Terrible's branded names. So they all have new chips. <--personal knowledge. Also, Fortune Valley in Central City is now the Reserve and has new chips.

Quote: rdw4potus

At the time I visited, the casino had just been re-named from Big Rock to Santa Claran.

Perhaps I should have investigated this further. That is, if I had known something about it in advance. ;-)

The MOGH catalog claims that the Santa Claran Casino is located at 460 N. Riverside Drive in Espnaola and shows both the $1 and $5 chips we posted today. It also says that the Big Rock Casino Bowl (?) opened in 2001 and is still open at 419 N. Riverside Drive in Espanola in the Santa Claran Hotel. The way they present that info sounds quite a bit different from the casino changing its name.

CasinoCity.com lists the Santa Claran but not the Big Rock, while the Wiki list of casinos in New Mexico includes the Big Rock but not the Santa Claran. I doubt that there are really two different casinos open there now, but I didn't even know about this to check it out.

Quote: teddys

FYI: The former Terrible's casinos in IA and MO have reverted to non-Terrible's branded names. So they all have new chips. <--personal knowledge. Also, Fortune Valley in Central City is now the Reserve and has new chips.

OK, gotta ask: are you on some sort of epic road trip? Omaha, rural MO, Joliet..

Quote: Doc

Perhaps I should have investigated this further. That is, if I had known something about it in advance. ;-)

The MOGH catalog claims that the Santa Claran Casino is located at 460 N. Riverside Drive in Espnaola and shows both the $1 and $5 chips we posted today. It also says that the Big Rock Casino Bowl (?) opened in 2001 and is still open at 419 N. Riverside Drive in Espanola in the Santa Claran Hotel. The way they present that info sounds quite a bit different from the casino changing its name.

CasinoCity.com lists the Santa Claran but not the Big Rock, while the Wiki list of casinos in New Mexico includes the Big Rock but not the Santa Claran. I doubt that there are really two different casinos open there now, but I didn't even know about this to check it out.

They did have signs at the cage saying that they were taking the Big Rock chips until some-date-I-dont-remember. So the name definitely changed. But now I'm wondering if they moved across the property when they did the name change. If only some member of this board would (hurry the hell up and) build a website with an accurate list of casinos:-)

Quote: rdw4potus

If only some member of this board would (hurry the hell up and) build a website with an accurate list of casinos:-)

We're making a bit of a contribution with this thread, at least for casinos that use chips. Someone else said they were building a directory of casinos that was supposed to maintain current information about the games offered in each casino. I can't remember who that was, but I think we have a member with the right name to assist in such an adventure.

deleted

Yes, that's the one. I just thought he might need a squire.

State: New Mexico
City: Acoma Pueblo
Casino: Sky City

The Sky City Casino Hotel is located in west-central New Mexico, adjacent to I-40, roughly a third of the way from Albuquerque to the Arizona line. Some references, including some of the chips included in the MOGH catalog, list the location as Acoma, NM, without mention of the word "pueblo." The Wiki page about the pueblo indicates that there are three villages in the pueblo: Sky City (old Acoma), Acomita, and McCartys.

For a site in a rather wide-open section of New Mexico, the highway interchange is outrageously complex, and I encourage you to take a look at it on GoogleMaps; just search for Sky City Casino Hotel.

There is a simple Indian Service Route 30, aka Pueblo Road, that passes under I-40. Rather than just providing an interchange for this road, they have constructed a bridge over the interstate a quarter mile away, added two traffic circles on one side of the interstate and another traffic circle on the other side. All that pavement is there to support the traffic coming and going from not much more than the small casino hotel, the travel center next door, and their RV park out back. It's the kind of thing one might expect if the transportation secretary's brother owned the local road construction company.

The casino opened in 1995 and is owned and operated by the people of the Acoma Pueblo, under control of the Acoma Business Enterprise, which oversees most of the tribe's businesses. The casino and hotel are alcohol free – not meaning that you don't have to pay for your drinks while playing but rather that you just can't get any that contain alcohol.

According to CasinoCity.com, Sky City has 660 gaming machines, one poker table, and nine more table games including blackjack, craps, and roulette. The casino's own page claims 669 machines (close enough), a 500-seat bingo hall, and notes that they have added blackjack switch and three card poker progressive.

There was no operating craps table when I visited at mid day on a Monday, so I played $5 blackjack and broke even. It was the last New Mexico casino I visited on my recent trip, as I headed back toward Arizona.

Most of the Sky City chips shown in the MOGH catalog are from Chipco. However, the one shown below is a white RHC Paulson with eight narrow black edge inserts and an oversized center inlay. The inlay is mostly sky blue, and the large, black denomination mark has a blue shadow. The casino name is presented in a large, blue, block outline font, the pueblo and state are in blue text, and the "Exit the everyday" slogan is in white on a blue background. There are several faint blue-gray bars in the background, but I cannot make out what their pattern may be. Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.

The graphic seems perfectly lined up with the edge inserts. Is this deliberate, or a fortunate pick?

Was smoking allowed on the premises? Did they do anything different to make up for the lack of free booze? If a patron brought their own bottle to the restaurant, would they cork it?

I think the inlay/insert alignment is likely just luck. I don't think they go to the effort of such precision in mass production of chips.

Sorry, but I can't answer your questions about the Sky City consumption rules. I'm not a user of either tobacco or alcohol myself, and I wasn't aware of it being an alcohol-free establishment until I saw it on their web site after my visit.

I know that the Harrah's Cherokee casino in N.C. only started serving alcohol fairly recently, and it's still not free there. (I suppose you could charge it and wind up getting it comped, but it's not served free of charge.) I don't know the thinking behind the Sky City policy or the old Cherokee policy. Perhaps it's some vestige of firewater-for-the-Injins thinking. If so, I doubt that carries over to tobacco -- where did that practice/habit get introduced to our society anyway?

Quote: rdw4potus

OK, gotta ask: are you on some sort of epic road trip? Omaha, rural MO, Joliet..

No, just a straight boring shot along 80, with a few deviations here and there...

Catfish Bend in Burlington is surprisingly cool...

Quote: teddys

Catfish Bend in Burlington is surprisingly cool...

Yes, it is. That's my favorite part of Iowa, too. Though, and hopefully you won't find this out later, Burlington is a jurisdiction that still mails out traffic citations with photos after the fact. I sped up to make a yellow light and got fines in the mail both for going 45 in a 30 and for running a red light. ouch!

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Quote: Ibeatyouraces

And they had proof it was you? They should be outlawed.

Proof it was my car, which they claim I'm responsible for. it was pretty interesting. The citations came from a surveillance processing center in Albany, NY. There was a court date in Burlington that I probably could have attended and argued that there was insufficient evidence, but it seems like the system is built around the premise that nobody actually does that.

State: New Mexico
City: Taos Pueblo
Casino: Taos Mountain

The Taos Pueblo is located just a few miles outside of the town of Taos and to the north. The village is at an elevation of 7,200 feet, and the mountains head on up from there.

The day before we drove from Santa Fe to Taos, my wife and I had lunch with a couple of friends I hadn't seen in decades. One of them told us that she has only visited the pueblo once in the forty years she has lived in the area and has no interest in returning. She said she can't really fault the people who live there for making money any legal way they can, but it all strikes her as a bit of a rip-off. They charge visitors an entrance fee to the pueblo; then they charge for parking, and next they charge a fee for you to photograph anything in the place.

It was snowing in Taos when we got there, though the temperature stayed high enough that the roads remained clear. Still, we passed up on the opportunity to visit the village's multi-story adobe structures that supposedly have been continuously inhabited for over 1,000 years. That makes the village the longest continuously inhabited location in this country.

I did go to the Taos Mountain Casino, which is on the road from the town out to the pueblo village. I haven't been able to dig up any info on when the casino first opened. The parking lot for the casino is paved only with loose gravel, and it seems to be mostly a dirt lot. Because of the melting snow during our visit, it was mostly a mud lot. After dropping my wife off at the door, I searched for a parking space that would allow me to walk back to the building without wading through the deep stuff.

The website for the Taos Mountain Casino proclaims that they are "New Mexico's only 100% Smoke Free Casino" while right next door they operate their smoke shop. Seems just a bit incongruous to me. The site also proclaims they are "far and away the friendliest casino in New Mexico." I don't know that my wife would agree – while I was playing $5 blackjack, she went to sit at an idle slot machine and read her latest book on her e-reader. Got rousted for trying that. Nope, no can do. No electronic devices of any kind may be operated in the casino. So we left. Hadn't planned to stay long anyway and left breaking even at the table.

CasinoCity.com says the place offers blackjack, 3cp, and poker, with a total of just four tables. The casino's site says they offer blackjack with both a six deck shoe and a hand-held double deck game, plus UTH. They mention their blackjack rules but don't mention any differences between the shoe game and the double-deck game. I played the shoe game and can confirm that there aren't many tables, but I didn't look to see what was really offered on the others.

The Taos Mountain chip shown below is a mostly-white Chipco ceramic chip that looks quite faded compared to the one shown in the MOGH catalog. On the MOGH sample, all of the mountains look bright green, while the image is so faded on my chip I would never have guessed that the mountains started out that shade.

There's also not much information printed on the chip. The name of the casino and the denomination are on each side, but beyond that and the images of the mountains there is nothing except a "Winter Wonderland" slogan – nothing mentioning the town, the pueblo, or the state.



I do have to admit that they have some nice winter scenes there that justify that slogan, even if I have no interest in the skiing that they offer. Less than half a mile down from the casino, the road crosses Rio Pueblo de Taos. The site caught both my eye and my wife's so I'll share a photo I took.


Since I'm already posting my travel snapshots again, as well as my souvenir chips, I might as well keep going and tell of something that caught us by surprise on this trip.

My wife and I lived in southern New Mexico for almost two years, part of that time less than three miles from the Rio Grande. While there, we never heard of anything called the Rio Grande Gorge, and we still hadn't heard of it until we stopped in at a visitor's center as we approached Taos. The same river that passes close to where we lived and that downstream forms a fair portion of the Texas-Mexico border has carved out a rather impressive gorge in northern New Mexico, just outside of Taos.

We went out to take a look at it the day we got into town, but the weather was pretty bad, and we didn't have good visibility. The next day, the skies were much clearer, so we went out for another look.

Here are three of the photos I took of it, looking first to the north and last to the south from near the center of the bridge shown in the middle photo. Yes, as I have noted before, I do like bridges and photograph a fair number of them. This bridge was constructed in 1963-65 with a total span of 1,280 feet. The river is 565 feet below the bridge, making this now the tenth highest bridge in the U.S. The bridge elevation is approximately 7,000 feet, and you can see in the background how much higher the terrain climbs in that area.

Still don't understand why we had never heard of this place before.

Here is my Taos Mountain chip. I visited in January, and it sounds like my visit was very similar to Doc's - muddy parking lot, unfriendly staff, very brief break-even BJ session.



It's kind of cute how the white $1 chip is "winter wonderland" while the orangish-red $5 chip is "Hot! Hot! Hot!" Looks like "Enchantment" and "Spectacular" are the themes of the $25 and $100 chips. Here's the $25 chip...are those flying monkeys?

On my way south from Pueblo to Taos, I had a funny experience. I was thinking about how there were no mountains around me, and how that wasn't what I was expecting in Colorado. Then I looked in the rear-view mirror, and I saw this:

And it stayed perfectly framed in the rear-view mirror for a very long time.

Quote: Doc

My wife and I lived in southern New Mexico for almost two years, part of that time less than three miles from the Rio Grande. While there, we never heard of anything called the Rio Grande Gorge, and we still hadn't heard of it until we stopped in at a visitor's center as we approached Taos.

Quote:

Still don't understand why we had never heard of this place before.

Because you never stopped at a visitor's center before?

Quote: Doc

State: New Mexico
City: Taos Pueblo
Casino: Taos Mountain
...I haven't been able to dig up any info on when the casino first opened.

Near as I can tell they opened in 1995 with some slot machines, and added tables in 1997. They base their "anniversary" on 1997, since adding tables made them a "casino". Source

Quote: Doc

State: New Mexico
City: Taos Pueblo
Casino: Taos Mountain

...This bridge was constructed in 1963-65 with a total span of 1,280 feet. The river is 565 feet below the bridge, making this now the tenth highest bridge in the U.S. The bridge elevation is approximately 7,000 feet, and you can see in the background how much higher the terrain climbs in that area.

How is the "tenth highest" determined? River heights can go up and down quite a bit depending on the season. Is the height measured as feet above sea level?

It's kind of like my beef with the record for the highest freefall. The jump was from a balloon over New Mexico, so the jumper was already more than a mile above sea level when he parachuted back on "Earth", yet the record is listed as altitude above sea level.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Near as I can tell they opened in 1995 with some slot machines, and added tables in 1997.

Thanks for the good addition to the thread. You did much more effective research than I did. Sometimes I don't even Google properly.    :-)

Quote: Nareed

Because you never stopped at a visitor's center before?

Nah, we've stopped at lots of them, to use the restrooms if nothing else. And that was the reason we stopped on our approach to Taos. I think it was a visitor's center for the state park. Learning about the gorge was an unexpected bonus for our stop, as was meeting the ranger's two very friendly dogs that seemed to love it if a visitor stopped in and paid a little attention to them.

The whole time we lived in southern New Mexico, we never even visited the northern half of the state, and we probably didn't look into what might be there. We did make a couple of trips over to the Grand Canyon, and we got to the eastern part of the state to visit Carlsbad Caverns and camp nearby. At the time, I was a draftee, and we were on a very limited budget, so we didn't travel to any place that would cost us much.

Quote: Ayecarumba

How is the "tenth highest" determined? River heights can go up and down quite a bit depending on the season. Is the height measured as feet above sea level?

I'm not certain how it is determined, but I'm pretty sure it isn't height above sea level. My guess would be height of the bridge surface above the mean water surface level.

Quote: rdw4potus

...Here's the $25 chip...are those flying monkeys?

Hehe... Yes, yes they are. Or they could be fleeing the, "Taos Hum"

Quote: ghostdepot.com

Many who live in Taos have reported to have heard the “Taos Hum”. It is an ultra low frequency, which is allegedly caused by a secret, government research facility, the existence of which has never been proven to be true or false. In 1993, the residents who were plagued by this sound joined together and took it to Congress. They wanted to know what they were hearing. Congress requested a team of scientists from several institutions, including the University of New Mexico, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Phillips Air Force Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory, to investigate the phenomenon.

The results of the study found that the people who hear the hum do not have low frequency tinnitus. They are actually hearing some kind of low frequency sound, but it is not known what. It is hypothesized that the hearers of the hum have a special sensitivity to sounds in the 20 to 100Hz range, and thus can hear low frequency sounds.

Quote: Doc

State: New Mexico
City: Taos Pueblo
Casino: Taos Mountain
... This bridge was constructed in 1963-65 with a total span of 1,280 feet. The river is 565 feet below the bridge, making this now the tenth highest bridge in the U.S. The bridge elevation is approximately 7,000 feet, and you can see in the background how much higher the terrain climbs in that area.

Still don't understand why we had never heard of this place before.

Rio Grande Gorge

When originally constructed, the funds ran out to complete the road, so it was known as, "The Bridge to Nowhere". Maybe that is why you never heard of it. A deadend bridge wouldn't get alot of Tourism Board publicity.

Quote: Ayecarumba

When originally constructed, the funds ran out to complete the road, so it was known as, "The Bridge to Nowhere". Maybe that is why you never heard of it. A deadend bridge wouldn't get alot of Tourism Board publicity.

Well, that does make some sense. Supposedly, the bridge was completed in 1965. Do you mean that they didn't build the road until some time after that? My wife and I lived in southern New Mexico from 1969 to 1971.

Here is a link to a web site that provides more information about the bridge and includes a lot more photos. One of the interesting/macabre items on that page says:

Quote: Highest bridges

The popularity of the span has also made it a regional suicide magnet with approximately 3 jumpers a year. A movement is growing to address the problem - not only to save lives but because the sheer cliffs of the gorge make it an all day affair for the local fire and rescue teams to retrieve the bodies.

I guess the travel photos led today's discussions away from the topic of casino chips. Who the heck derailed my thread?

Quote: Doc

I guess the travel photos have lead today's discussions away from the topic of casino chips. Who the heck derailed my thread?

LOL! I take it as a statement about the quality of the Taos Mountain Casino:-)

State: New Mexico
City: Dulce
Casino: Wild Horse / Apache Nugget

Today we come to the last of the New Mexico casinos represented in my collection, though this souvenir token could perhaps have been presented first in the alphabetical sequence, back before Buffalo Thunder.

The Jicarilla Apache tribe operated the Apache Nugget casino in Dulce, NM from 1996 to 1999. In 2004, they opened a different Apache Nugget Casino sixty-plus miles to the south and sitting a bit on its own out on US route 550, some 22 miles west of Cuba, NM. Chips from both of those casinos are included in the MOGH catalog, but the Apache Nugget web site does not indicate that they now have any table games there, just slots and bingo.

And I mean there is nothing else around that place, just the small casino and a bingo tent across a side road. There is a definite shortage of dwellings in the area and few paved roads. US 550 is a 4-lane divided highway in that area, so maybe there are enough passers-by who need some liveliness to wake them up, justifying the presence of a casino.

Eventually, the tribe opened a new place in Dulce, sporting the Wild Horse Casino name. The short Wikipedia page says the place "re-opened on February 5, 2007 after a complete renovation and expansion." That makes it sound as if this is the same location as the original Apache Nugget, but the dealers at the Wild Horse told me that the earlier casino had been "across town." I'm not at all sure of the whole story.

Their web site indicates that they have "over 190" slot and video poker machines and offer blackjack on Thursday through Saturday from 6 p.m. until closing (1 a.m. Thursday night and 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights). Fortunately, rdw4potus warned me about the limited hours for table games, so that whole portion of our trip was scheduled around getting to Dulce at 6 p.m. on a Thursday evening.

I played $5 blackjack as the only player at their grand total of two tables and wound up winning $25. They told me that the tokens they were using as $1 chips were the same ones that had been in play (probably in the slots) at the old casino "across town." They said that the token design had been created by one of the tribal members, and I have to admit that it may be the nicest looking casino token that I have ever seen. The side with the stag image even shows the good taste not to duplicate that "One Buck" gag used on the Mohegan Sun chip from Connecticut.

Below the stag on the token you can see the GDC mint mark from the Green Duck Corporation, which ceased operations in the U.S. back in 1999. Last June, I described that logo as looking like a triskelion when I posted the token from the Longhorn, which led to some discussion of how/where people had seen that word before. In that post, I also related some tales about Green Duck Corporation that I found (and still find) a bit amusing.

The Wild Horse Casino has regular chips for the other denominations, but the MOGH catalog does not even have a page for the Wild Horse Casino. MOGH is usually pretty quick to get new chips posted, so I don't know what the story is there either. Their page for the original Apache Nugget Casino does not show this token but does show $1 chips from both Langworthy and RTP molds.

I mentioned to the dealer that I had stopped by to pick up a souvenir chip for my collection, and the supervisor and another person who had been talking at the empty adjacent table said that was quite interesting. They had just been discussing that their inventory of chips had been declining, and they assumed that players had been keeping them. They didn't know to what extent they should expect the chips to return eventually and weren't sure just how they should reflect those "missing" chips in their financial system – accounts payable?

If you have kept a chip, either from the Wild Horse Casino or from either of the Apache Nugget Casinos, please post an image for us here. And remember that you are screwing with their bookkeepers' heads. ;-)

Here is my Wildhorse chip. There's no entry for this casino at MOGH, and I don't see any identifying marks on the chip. Looks like a Bud Jones, maybe?

On the accounting issue, that must be a bigger deal for small casinos than it seems like it'd be. A couple of the california card clubs were extremely upset with the idea of letting me leave with a chip. I suppose there's probably a volume issue - they bought one (small) set of chips, and they can't really replace part of the set but they don't need or want a full replacement set either.

This casino was really a trip. Tiny table games open from 5-12pm only, free popcorn from a vintage popper in the middle of the floor. I was surprised that they had many new and popular slot titles.