Casino Chip of the Day

I missed the Boardwalk, but I can match the next two locations. I honestly don't know why I waited so long to start going to Vegas. I've been gambling since I was 18 and collecting chips since I was 24 (the collection was very small for many years), but I was 29 before I went to Vegas for the first time in October of 2010. I missed so many properties, including the Boardwalk, by waiting that long.

Quote: Doc

Now you've got the idea. (Couldn't scam you now, could I?) And you are correct about the next two chips I will post in the thread.

But first, is there not anyone who can tell us more about the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino? Is there anyone else on the forum who has played there? Anyone other than my brother and his girlfriend who actually stayed in the hotel?

I played my first game of BJ at the Boardwalk. I was probably 19 or 20 and staying at the Aladdin with my folks. When we drove by the Boardwalk they advertised a $3 BJ game and I went over there to play. I had no idea about BS at the time and asked the guy next to me what to do on all my hands. The dealer was on an amazing hot streak and my $40 disappeared very quickly. I remember walking back to the Aladdin with a 40 oz malt liquor and drinking it in my room lol.

Quote: Doc

But first, is there not anyone who can tell us more about the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino? Is there anyone else on the forum who has played there? Anyone other than my brother and his girlfriend who actually stayed in the hotel?

I recall passing by the Boardwalk on several occassions, but always on the other side of the Strip. Maybe the big clown head made me nervous..

Quote: Ayecarumba

Maybe the big clown head made me nervous..

Yeah that one was kinda strange. I don't have any photos of my own, but here is an image of it that I stole off the net:





There's another one here.

Quote: bigfoot66

I played my first game of BJ at the Boardwalk. I was probably 19 or 20 and staying at the Aladdin with my folks. When we drove by the Boardwalk they advertised a $3 BJ game and I went over there to play. I had no idea about BS at the time and asked the guy next to me what to do on all my hands. The dealer was on an amazing hot streak and my $40 disappeared very quickly. I remember walking back to the Aladdin with a 40 oz malt liquor and drinking it in my room lol.

The guy next to you was probably a friendly shill, telling you to hit hard 18s, double on 12, and split 10s. Did he sympathize all through your misery then ask you to buy him a drink for all the help he gave?

That clown is scary, like the one in the IT movie

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

That clown is scary, like the one in the IT movie

I've never liked clowns, either. To me it makes perfect sense the nastiest, scariest Batman villain is a clown.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

That clown is scary, like the one in the IT movie

He ain't got nothing on the Circus Circus clown. BW reminds me of current-day CC:

Quote: Doc

The guy next to you was probably a friendly shill, telling you to hit hard 18s, double on 12, and split 10s. Did he sympathize all through your misery then ask you to buy him a drink for all the help he gave?

Lol It is quite possible, he didn't ask me for anything. He saw me hit a stiff against a dealer low card and introduced me to the concept of "letting the dealer bust" if you both have lousy hands.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Boulder Station

There is probably little reason to ponder the naming of the Boulder Station casino – it is a unit of Stations Casinos and it is located on Boulder Highway. If there is some issue more complex than that, it went right over my head. Of course, at one time I assumed that it was located in Boulder City, but no.

Boulder Station is the second casino of this thread that is located on Boulder Highway and is just under a mile from Arizona Charlie's East/Boulder toward downtown Las Vegas. I probably don't need to say much more about Boulder Station since we have a very up-to-date review by our own teddys.

In his review, teddys mentioned that the theme of the establishment is an old-style train station and that it is done well. That theme is maintained in the chip design shown below, with the you're-about-to-be-run-over image of a steam locomotive, complete with a giant cow catcher, more properly known as a "pilot", or so claims Wikipedia.

Once again, my limitations as a photographer are illustrated by the continuing problem of color shift. The real chip is a pretty shade of baby blue, not at all so washed out as it appears in this image.

As you probably recognize before I even type it, this is the 7th top hat and cane Paulson chip of the thread. Wish I could identify the manufacturers of all of the other chips so that I could give some balance to the discussion. I think that other than the Paulson top hat and cane chips, I have only been able to definitely identify the manufacturer of the Atlantis chip (by Bud Jones), Bally's chip (by Chipco) and the Barcelona token (by Casino Tokens, Inc.) Well, we have more top hat and cane chips coming up, but I will be able to point out two other manufacturer's logos within the next week, followed by one I would like some help identifying.




Edit 5/27/12: Check this post later in this thread about UV images visible on this and other chips.

Boulder Station is one of my favorite non-tourist Vegas casinos. I slightly prefer Sunset station (and Aliante is about tied with Boulder) among the Station chain. It's clean, convenient, and the games are very fair. If my local casino had full pay machines and a wide array of table games, and if my local casino were 4 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, it'd be Boulder Station.

A bit late, but here's my Boardwalk pics.



I liked the little deli at the northern edge of the property that had 99 cent shrimp cocktails. Whole place was def a low-rollers joint but not without its charm.

Thanks for the images, rdw4potus and zippyboy.

I feel certain I never ate at the Boardwalk deli; I don't even remember it. Was it the kind of deli/café restaurant you find in most hotels along the strip, or did they have it set up to look like something along the Coney Island boardwalk?

Quote: rdw4potus

Boulder Station is one of my favorite non-tourist Vegas casinos. I slightly prefer Sunset station (and Aliante is about tied with Boulder) among the Station chain. It's clean, convenient, and the games are very fair. If my local casino had full pay machines and a wide array of table games, and if my local casino were 4 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, it'd be Boulder Station.

I agree about Boulder. The Wizard disagreed with my review when I said I'd rank it over Texas, but I don't see anything to recommend Texas over Boulder. I also think Sunset is the best of the "Garden Variety" Stations.

Stations owns the chain of Wildfire/Barley's/The Greens/Gold Rush mini-casinos which are very good and I enjoy going to, but they don't have table games.

Quote: Doc

There is probably little reason to ponder the naming of the Boulder Station casino – it is a unit of Stations Casinos and it is located on Boulder Highway. If there is some issue more complex than that, it went right over my head.

I forget whose law it was that said "Everything is more complicated and costs more." Take the first aprt and you get these questions:

1) Why is it called Boulder Highway? Maybe becasue it's the highway that goes to Boulder City. Very well, but then:
2) Why is it called Boulder City?
3) Why is a chain of casinos called "Stations Casinos"?

See? :P

Quote:

Of course, at one time I assumed that it was located in Boulder City, but no.

According to the Showtime tour guide/driver on a tour I took to Hoover Dam in 08, Boulder City is the one place in Nevada where gambling is illegal.

Interestingly, Wikipedia's entry for Boulder City does not include the source for the name. Note that it does state that it's one of TWO places in NV where gambling is illegal.

I suspect Boulder City's name was chosen since it was built to house workers and their families from the Boulder Dam project (which was later renamed Hoover Dam).

The highway probably got its name from the city.

I don't know why I didn't check this before.....


Boulder City was named for Boulder Dam, build to house the dam construction crews. That part makes sense, since the Hoover Dan was originally called Boulder Dam and didn't change it's name untill well after Boulder City got established. And, by the way, I already knew that.


The dam was originally called Boulder Dam, because it's NOT located in ... drumroll please ... Boulder Canyon.

It's in Black Canyon, but nearby Boulder Canyon was one of the other sites considered.

Actually, there is a section of Wikipedia's Hoover Dam page that discusses, at length, the naming controversy.

[Edit]
Sorry for de-railing this thread.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

[Edit]
Sorry for de-railing this thread.

We may head out on a tangent occasionally, but so long as this thread avoids the all-too-common bickering, I don't think a little side discussion will derail it. Each day I plan to get it back on the tracks and moving with a new post of a chip image.

Anyway, in the very first post I suggested that members ...

Quote: Doc

... post their comments, anecdotes, whatever about that particular casino – comments that perhaps have never warranted starting a thread on their own. Of course, comments about chips, chip manufacturing, chip collecting, etc. are also invited.

I have assumed that the name of Boulder Highway came from the town it went to, and I had heard that Boulder City was named for the dam, but I don't think I had ever heard where that early version of the dam name originated, so you have provided some educational info relevant to the name of Boulder Station. Keep up the contributions.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

The dam was originally called Boulder Dam, because it's NOT located in ... drumroll please ... Boulder Canyon.

It's in Black Canyon, but nearby Boulder Canyon was one of the other sites considered.

This just pushes the problem back to "why is it called Boulder Cannyon?" :P

Seriously, I wouldn't take it that far. But some people I know would take it farther ("why is a boulder called a boulder?" and even worse questions).

Even more seriously, what other city in Nevada doesn't allow legal gambling? It seems odd for there to be even one such place, two seem unbelievable.

Quote: Doc

I have assumed that the name of Boulder Highway came from the town it went to.....

So this brings up a new question. Was the highway named after the canyon, and the city built on the highway, or was the highway built to service the city it was named for?

It's a chicken and egg thing....

Either way, I think we all agree that Boulder Station (as well as Arizona Charlies / Boulder) was named for the highway, not the town. And certainly not the dam or canyon!

Quote: Nareed

Even more seriously, what other city in Nevada doesn't allow legal gambling? It seems odd for there to be even one such place, two seem unbelievable.

I won't give it away, but it's named in the Wikipedia article on Boulder City.

Quote: Nareed

Even more seriously, what other city in Nevada doesn't allow legal gambling? It seems odd for there to be even one such place, two seem unbelievable.

And the real kicker is that the other no-gambling city also prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages. The only dry municipality in the arid state of Nevada.

Quote: Doc

And the real kicker is that the other no-gambling city also prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages. The only dry municipality in the arid state of Nevada.

So I read. But, really, a place with less than 2,000 inhabitants hardly qualifies as a place in the first place. You can fit more people than that in a cruise.

State: Nevada
City: Primm
Casino: Buffalo Bill's

Following up on the fake roller coaster façade at Boardwalk Hotel and Casino from two days ago, today we have a resort casino with one heck of a real roller coaster. The Desperado ride at Buffalo Bill's is reputed to be one of the highest and fastest coasters in the world. I have never found that the urge to ride it is irresistible.

Buffalo Bill's is the third-constructed of three hotel-casino complexes located in Primm, NV, which abuts on the California state line. The whole "town" is set up to attract, capture, and keep custody of visitors from Los Angeles before they can slip by to Las Vegas. Primm was once known as State Line, NV, leading I suppose to considerable confusion with Stateline, NV, another town bordering California near the southern end of Lake Tahoe.

The new name of the town is in honor of the original developers of the area. The Primm family built all three casinos and some years later sold them to MGM, which sold them to Herbst Gaming. Then Herbst went through bankruptcy, and the designated owner of all three is now Affinity Gaming.

The wild-west frontier theme of the resort suggests that it is named in honor of Buffalo Bill Cody. I have not been able to identify a "Bill" Primm, so I don't think this is a similar situation to Bill's Gamblin' Hall in Las Vegas being named for a founder. While one of the other two resorts in town was named in honor of a non-Primm-family local businessman, I suspect Buffalo Bill's really was named for Mr. Cody.

I first saw Buffalo Bill's while approaching Las Vegas for my very first visit in March 2003, riding up I-15 from Barstow on a Friday afternoon with three co-workers. We did not stop at any of the casinos in Primm, but we did pull into a little tourist information center just on the California side of the state line in order to get some advice before entering Sin City. That information center now shows up on the map as Terrible's Lotto Store. This points out the fact that I-15 is a two-way highway – Californians may need to drive to Nevada to get real craps, roulette, etc., but those living in Las Vegas must drive just across the line from Primm to buy their tickets for tonight's MegaMillions super jackpot lottery, being advertised as a $540 million jackpot as I type this. That little lottery store appeared briefly in an ABC World News with Diane Sawyer segment yesterday evening, showing the line of customers extending into Nevada.

The Buffalo Bill's chip shown below is … OK, everyone, what is the logo on this chip called, and who is it made by? And how many have we seen already? I promise: tomorrow's Casino Chip of the Day will not have this logo on it?

The real Buffalo Bill's chip is very nearly the same color as the Boulder Station chip I posted yesterday, a baby blue that just looks washed out in my photos of both chips.



Edit 5/27/12: Check this post later in this thread about UV images visible on this and other chips.

Hmmm...

I never noticed before, but in the Top Hat & Cane logo, not all of the canes point the same way.

I just added a chip from The D to my collection. They're still using The Fitz chips, I was happy about that. I'll get my "D" chip on the next trip. Other than the bar and the players club card, it still looks very much like Fitzgeralds. I got a photo of the rainbow neon sign and then waved buh bye to it.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Hmmm...

I never noticed before, but in the Top Hat & Cane logo, not all of the canes point the same way.

You are correct. In most cases I have seen, two of the eight top hats have the cane handle to the left, but there is an inconsistency here. If you go back and look at the Bill's Gamblin' Hall chip that I posted (use the link table in the very first post to help find it), you will see that all of the canes point in the same direction on that chip. I have often wondered whether there is some sort of code or whether the molds are just set up in some random fashion. Perhaps something changed when Paulson morphed into Gaming Partners International.

Quote: Doc

You are correct. In most cases I have seen, two of the eight top hats have the cane handle to the left, but there is an inconsistency here. If you go back and look at the Bill's Gamblin' Hall chip that I posted (use the link table in the very first post to help find it), you will see that all of the canes point in the same direction on that chip. I have often wondered whether there is some sort of code or whether the molds are just set up in some random fashion. Perhaps something changed when Paulson morphed into Gaming Partners International.

My vote is for code. I can see where that'd be handy, especially on high-denomination chips.

Quote: s2dbaker

I'll get my "D" chip on the next trip.

They have said that the conversion will be complete by this fall, but I have seen no mention of an anticipated changeover date for chips, other than NicksGamingStuff's speculation in this forum. The NGC Chip and Token Monthly Reports don't show any new chips approved for Fitzgerald's since some roulette chips last June and none approved ever for "D" or "TheD". Perhaps there will be something when the March report is released.

I am hoping there are new chips in time for WoVCon][.

Quote: rdw4potus

My vote is for code. I can see where that'd be handy, especially on high-denomination chips.

The Bill's Gamblin' Hall chip also has a circle around the outside, between the top hats and canes and the perimeter of the chip. I may not have any other really newly issued top hat and cane chips to determine whether there has been a basic design change. The Gaming Partners International web site doesn't offer good images of their designs, probably for security reasons.

Quote: rdw4potus

My vote is for code. I can see where that'd be handy, especially on high-denomination chips.

I suspect the "code" may vary by denomination as well as venue. It would be interesting to compare them to Buffalo Bill's $1,000 chips... but I think there are only two of them, so it is hard to get a picture.

If you have not had a chance to ride the "Desperado", I recommend that you do it before someone dies on it, and they shut it down. The steel coaster has been sitting out in the elements for many years now, with minimum maintenance. 120 degree heat in the summer, freezing cold in the winter, blowing sand all the time. The last time I rode it was about three years ago. Coming off the first hill, the car was vibrating so badly, I was afraid I was going to pop a kidney. Awesome.

Quote: Ayecarumba

... I recommend that you do it before someone dies on it, and they shut it down.

Ah! Another probability problem. If you do choose to ride it, what is the probability that you turn out to be justification for shutting it down?

Quote: Doc

I have often wondered whether there is some sort of code or whether the molds are just set up in some random fashion.

It seems too subtle and obtuse to be code. After all, codes on chips, currency, credit cards, etc are used, as codes, for reasons of economy or simplicity, not for secrecy. Typically codes are letters, numbers, colors or a combination of all three.

The code (if it is one) does NOT narrow it down to individual chips. There are only 8 logos on each side. That translates to 16 bits, or 64K combinations - assuming you could identify which one was the first bit.

I assume that it's a production batch code, or something along those lines. After all, how often would a casino place an order for the same design?

The knee-jerk response to that is, casinos can, and DO, change the edge spots, but that requires gaming approval. Changing the cane is probably done without red tape.

I guess I meant I was thinking it could be one of their security features, something to help detect a bogus chip, the way there are serial numbers and other security features on dice. Gaming Partners International lists some of their security features as:

Laser Pigment
Laser Ink
Lunette
UV Ink
UV Pigment
Hologram
LaserTrack
RFID
Custom Chip Molds
Engraved Serialization

They then say, "Check with your sales executive to find out which security features work best with your selected chip style." It seems clear that you can't find out exactly what the methods are unless you are a real customer.

The Chipco International web page for their security options does have a demo of what some of the ultraviolet light security options for their chips look like.

Over on Anthony Curtis' site, todays Question of the Day deals with chip security and design.

Non-members can only read the current QOD, so read it while you can!

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Caesars Palace

Jay Sarno and business partners developed Caesars Palace using funds loaned from the Teamsters Union pension fund, and the casino opened in 1966. The name was intended to provide both a European flair and an air of opulence or royalty. The recurring question of whether there should be a possessive apostrophe in the name (as Caesar's) was answered in the negative by Sarno. He said that every one of his guests should feel like a Caesar; i.e., it was a palace to accommodate many Caesars, not one possessed by just one Caesar.

In 1967, Evel Knievel made his famously unsuccessful attempt to jump the front fountain on a motorcycle. I just learned that the section of that linked video that shows the crash was shot by actress Linda Evans while she was married to John Derek, pre-Bo. I also learned that when he finally came to rest from that attempt, Knievel was in the Dunes parking lot.

There were subsequent additional attempts to perform that stunt, resulting in all of the nasty injuries that any rational person would expect. In 1969, Sarno and friends were forced to sell the casino due to the accusations by the Federal Task Force that there were ties to organized crime.

Over the years, there were various owners that I haven't bothered to look up, then Harrah's Entertainment acquired Caesars Entertainment and the casino in 2005, subsequently changing the name of their own company to Caesars Entertainment. Caesars Palace is considered the jewel in the corporate crown, and there have been numerous additions to the property since the original construction.

I have never really learned my way around Caesars Palace, and I have gotten a bit lost there several times. I have never stayed in the hotel, but I have wandered the Forum Shops many times (spending as little as possible) and once attended a Bette Midler performance in the Coliseum. I find the robotic & projection shows in the Forum Shops to be both overdone and uninspiring, but I have never watched them through the eyes of an eight year old.

I do like the Atlantis Aquarium at the far end of the Forum Shops, in front of the Cheesecake Factory. It is more accessible than the aquarium behind the desk at Mirage but smaller than the one at Silverton. They have hand feedings of the fish by a scuba diver, with another host outside of the tank explaining their work with the fish, how hand feeding allows them to feed individual fish special diets, and such as that.

There is one facet of the aquarium that is not promoted heavily but which is both educational and fun. Mon – Fri at 3:15 P.M., they give a guided tour of the facilities beneath the aquarium, where the marine biologists care for the aquatic collection. There is a small sign on a wooden post near the aquarium that tells when and where to meet for the tour, and most guests in the area pay no attention at all. My wife and I have taken that tour twice and enjoyed it each time.

I have rarely gambled in Caesars Palace, mostly because it attempts to maintain a high-end atmosphere for gamblers while I am a cheapskate, low-roller flea. The first time I played craps there, I was astonished to find that they were using slot tokens instead of $1 chips. I have always considered that an indication of a low-class establishment, and it just didn't fit with the image that Caesars attempts to project. When I cashed in at the cage, I asked whether they ever used $1 clay chips. The cashier said that they had them in the poker room, and she had heard that they might put them back out on the main floor soon. I returned to Caesars Palace to play craps on a subsequent visit to Las Vegas and did acquire a clay chip that time.

The images below show both sides of the Caesars token and the clay chip. I know it is completely invisible in the first small image of the token below and difficult to see clearly in the medium image you get by clicking on the small one, but below the profile head and just below the center of the laurel wreath, there is a small mark. If you have a way to magnify that image on your screen, you may be able to see that the mark is actually three letters: "RWM".

That is the mark of Roger Williams Mint, formerly of Attleboro, MA. (Ha! Once again I am able to identify the source of a chip/token!) The company's web site indicates that they are now part of Tokens Direct, a manufacturer of tokens for car washes, batting cages, amusement arcades, and the like. With the rise of TITO, the business prospectus for manufacturers of casino tokens must be looking quite dim.

The image of the clay chip seems to have reasonably accurate color rendering, in contrast to many of my previous postings. The perimeter ring has molded images of Roman columns and the name of the casino, using what appears to be some form of early Latin alphabet characters. Undoubtedly we need pacomartin's input here, but I suspect any such set of characters was from well prior to Julius Caesar's time. I have not been able to find any single set of Roman/Latin characters that includes the "<"-shaped C and lightning-bolt S along with a modern A and an E that looks anything like that, although the Latin E apparently took on several forms. This whole topic of alphabet characters is well outside of my realm of knowledge, so I'll just leave it that this is the chip in my collection. And this chip with the casino name molded into it is much more in keeping with the preferred "image" of Caesars Palace than is the practice of using slot tokens at the tables.




Edit 5/27/12: Check this post later in this thread about UV images visible on this and other chips.


Edit 6/7/12: DJTeddyBear posted his chip from Caesars, front & back as well as edge printing, in this post.

Those tokens are beautiful. They do look a little like ancient roman coins. I'd say it was a good call to put the picture of a Roman emperor and to make them gold in color. BTW when you started going on about letters, I half expected those would be AUC for ab urbe condita, "from the founding of the city," which is how Romans counted years.

About the aquarium, it's decorated with very convincing pieces of statuary, weapons and parts of buildings, as though it were a ruin swallowed by the sea. Very nice. But then I like the ancient Greek/Roman motif. I wouldn't mind a calendar on the property giving the date in terms of the Julian calendar withe the year as "2766 A.U.C." :)

The Caesars Magical Empire was a dinner/entertainment show similar to Excalibur's Tournament of Kings. Ran from '96 to 2002 when it was discontinued in favor of building Celine Dion's concern hall. Caesars had one of the best sportsbooks in town years ago, but now it's one of several nice ones. Very cold and sterile poker room imo. I had an excellent lamb burger at Mesa Grill about 7 years ago. Nice Diamond Lounge.

I picked up the Caesars Tahoe chips around the same time, mid-90's. Casino closed in 2005 and became the MontBleu.

Thanks for the images, zippyboy. I have been to the MontBleu and will include that chip a few months from now, but I was not aware that it had previously been a Caesars. Did it belong to Caesars Entertainment up until closing, and if so, did it close before or after Harrah's bought that company?

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: California

The California Hotel and Casino was built by Sam Boyd and still belongs to Boyd Gaming. Note that the chip mentions "Hotel" in the name but doesn't come right out and say that it has a casino. I suppose that is obvious for a chip. The hotel/casino nickname of "The Cal" serves as its web domain: www.thecal.com .

The California opened in 1975 and is located in downtown Las Vegas, on Main Street between Ogden Avenue and Stewart Avenue. Or maybe on Ogden Avenue between Main Street and 1st Street, depending upon your perspective and which door you prefer. In either case, it is a block away from the Fremont Street Experience.

I personally am a bit uneasy with the neighborhood surrounding the FSE, anywhere outdoors and out from under the canopy. Whenever I walk from there to the California at night, I always go via the indoor route through the Las Vegas Club – if I pass that hurdle unscathed, it just leaves a short, quick sprint across Ogden to the Main Street door of the California. In contrast, the casino is conveniently connected to the Main Street Station casino by an enclosed pedestrian walkway over Main Street.

The casino has long focused on visitors from Hawaii, offering food and décor directed at them and arranging package tours and charter flights that have essentially cornered that segment of the tourist market. I recall being on a tour in Hawaii when our guide/driver said that the folks there had difficulty thinking of Hawaii as a vacation destination. To them, going on a vacation meant going to the City of Lost Wages, Nevada.

I am not a devotee of Hawaiian food; instead, several times I have been drawn into the California's 24-hour Market Street Café for the Prime Rib dinner special: 8 oz. cut of Prime Rib, soup or salad bar, vegetable, and baked potato, finished off with cherries jubilee. The price for this? $8.95 per person. I once saw a sign outside of another restaurant inside the Cal, right next door to the café, advertising its Prime Rib Special for something like $24.99. I suspected that the two restaurants shared a kitchen, so I asked the waitress at the café what the difference was between an $8.95 meal and a $24.99 meal next door. She said she thought they gave a bigger serving of the meat. Since my wife and I were completely stuffed (and pleased) with the meal in the café, we felt we had made the right choice.

At a blackjack table in the California is where I once saw a young man who was wearing a T-shirt that said, "I suck at math." I thought that was a nice sentiment.

The California chip shown below has a real mix of what I consider high-class and low-class features. As for the favorable features, it is one more chip with the top hat and cane pattern. A couple of days ago, it was pointed out that there are at least two versions of this design. This chip has the same design as was used for the Bill's Gamblin' Hall chip, with all of the canes pointing the same direction and an outer circle molded between the icons and the perimeter.

I wish someone with some additional knowledge could tell us something about these two variants of the design. I doubt the manufacturer would respond to such a question from someone in my position, and I don't know any serious collectors who have resources/expertise on chip manufacturing – I'm just a guy who enjoys casinos and decided to collect a bunch of $1 chips.

As for the negative aspect of this chip, in addition to how dirty it is, there is the styling of the center portion. This chip does not have a center insert at all. Instead, it has been hot stamped with gold-colored lettering for the casino name, city, and denomination. This is a very-low-cost option that the Gaming Partners International web site suggests for "the lowest denomination of the chip bank", with their illustrations being for $0.25 and $0.50 chips. The lettering on these hot-stamped chips frequently fades or flakes off. I have played on tables where I had to search for a suitable souvenir chip on which I could even read the name of the casino.

The California chip does have a characteristic that keeps it from being a bottom-of-the-barrel edition of the top hat and cane design – it has color edge spots rather than being a single-color chip. We have a couple of those extremely-low-end, single-color, hot-stamped, top hat and cane chips coming up in this thread this week.

The Cal has updated their design to include a colorful insert in keeping with their Hawaiian theme:

Excellent, Ayecarumba! Thanks for that image. I like that look much better than the one I have in my collection. I generally prefer the colorful blue, gray, or brown "white" chips, but having a nice insert like that makes up for the plane white base.

State: Nevada
City: North Las Vegas
Casino: Cannery

Well, there wasn't much interest shown in this thread yesterday, other than a nice image added by Ayecarumba. Perhaps more folks would join in if I would just trim down the ramblings in my own posts a little. Nah, not likely to happen -- I'm having too much fun making rambling comments about the casinos, chips, whatever. I thought maybe others would have similar anecdotes about some of these casinos.

In previous posts, I have mentioned the day that I made an excursion to eight (I think) casinos in North Las Vegas, collecting souvenir chips without staying anywhere long enough to form lasting, specific memories of any of the establishments. Overall I just had the feeling that I didn't care much for them and wouldn't bother going back.

I must admit that the Cannery Casino and Hotel is a bit different. I still don't have specific memories of the Cannery, but I was left with the impression that it was on a much higher tier than the other places I visited that day. I have not been back to visit, but that is likely because I have had no reason to return to North Las Vegas.

My more-favorable impression of the Cannery may be due in part to the fact that it is a newer casino, having just opened in 2003 and having been upgraded since then. They have a parking deck, a movie theater, a concert venue, and a variety of restaurants and bars. That info, of course, is based on their web site, since my own specific memories have vanished. Something about the place, though, left me with the feeling that it wasn't a dump like the other places I had been to.

Apparently the business venture was successful, because the owners not only made the additions and upgrades to that facility, they built a second one on Boulder Highway that opened in 2008. I will be covering the Eastside Cannery, and its chip, in a post a few weeks from now.

The Cannery casino chip shown below is smooth all over and appears to be the same "ceramic" chip design as the Arizona Charlie's East, Bally's, and Boardwalk casino chips presented earlier in this thread. This chip has edge printing that repeats "Cannery" and "$1" three times each with a couple of vertical bars separating them.

The Bally's chip was previously confirmed as coming from Chipco, but I can identify the Cannery chip as coming from a different manufacturer. Look to the left of the young lady's head and you can see a mark close to the label "N. Las Vegas." At least in the medium-sized image, you should be able to read that mark as "BG". That is the trademark of Bourgogne et Grasset, a French manufacturer of casino chips, plaques, and jetons. The company, commonly known as B&G or B+G, is now part of Gaming Partners International.

Lithogropher Etienne Bourgogne and engineer Claudius Grasset developed innovative plastic products in the 1920s. They read of an incident of a player having won 600,000 Francs at the Monte Carlo casino, with casino managers later discovering that the "winner" had been using counterfeit chips made of ivory and mother of pearl, like the real chips. Recognizing some additional financial potential in that incident, Bourgogne and Grasset decided to – no, they did not decide to go into the counterfeiting business. They decided to use their plastics technology to make casino chips with improved security features.

The company changed ownership and expanded its product line, eventually becoming part of Gaming Partners International, along with Paulson and Bud Jones. That merger took place in 2002, prior to the opening of the Cannery Casino, so this is another indication of the three separate companies' logos continuing to be used after the merger.

Would somebody care to tell the story of how the hotel and casino came to be named "Cannery"?

The Cannery is a section of San Francisco by Fishermans wharf. Strangely I Always found the Cannery theme to be more 30 -40s industrial.

Quote: Doc

Well, there wasn't much interest shown in this thread yesterday, other than a nice image added by Ayecarumba. Perhaps more folks would join in if I would just trim down the ramblings in my own posts a little. Nah, not likely to happen -- I'm having too much fun making rambling comments about the casinos, chips, whatever. I thought maybe others would have similar anecdotes about some of these casinos.

One theory I have on why people didn't comment on California is because it's a completely forgettable casino. Unless you're Hawaiian (or into Hawaiian things), it really doesn't have mass appeal. It's linked with other casinos that kind of all blend together, all on Fremont Street where all the casinos have a similar feel (less Golden Nugget and ElCo, for two TOTALLY different reasons).

As for Cannery, I know they advertise the heck in ACG. It sounds like kind of a cool place, so I may have to make the journey out there in May.

My theory is that Sunday posts don't get much action. We have discussed the California in some detail on other threads, especially since it was this site for the record setting longest Craps roll for many years. I enjoy the place very much, but wonder why they only allow double odds, when their sister property, Main Street Station, offers 20x.

Quote: Tiltpoul

One theory I have on why people didn't comment on California is because it's a completely forgettable casino. Unless you're Hawaiian (or into Hawaiian things), it really doesn't have mass appeal.

Speaking of that, how's the coffee served at the California? I ask becasue Hawaii's coffee is among the best in the world. Mexican coffee is also very good, but when you have it every day you begin to want variety.