Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: Doc

Perhaps this is an appropriate place to ask the question: What's the deal with "locals" casinos having hotels? Other than the Wizard doing a review, do folks regularly need hotel rooms in the town where they live?

It's just part of the regulations. You need a nonrestricted gaming license to operate >15 slot machines or any table games, and there are requirements for who can get a nonrestricted license:

NRS 463.1605 Limitation on approval of nonrestricted license in county whose population is 100,000 or more; additional local regulation of resort hotels permissible.
1. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 3, the Commission shall not approve a nonrestricted license, other than for the operation of a mobile gaming system, race book or sports pool at an establishment which holds a nonrestricted license to operate both gaming devices and a gambling game, for an establishment in a county whose population is 100,000 or more unless the establishment is a resort hotel.

NRS 463.01865 “Resort hotel” defined. “Resort hotel” means any building or group of buildings that is maintained as and held out to the public to be a hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished to the transient public and that has:
1. More than 200 rooms available for sleeping accommodations;
2. At least one bar with permanent seating capacity for more than 30 patrons that serves alcoholic beverages sold by the drink for consumption on the premises;
3. At least one restaurant with permanent seating capacity for more than 60 patrons that is open to the public 24 hours each day and 7 days each week; and
4. A gaming area within the building or group of buildings.

N.B. This also explains why every casino hotel has a 24/7 coffeeshop. Who knew?

Thanks, teddys and MathExtremist for that enlightenment. If I had ever heard of a reg requiring a hotel, the info had vanished from the gray cells.

Not that I expect it to be a viable, commercial option, but does this mean that some Carrie Nation fan could not establish a "dry" casino with table games?

When I lived in So. Cal I used to bowl in a lot of Vegas leagues where at league's end we would go to Vegas and bowl sweeps. We bowled at Arizona Charlie's at least twice in the early 90's, and I am sure I played a little there but never had occasion to visit except for the times I bowled there. Sadly, I never snagged a chip from there.

Quote: Wizard

... In my estimation it has the worst air quality of any casino in Las Vegas. ...

At first, I thought that underlined "worst" meant a link to one of your air quality surveys. Alas, it's just an underline.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Arizona Charlie's East

Alphabetizing this list of casino chips for presentation gets a bit more complicated when I start having trouble figuring out the real name of the casino. This chip itself clearly refers to "Arizona Charlie's East," while almost every text reference I can find on the web calls the casino "Arizona Charlie's Boulder." Alphabetizing by that name would have put it ahead of yesterday's Casino Chip of the Day. Moreover, according to the image on Google Maps Street View, the sign out front just says "Arizona Charlie's Hotel Casino." Well, hey, I'm going with what it says on my chip, regardless of what they call the place now.

Of course, that raises the question of whether they now have chips that say "Arizona Charlie's Boulder," in which case I might eventually feel the compulsion to go back out there to get another souvenir. I have done that a number of times when casinos have changed names, but I'm not sure of the official naming history on this place. Maybe it changed names somewhere in the bankruptcy and change of ownership. Anyone know?

In any case, the casino is located on Boulder Highway, waaaayyy east across town from Arizona Charlie's Decatur, giving some justification to any of the name variations.

This chip illustrates a different design and manufacturing technique than the previous chips I have shown. This one has no mold impressions at all and is smooth all over the surface, as if it were coated in some manner. There is printing of the casino name (including "East") on the very edge of the chip.

At first glance, the chip seems thinner than the others, which might cause some difficulty in cutting a stack of mixed chips accurately, if that were really the case. Closer examination reveals that it is the same thickness as the chip from the west-side affiliate (as close as my eye can judge) but that the edges (corners?) are rounded rather than sharp.

If any member of this forum has knowledge of chip manufacturing techniques, I will appreciate their contributions as I note the different chip designs. I have some background in manufacturing processes, but I know nothing about casino chip manufacturing. I will have some comments about the vendor/supplier of tomorrow's Casino Chip of the Day.

So has anyone been to the Boulder Highway version of this casino recently, and can you tell me what their chips say on them now? East? Boulder? No location/franchise distinction?




Edit 4/4/12: Chip manufacturer identified as Chipco and chip finish as Satin.



Edit 3/28/12: I have just received from rdw4potus the links to some images of his chips from casinos that I have already passed in this thread. Thanks, rdw! I am editing my posts to include his images, such as this one:

How did we bypass the Aladdin?

Quote: Doc

At first glance, the chip seems thinner than the others...

My poker league has two sets of chips.

20 tournament chips fit very tightly in each section of a standard plastic chip tray. The everyday chips fit loosly, but you can't jam 21 in a section.

So it's obvious the difference is less than 1/20th of the overall thickness.

And yet, people notice the difference.

Quote: zippyboy

How did we bypass the Aladdin?

Excellent question! Keep that attention to detail coming!

I obtained my souvenir chip from that casino during the changeover: the chip says both "Planet Hollywood" and "Aladdin." I just use it to represent both incarnations of the casino/hotel. The "Aladdin" is molded into the chip around the perimeter so it's white-on-white and a little difficult to see. The center insert has the "Planet Hollywood" logo in bright colors, very easy to read, so I have my chip positioned (both on display and in my list) between Pioneer and Plaza.

Your question brings up the point about when/where other folks should be displaying images of their alternate chip designs. I have indicated that if you have a different design from the same casino, it would be great to post it when I have posted mine so we can compare. I probably didn't say it clearly, but I have been thinking that folks who have chips from casinos that I don't have represented in my collection should post those photos when my supply runs dry.

However, since you have mentioned it, if anyone has a chip older than mine that just says "Aladdin" without saying "Planet Hollywood," I would not mind at all having it posted at this point in the thread. Or you can wait until I post the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood one. Again, let's not go searching image libraries for photos of chips that none of us own.

At some point I think the preferred name of the place changed from AC East to AC Boulder Hwy. Personally, I like the former name better.

I hardly ever make it to the Boulder Highway casinos. The last time I did was to take pictures of them for this site. A security guard at AZB was very rude to me about taking photos. I wrote about it in an old thread. So, I am still harboring a grudge against the place.

This is a really interesting thread, thanks Doc. I was wonder about something now that we have a different kind of chip. Do dealers prefer the plastic or plastic coated chips to the older clay type of chips? What about the gamblers? I prefer the "real" and substantial feel of the clay chips myself.