Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: rdw4potus

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?

RDW, maybe I need to email you a copy of the Gemaco catalog; you've posted a number of their chips and guessed they were from someone else. This one from the Wild Horse Casino sure looks like Gemaco's P-series model 139.30.23.00. That's the last one shown on the second row of this page.

Quote: Doc

RDW, maybe I need to email you a copy of the Gemaco catalog; you've posted a number of their chips and guessed they were from someone else. This one from the Wild Horse Casino sure looks like Gemaco's P-series model 139.30.23.00. That's the last one shown on the second row of this page.

LOL. Thanks, Doc! Maybe I just need to improve my logic. if it's plastic and there's no "BJ" or "BG" or "CI" on the chip, I just need to learn to assume it's a Gemaco product:-)

Don't forget Icon.   ;-)

State: Pennsylvania
City: Chester
Casino: Harrah's

Today, we begin a new state for this thread. I have souvenir chips from ten of the Pennsylvania casinos and still need to get to the one in Erie. That one has been on my chips-to-get list for some good while, with the plan being to stop by there on our next trip to Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, we haven't visited the falls since May 2008 – there always seems to be too many interesting places to visit, and I can't get Ontario back to the top of our list, in spite of how much we have enjoyed our visits there.

Also, if the Lady Luck Casino ever opens at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, I'll feel a strong temptation to go there. It all depends on whether they really restrict casino entrance to guests of the resort and how much it would cost to be a guest there. I doubt I would have collected a chip from the Greenbrier if I had been required to pay their usual nightly rate.

For our thread's first chip from Pennsylvania, we have a casino where they seem to be a bit ashamed of their location, but more about that a few paragraphs later. This Harrah's casino and racetrack is located on the shore of the Delaware River in Chester. The track's first harness racing season opened in September 2006, and by the end of that month they had received a slots license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. They opened the racino in January 2007, and it was known as Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack. They began offering live table games in July 2010.

In August 2011, my wife and I departed Atlantic City to escape the approaching Hurricane Irene, beginning what we have called our "Grand Adventure", visiting casinos and dodging the weather challenges for a week with modest success, at least against the weather. Our first stop out of Atlantic City was 70 miles or so away at Harrah's Chester, where I played craps and came out $110 to the positive. That was a phenomenon that did not become a tendency for the trip.

The casino is on an upper level of the Harrah's facility, an elevator ride from the entrance. I did not check out the racetrack there, but I assume that the casino connects to the top of the grandstand. I'm sure there are plenty of people on this forum who can provide a much better description of the place than I can.

In May 2012, Caesars Entertainment changed the name of this facility to "Harrah's Philadelphia Casino & Racetrack." Supposedly, they changed the name "to appeal to a broader market." It seems more likely that they wanted to downplay the fact that they are located in an industrial district of a high-crime city. Appealing to a broader market strikes me as phrasing from a worried ad exec or a spin doctor.

The last I heard, they have not issued new chips saying "Harrah's Philadelphia," so there has been nothing to lure me back, even though I made a return trip to Atlantic City last summer. If any of you know differently, or hear some day about new chips being released, please let me know.

The Harrah's chip shown below is slightly off-white, really a pale gray/tan with a slight pinkish tone, I think. It is the LCV Paulson hat and cane mold, and yes, I checked just this morning to verify that it is not one of those with the SCV pattern on the other side. The MOGH catalog says this chip was offered as LCV, SCV, and LCV/SCV. This chip has four narrow edge inserts, as do all of the similar chips, two each in yellow and maroon/purple. The center inlay has a purple band around the perimeter, fading to white in the center. It just says, "Harrah's Chester, PA", with the company's trademark flair of having a star in place of the apostrophe, and with the denomination at the bottom. UV light reveals a hidden Paulson logo in the center.

Here's my Harrah's chip. It's a Paulson RHC. It cleaned up very nicely when I scrubbed it, but there are discolorations/stains on the darker inserts. I'm not sure what that is, but acetone didn't have any effect on it.

I can confirm that, as of 10am today, the "Chester" version of this chip is still in play. I'm not sure if they actually can change it. They can name the casino whatever they want, but it's still going to be in Chester. As it stands now, the chip shows a name of Harrah's and a location of Chester, PA. No amount of PR will change the fact that the casino is across the street from a prison in the middle of a slum. That's a shame, because the casino itself really is a nice place.

I think it's fair to say that this has wound up being my "home" casino, or at least one of them. I've been to Harrah's about 30 times so far this year, and I'm up a little over $1,000 on those visits. That's some break-even (so, lucky) play, and a lot of cashing out of the resulting offers. I enjoy the track at Harrah's as well. I never thought I'd enjoy betting on races, but I'm starting to get into it. I still think they timing is a little awkward - there's not enough time to do anything but get bored between races - but the races themselves are much more fun than I'd expected.

Harrah's has some good food options, with fair pricing for a casino. Several of the restaurants also feature racetrack views. Because the restaurants view the track, there's actually no way to get to the grandstand from the casino level - access is one floor down, on the same floor as the poker room and racebook.

For those that have/use Diamond Lounge access, the lounge at Harrah's is one of the better ones I've been to. Fast seating/service, and usually a good full meal.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Grantville
Casino: Hollywood

I mentioned yesterday that my wife and I visited a number of Pennsylvania casinos on a "Grand Adventure" evading the weather problems of Hurricane Irene, which ran us out of Atlantic City. Two days and seven casinos after leaving New Jersey, we arrived at Grantville, where we stayed for one night at a chain motel about a mile from the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course.

Like many others, we thought that Grantville, being some 140 miles or so from the coast, would be a safe haven for the night. The motel was crowded with two categories of guests: (1) residents of coastal regions who had evacuated to Grantville with their pets and belongings for safety and convenience, and (2) insurance adjusters, utility crews, and the like who were staging there to head into the aftermath of the hurricane.

As Bobby Burns wrote, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-glay." That turned out to be the only night of our Grand Adventure that we encountered any serious effects of the storm. Power went out during the night and stayed out until after we checked out of the motel the next morning. There were no lights in the room, no lights in the hotel public areas except the few scattered emergency lamps, no hot water, no "free hot breakfast," not even morning coffee for the addicted. Dogs and kids were either screamingly unhappy or running wild, leading to unpleasant conditions for parents and all other guests. I rather expected the hotel or its chain to offer some kind of compensation for not being able to provide the kind of accommodations that I had paid for, even though the power outage was not their fault. It turned out they didn't think we should expect to pay any less for that kind of experience than their usual rate.

Fortunately or unfortunately perhaps, I had made my visit to the Hollywood Casino several hours before the lights went out. The Penn National Race Course, owned of course by Penn National Gaming, is a thoroughbred horse track offering year-round racing. It is located just off of I-81, a few miles outside the capital city of Harrisburg. According to Wikipedia, the track has both a 1-mile dirt course and a 7-furlong turf course. I was only there at night, during a bad weather period, so I didn't see the track at all.

The track opened in 1972, and the casino was added in 2008. Table games began operation in July 2010, and they now advertise having over 2,450 gaming machines and more than 50 table games on the floor.

Maybe I let the power outage affect me excessively in part because I had dropped $300 at the crap table that night. My sensitivity might have been heightened. Anyway, we left Grantville that next morning to go down for a brief visit to the Hollywood in Charles Town, WV before heading farther inland. We had learned that you just can't get too far away from a hurricane.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with four narrow, red, edge inserts. The center inlay is mostly black with yellow and white markings, and a couple of spotlights to illuminate the casino name, in keeping with the theme of the Hollywood chain. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo in the center and the fact that the edge inserts fluoresce. The MOGH catalog confirms that this was one of the chips issued when the table games were opened in 2010.

Here's my chip from Hollywood PA. It's a Paulson RHC. Both my chip and Doc's say "at Penn National Race Course." A big oval strikes me as being just about the most boring possible course. Is that the usual nomenclature for these facilities? Isn't racetrack more common?

I've only visited this casino twice - once when I collected my chip, and once when I moved to PA last fall. Last fall's visit wasn't too bad, but my first visit was quite frustrating. I arrived at about 10am midweek, and limits were $15 despite the fact that the casino was empty. I couldn't talk the floorman into a $5 or even $10 table, so I sat at a frozen-out BJ table and played 4 hands at $15 per on a $60 buyin. I won 3 hands and pushed one, colored up $100, pocketed a chip and left. Floorman was super angry that I left after 4 hands, and seemed to think that I'd asked him to lower the limit so I could play that little. Of course I'd have played much more if he'd have obliged me, but that fact was lost on the gentleman.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Washington
Casino: Meadows

As my wife and I continued our Grand Adventure evading Hurricane Irene and departed the disaster at Grantville, we dropped by Hollywood Charles Town then headed west on I-68. We spent the next two nights in Morgantown, WV. There's no casino there, but the junction with I-79 gave us easy routes both north and south. We spent the full day of our stay there on a little trip up into western Pennsylvania, stopping off at The Meadows in Washington, about half an hour south of Pittsburgh.

I only can remember watching horse races from the grandstand four times in my life: once as a child while visiting my grandparents in Delaware, once at the Nicosia Race Club while I was working in Cyprus, once when my wife and I joined my brother and his wife at Monmouth Race Track in New Jersey, and a Monday afternoon in August 2011 at The Meadows Racetrack and Casino. (Notice how some places say "Race Track" and others "Racetrack.")

That visit to The Meadows was the only one of the four events in which I watched harness racing. Access to the grandstand was free and quite convenient from the side of the casino gaming floor. I watched several of the races, and my wife watched quite a few more while I was misbehaving at the crap table. The track is a 5/8 mile oval, and the races are for one mile. The races start on the backstretch, go through three turns, and pass the finish line in front of the grandstand.

I know absolutely nothing about horses, but they were a lot of fun to watch. I guess I could figure out whether a horse was a pacer or a trotter, but I probably would not pick it out if he broke gait slightly, even if it were enough to be disqualified. So how many of you could recognize a standardbred from a thoroughbred on sight? I suppose everyone knows that there are completely different horse lineages used in harness racing vs. what is described in The Music Man this way:

Quote: Harold in "Ya Got Trouble"

Not a wholesome trottin' race, no, but a race where they set down right on the horse! Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy sittin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil, well I should say!

I enjoyed watching a few races, but I didn't bet on any of them. I preferred to wager my money on something more predictable, like what position the dice will be in when they stop bouncing. Hey, I came out $45 ahead at The Meadows table that afternoon, though it wasn't enough to keep me in positive territory for the entire day. More about that in a later post.

The Meadows Racetrack opened in 1963, has been through several changes in ownership over the years, and was purchased by Cannery Casino Resorts in 2006. A temporary casino opened in 2007, and after demolition of the old grandstand, a new casino and grandstand were constructed, opening in April 2009. The table games were opened for play in July 2010.

Their web site does not mention how many gaming machines they have now, but Wikipedia claims there are more than 3,300. On the Table Games page of the casino's site, they say in one sentence that they have "78 tables full of action" and in another that they offer "80 Table Games." I guess a couple of the tables may not have much action.   ;-)   They also say that on the track level they have a poker room with 26 tables including 6 tournament tables, but I didn't go down there. The site mentions a 24-lane bowling alley that I completely overlooked.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson, with two triangular edge inserts in red and purple. The center inlay is gray with a line drawing of a horse, driver, and sulky surrounded by a horseshoe frame. Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light, but Wikipedia claims that, "The chips used by the Meadows Casino are RFID chips that have a special microchip inside of them, that broadcasts to the table that it is a legit chip." I have no idea whether they really went to that extreme for a $1 chip.

What is a, "meadow", and does the name "Meadows" indicate that there are, or were, more than one at the location?

Doc, thanks a bunch for this thread...I always enjoy reading it. Kudos to your wife for indulging your chip collecting mania. I think you've mentioned before she's not much of a gambler right? Keep up the good work.

Quote: Ayecarumba

What is a, "meadow", and does the name "Meadows" indicate that there are, or were, more than one at the location?

My dictionary says that a meadow is "a piece of grassland, esp. one used for hay." That seems as if it could have a relationship to where people sometimes raced horses.

As for this particular racetrack's name, while the chip says the facility is located in Washington, PA, it is actually quite close to the small town of Meadowlands, just outside of Washington. I looked on GoogleMaps, and it appears that there may be several horse ovals in the area of Washington, though there may not be multiple tracks with "meadow" in the name. I suppose that some/most are used for training rather than competitive racing and gambling.

Quote: vendman1

Doc, thanks a bunch for this thread...I always enjoy reading it. Kudos to your wife for indulging your chip collecting mania. I think you've mentioned before she's not much of a gambler right? Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the support/encouragement. Yes, my wife tolerates casinos and gambling rather than being an enthusiast. It's amazing how much of my foolishness she has tolerated over the years -- we'll celebrate our 45th anniversary this summer, if she doesn't kill me first.

Here's my chip from the Meadows. It's a Paulson RHC. I've been to Meadows one time. They had one of the more impressive things I've ever seen in a casino: a sign in the table games pit that explicitly stated the point accumulation rate of the various games. IIRC: big 6 at 10x, roulette at 5x, 3CP at 3x, craps at 2x, and BJ at 1x. Might as well have said "the games over here have lower house edges than those over there."

State: Pennsylvania
City: Plains
Casino: Mohegan Sun

No, I'm not going to put the full name "Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs" in the post #1 index. I already have enough trouble with some columns looking outrageously wide compared to others, and I'm trying to use second lines only when there are multiple casinos with the same name in the same state, such as the Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, Laughlin, Las Vegas, and Reno, or when one chip is representing multiple casinos like the Gila River casinos in Arizona. There are already a couple of exceptions, and I'm not sure that this plan will make sense forever, but this place is going into the index as just "Mohegan Sun," and you're on your own to remember that it's not in Connecticut.

Besides, the "at Pocono Downs" just adds to confusion about where the casino is located. The MOGH catalog and CasinoCity.com both list that it is in Wilkes-Barre, PA while the chip says the casino is in Plains, PA. Perhaps this is an appropriate place to admit that I grew up as a southern boy thinking that the first city's name was pronounced like "Wilkes-BAR" and didn't learn better until a couple of years ago when one of my sons told me that it is more like "Wilkes-BARRY."

No matter how you say it, Wilkes-Barre has a population of about 42,000 while Plains is about 10% that size, so the word "city" may not be totally appropriate in either case. (Check with Nareed for an opinion on that.) Besides, the Poconos are known as a rural, resort area, so they probably don't really want a city atmosphere.

The Pocono Downs track opened in July 1965 and is a 5/8-mile oval for harness racing. From 1970 to 1980, they also held thoroughbred racing there, though in 1972 the track briefly ceased operations and served as an evacuation center for residents displaced by flooding that resulted from Hurricane Agnes. I seem to recall that they even had to evacuate the governor's mansion down in Harrisburg due to that flood. Fortunately, we didn't encounter such conditions as a result of Hurricane Irene when we visited in 2011.

The track was purchased in 1996 by Penn National Gaming, which already owned the track at Grantville. The place was then purchased by the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut in November 2004. They opened the casino in November 2006, adding table games in July 2010.

The casino now has 82,000 sq. ft. of gaming, 2,300 machines, and 80 tables including an 18-table poker room. That was more than I was even looking for, since it only required one craps table for me to win $100 in half an hour of play. Perhaps I should have stayed there for the night instead of driving down to Grantville, losing money, and experiencing that power outage.

This chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson that the MOGH catalog says was issued when table games opened in 2010. It has two triangular edge inserts in turquoise and orange and different center inlays on the two sides. That graphic on the first side looks a bit like one of their skylights, but I'm not completely certain what it represents. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo in the center and the fact that the orange edge insert fluoresces.

Does the tribe in Connecticut have lands in Pennsylvania, or are they simply operating in PA as a corporate entity? If so, do patron disputes get adjudicated by the PA Gaming Review, or a system internal to the tribe?

Here is a statement from their web site:

Quote: "about" page from mohegansunpocono.com

The Authority is an instrumentality of the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut, a federally recognized Indian tribe with an approximately 507-acre reservation situated in southeastern Connecticut, adjacent to Uncasville, Connecticut. The Authority has been granted the exclusive power to conduct and regulate gaming activities on the existing reservation of the Tribe, including the operation of Mohegan Sun, a gaming and entertainment complex that is situated on a 185-acre site on the Tribe's reservation. Through its subsidiary, Downs Racing, L.P., the Authority also owns and operates Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, a gaming and entertainment facility offering slot machines and harness racing in Plains Township, Pennsylvania and several OTW facilities located elsewhere in Pennsylvania.

Although that page seems a bit out of date, what with not mentioning table games at Pocono Downs, I think their operations in Pennsylvania are governed by the gaming commission there, while their activities in Connecticut are based on the compact with the state.

Quote: Doc

Here is a statement from their web site:

Although that page seems a bit out of date, what with not mentioning table games at Pocono Downs, I think their operations in Pennsylvania are governed by the gaming commission there, while their activities in Connecticut are based on the compact with the state.

I think that's correct. And they also now own the former Resorts property in AC. That, too, is state regulated.

Here's my chip from Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. It's a Paulson RHC, and one of the few chips in my PA collection that has different graphics on the two faces.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Mount Pocono
Casino: Mount Airy

As a resident of North Carolina, I have the reaction that a place called "Mount Airy" should be located in that NC town near the VA border, a dozen miles or so below Fancy Gap. The Mount Airy Casino Resort, however, is located 40 or 45 miles by road (or a little under 30 miles straight line) from the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. It is in the heart of the Poconos, on the outskirts of the town of Mount Pocono. Why didn't they apply that name to the casino instead of "Airy"?

Perhaps because of some tradition – the Mount Airy Lodge was built on the site in 1898, originally as an eight-room inn. In the 1950s, it was reconstructed as the largest resort in the Poconos, with close to 900 rooms. Declining business led to foreclosure in 1999, a couple of sales of the property, and its demolition and reconstruction on the same site. It reopened as a casino resort in October 2007, with table games opening in July 2010.

Their web site now claims over 1,850 gaming machines and 72 table games with minimums "from low to high." They list their games as including blackjack, craps, roulette (both 0 and 00 versions), midi-baccarat, Spanish 21, Pai Gow (apparently just the card version, not tiles), Let-it-Ride, three-card poker, Crazy 4 poker, Big Six (yes, really), and Mississippi Stud. They also have an 11-table poker parlor offering Hold'em, stud, and Omaha, limit or no-limit.

My wife and I stopped in the place in 2011 after spending the night in Bethlehem – more about the gaming in that town a few days from now. We had a bite of lunch at Mount Airy, then I managed to drop $45 at the crap table at an average rate of $1 per minute. Then it was time to head on over to Mohegan Sun before I could lose any more.

The chip shown below is a white LCV Paulson hat and cane model that was also offered in SCV and LCV/SCV. It has three edge inserts in dark blue, light blue, and gold. The center inlays have the casino name in a semi-script font, with the "M" partially replicated in two-tone blue on the orange/red background. The denomination mark overlays that in white. The city and state are given in a black font that has an art deco look, I think. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo in the center and nothing else.

Quote: Doc

Thanks for the support/encouragement. Yes, my wife tolerates casinos and gambling rather than being an enthusiast. It's amazing how much of my foolishness she has tolerated over the years -- we'll celebrate our 45th anniversary this summer, if she doesn't kill me first.

Key to a happy marriage. My wife "tolerates" a lot of my stupid crap too. That's why I love her.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Bensalem
Casino: Parx

Parx Casino and Racing is located in Bensalem, on the northeast side of metropolitan Philadelphia, just off I-276 and half a dozen miles from the Delaware River and the New Jersey line. The casino's web site describes it as being 20 minutes north of center city, but I must have encountered higher than normal traffic getting out there from Sugar House Casino.

The facility started out as Keystone Racetrack, opening in November 1974. In 1984, it was sold to ITB (International Thorough Breeders, Inc.), which changed the name to Philadelphia Park. The place was sold again in 1990, and has been owned and operated since then by Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc., named for what Wikipedia describes as "British bookmaking veterans Bob Green and Bill Hogwoood."

Slot machines were added in 2006, with a conditional license approved in September allowing for construction and the permanent license and opening of the games in December. In July 2009, they unveiled a renaming with the creative spelling "Parx." Table games were added in July 2010, with poker following in November.

It is now the largest casino complex in Pennsylvania, though there is some vagueness on the specifics, even on the casino's own web site. On one page, they say "over 200 table games" and on another "110 world-class tables." Just how rinky-dink are the other 90+ tables? They even have another page ("About us") that says "over 100 live table games" – I guess that hints at a very dead possibility for the other 100 or so tables. They do have some electronic table games, so that might explain the discrepancy.

They also claim to operate 3,500 gaming machines, 60 poker tables, live racing and simulcast. They now have gaming in two adjacent buildings. The way I think it works is that Parx East holds some of the gaming machines, electronic table games, a private poker room, and the racing, while Parx Casino holds the rest of the gaming. I did not make it to Parx East (located slightly to the east but mostly north) myself, and the web site is not completely clear on some things – is there a "public" poker room in the main casino and a "private" one in the East building?

My wife and I stopped at Parx as the fourth of five casinos that we visited on the first day of our Grand Adventure running away from Hurricane Irene in August 2011. An hour's play at craps only cost me $5, and I wound up that day down a net of $30 (after some moderate swings). Not too painful overall, I guess, for somewhere between three and four hours of play.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with two wide edge inserts in dark green and black. The center inlay is gray with red lettering for the city, state, casino name, and denomination and what looks like a dimpled golf ball background. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo and nothing else.

Here is my Mount Airy chip. I've visited the casino a handful of times since I moved to PA. The staff up there is extremely friendly. I wish the facility were closer to town - I'd definitely visit more then. Last week was the first time since October that I'd visited without seeing a snowflake fall. Not sure if that's an issue of my timing/luck, or if it really snows that much in the Poconos.

I've never been to the poker room at Mount Airy, but access is granted by elevator. The casino is on the second floor of the building, and if the poker room is up one floor from there, it must have a pretty good view of the golf course.

Here's my chip from Parx. I'm surprised to see the name change is 4 years old. My GPS units, including the one in my 2012 model year car, still list it as Philadelphia Park. I bet some of the issues with the table count at Parx stem from the fact that there are two buildings. 110 seems like about the right table count for the main casino. Maybe Parx East (across the parkinglot) has 80ish additional tables?

Parx has a great website, with a password-protected player information area. You can log in and see your various sweepstakes entries, offers, and comps at a glance. I had a moment of frustration last fall when they sent literally dozens of emails over a 6 week period directing me to the website, and then the website had all 0s for offers and comps. Then they sent me a satisfaction survey. I was not satisfied, and pointed out less-than-politely that a wall of 0s isn't something that any guest wants to see, and that if they were going to stress the site so heavily they really needed to back it up with content that would please their web visitors. Now they're sending me monthly offers for $5. I guess that's progress?

Quote: rdw4potus

I'm surprised to see the name change is 4 years old.

The MOGH catalog says that Philadelphia Park and Racetrack closed and Parx Casino and Racing opened, both on 12/18/09. The Wikipedia page says that the new spelling "was unveiled following a fireworks display on July 4, 2009." I suppose the name change may not have been official until December, or perhaps that was when they were able to get new chips in play. Either way, it is 3+ years, perhaps closing in on four.

Are the folks who frequent Parx mostly from Philadelphia, or do they pull folks from Trenton and New York who would have gone to Atlantic City?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Are the folks who frequent Parx mostly from Philadelphia, or do they pull folks from Trenton and New York who would have gone to Atlantic City?

Parx is actually a little closer to Trenton than it is to downtown Philly. I bet it gets most of Trenton's business. NYC folks have lots of options - CT, Mount Airy, PA Sands, Parx. I'd go to Sands or Parx if I were them, but I suppose it'd depend on traffic and the part of the NYC area I was leaving from, too.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Pittsburgh
Casino: Rivers

There were four organizations actively competing for the Pittsburgh casino license, which was eventually won in late 2006 by PITG Gaming LLC, owned by Don Barden's Majestic Star Casino LLC. The plan was that the new casino would bear the Majestic Star brand.

Barden encountered financial difficulties during construction, in part due to lawsuits from the losing bidders. He wound up having to sell 75% of his position in the venture. The new majority owners changed the name to Rivers Casino to reflect its location near the convergence of the city's three rivers.

The casino opened in August 2009 and added table games in July 2010. The table games area had expanded by the time my wife and I visited in August 2011, later on the same day that we watched the harness races (and I played craps) down at Meadows Racetrack and Casino half an hour to the south of the city.

Rivers Casino now claims to offer over 2,900 gaming machines and more than 70 table games, plus a 30-table poker room. Their table games include craps, roulette, three-card poker, Pai Gow poker, mini-baccarat, Mississippi Stud Poker, 4-card poker, Let-it-Ride, Big Six, and blackjack.

Their web site includes a table that lists the "approximate" player's club points that are earned per hour playing each of their table games, based on average bet. That seems more straight forward than the way most clubs treat table games players, but it's a bit surprising to me that the number of points earned is not always directly proportional to average bet.

I had a bit of difficulty navigating my way into and out of that neighborhood of Pittsburgh and a lot of uncertainty as to just which building the casino was in. I finally found the place and played craps for an hour and a half, ending up down $125.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with four narrow edge inserts in a yellowish-green shade. The center inlay is blue and white with blue and black text, with the blue text on blue background being surprisingly readable. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo.

Here's my chip from Rivers. I was really impressed by the property here. I'd been to Wheeling, Mountaineer, and Presque Isle earlier in the day and I was expecting more of the same. Rivers was far superior to those properties. I'd say it's one of the better casinos in PA, below Sands and Parx, right about on par with it's sister property in Philly.

My chip is a Paulson RHC. Its condition makes it one of the more remarkable chips in my collection. It's well-worn, but 100% gunk-free. I have no idea how Rivers managed to avoid the gunkiness, but all of their chips were like this and it really is special. I wish more casinos (all casinos, really) would keep their chips this clean.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Bethlehem
Casino: Sands

I made my first visit to Las Vegas in 2003, half a dozen years after the historic Sands Hotel was closed and scheduled for demolition and replacement. Oh, I have enjoyed the replacement properties and stop by at least one of them every time I am in town, but there is just something about that "Sands" name and the images it brings to mind.

I did visit the Sands Regency in Reno, but I was not overly impressed there. I had been looking for a property with the Sands name that would have something more impressive about it, and I had no plans to travel to Asia in search.

If finally encountered that Sands Casino some three time zones to the east, in Bethlehem, PA, and the thing that impressed me the most was the way they had utilized the existing facility on the property. The Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem is a converted mill site of Bethlehem Steel. They have retained the industrial theme and décor, and I liked that very much.

The casino was awarded a license in December 2006 and was scheduled to open in July 2008. Conversion of the steel mill took longer than expected, and the opening was delayed until May 2009. Table games were approved the following winter and began operation in July 2010. The casino now has over 3,000 gaming machines, 129 table games, and a 30-table poker room.

Their web site's page for table games has an interesting note saying, "We are happy to announce that Double Deck Blackjack played with two decks is now available!" I wonder how many decks they previously used for Double Deck Blackjack.

The Sands Hotel there did not open until May 2011, and my wife and I did not even check it out when we visited that August on our first night after escaping Atlantic City and the approaching hurricane – we just stayed the night in a chain motel on the outskirts of Bethlehem and headed out for the Poconos the next morning. I suspect that by the time we reached Bethlehem we had grown fatigued from the drive and the three other casinos we visited along the way that day. I have no record of where we even had dinner that night, which indicates it wasn't some fancy restaurant at the Sands or any other place where I would have used an Amex card.

All I can imagine now is that we dropped into some cheap fast-food place, grabbed a quick bite, found our way through downtown Bethlehem to the casino, and played just long enough to get a souvenir chip without being wiped out by the higher-than-my-comfort-level table minimums. I did manage to come out $15 ahead at craps, but I think I only played for about 15 minutes. I liked the property and would like to have examined it further in the daylight, but it wasn't a place for me to spend much time gambling.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson with four narrow tan edge inserts. The center inlay on one side shows a portion of one of the cranes that had been used in the mill and is now positioned as a display in front of the casino. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo.

Here's my Sands chip. It's actually the second chip I've had from the Sands. I replaced my prior identical chip with this one a few months ago. This chip was in much better shape, so I snagged it.

I generally visit Sands every week or two. The casino is great, offering a wide variety of games (maybe too wide...casino war?). And the restaurants are very good as well. Even the food court offers good food, and at reasonable prices. The parking garage is a major weakness. Any time a structure requires 180 degree turns for both entry and exit, you've done something terribly wrong...

While I appreciate the "truth in imaging" presented on the Sands, PA chip... The rusting steel skeleton is really uninviting.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Philadelphia
Casino: SugarHouse

I'm about to head out on a long day trip and won't likely be around to participate in today's discussions; however, we should reach another milestone for this thread's durability some time this week. On a related note, I wish the best of luck to s2dbaker in developing something interesting, entertaining, and lasting in his Casino Club Card of the Day thread.

In this thread, for the second day in a row, we have a chip from a casino built in a re-purposed industrial facility. The SugarHouse Casino (yes, they really spell it as one word with the capital "H" in the middle) is located on the shore of the Delaware River in downtown Philadelphia, three-quarters of a mile upstream from the I-676 Benjamin Franklin Bridge and maybe 17 miles upstream of Harrah's Philadelphia/Chester. It is built on the site of a former sugar refinery, hence the SugarHouse name.

Sugar refining began in Philadelphia in the 1700s and reached a peak in the late 1800s. For those interested in the history of the industry, and some really nasty business tactics, there is an interesting article posted here. It is the text of a talk about this whole business and what eventually became a derelict site on the city's waterfront – the basis for a new casino.

The Wikipedia page for this casino is either well out of date or poorly edited, but what should I expect? The "history" section mostly discusses the early conflicts between supporters and opponents of a casino in the downtown area but also talks extensively about what "the casino is planning to build" or "is being built" on the site, all as if it hasn't yet happened. The page does later acknowledge that groundbreaking took place in October 2009 and that the casino opened in September 2010. It also says that on September 23 (year completely omitted) there was an announcement of an expansion of the casino, restaurants, and parking to be completed in 2013.

While Wiki doesn't describe the extent of gaming that is offered there, CasinoCity.com says there is 51,017 sq. ft. of gaming space with 1,602 machines and 54 table and poker games.

The casino's own web site does not indicate the number of machines or tables and does not mention a poker room, but it does list these games as being offered: 3-Card Poker, Asia Poker, blackjack, craps, EZ Baccarat, mini baccarat, midi baccarat, Mississippi Stud Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Pai Gow tiles, roulette (0 and 00), Spanish 21, and Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em.

When my wife and I visited SugarHouse after leaving Harrah's Chester that stormy day in August 2011, I was intrigued by the industrial décor, not yet having seen the Sands Bethlehem. (And no, I didn't consider the industrial art in Bethlehem to be a "rusting steel skeleton". Different folks see things differently.) I played craps for a while at the SugarHouse, losing the $110 that I had won down in Chester plus $40 more. We had lunch in the aptly-named Refinery restaurant just off the gaming floor and looking out onto the river. Many of the original industrial accoutrements are still in place, though I don't know enough to be able to call out which parts handled the raw materials (often Cuban molasses) being received and which handled refined sugar being shipped out. That is, I don't really know what I saw, but I liked the way the place looked.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson (how many times do you think I have typed those words?) with four narrow edge inserts, two each in dark blue and red. The center inlay includes a background with a swirl like on a peppermint disk, perhaps another subtle reference to sugar. It is fronted by the casino name in their logo design that looks like a five-reel slot with one reel not yet quite aligned. On their web site, if you refresh the screen, the logo at the top of the page has all five reels spin, stopping finally in the misaligned position shown on the chip. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo (another phrase I have typed a lot of times!)

Here's my Sugarhouse chip. I like Sugarhouse - it has that industrial feel, plus the music (mostly Philly and NJ artists) is pretty sweet. The management company is the same as Rivers in PA and IL, and the players club bears the same name at all 3 properties. I'm not sure if it's Harrah's style where points are pooled, or Hollywood style with identical cards and different point pools at the various properties.

My coworkers and I spent an evening at Sugarhouse when we were siting our new office here in PA. We took a cab from downtown to the casino. The cabby was NOT the person on the picture on the license. We teased him about it, and he insinuated that the "real" driver was dead in the trunk. So that was special. When we got to the casino, we each lost our buyin in 10 minutes (them at craps, me at UTH). We were about to leave, but then one of my coworkers remembered that he'd ordered a beer. He was already pretty drunk, so the decision to serve him was pretty sketchy. Anyway...he pulled out more money and sat down at a BJ table. At that point, he became "that guy" and proceeded to rake in chips by making completely random and incorrect plays. I'm pretty sure at one point he stayed on 11 because in that moment that's how his brain told him that doubling down worked.

My chip is a red Paulson RHC with eight white edge inserts. There's a lot of dirt that I could not get off of the chip. It also has sort of a gridded texture that most Paulsons don't. Or maybe it's worn off of most of my Paulson chips? For the most part, the dirt that I couldn't remove is the dirt that is interacting with the textured parts of the chip.

My "day trip" yesterday wound up with my being hauled to an ER in an ambulance and spending the night in a hospital in Georgia. I think they have some high-tech equipment that they need to pay for, so they've been running a bunch of tests. I'm fumbling to make this post with my mobile phone, and I just wanted to say that I won't be able to make my usual chip post this morning. I'll check back in tonight or tomorrow.

Feel better Doc. Hope everything is ok. Don't let them "test" you into bankruptcy.

Yikes! Glad you're well enough to provide updates. Hope they green-light your release soon!

Oh, Doc, I hope you'll get better soon.

I don't have anything chip related to say but thought I would make the 3000th post on my favorite thread. Congratulations of the thread Doc and hope your are feeling better soon.

Quote: kenarman

... thought I would make the 3000th post on my favorite thread.

That, of course, was the milestone for the thread that I mentioned yesterday.

Thanks, folks, for the well wishes. It now appears that I had a bit of a stomach bug, but there was some confusion in the symptoms.

I had to drive to Georgia to take care of some business matters. Along the way, I had some signs of bowel problems. We made it to our destination (courthouse) and had just finished our business, when all heck broke loose. I made it to a bathroom where I went through a very messy episode of loose bowels, vomiting, and dizziness to the point that I thought I was going to pass out. It was one of those situations where I wasn't sure which end of me most needed to be pointed at the toilet, with the distinct possibility that I would wind up unconscious and lying in whatever mess I might have made in the floor. Fortunately, that didn't happen. I staggered out to the hall, where my wife recognized the extent of my distress. I almost collapsed there, but we were able, with help from others, to get me to a chair.

The courthouse staff included some first responders who checked my blood pressure and verified that I could not stand or even sit erect on my own. The best thing I could contribute was to announce that my thinking was not clear and that I would defer all decisions to my wife and others. They called for EMTs and had me transported to the hospital.

I have had no more trouble with loose bowels, but there was a bit more vomiting at the ER. For quite a few hours, there were confusing symptoms. My blood pressure, which is usually close to 120/80 was lower -- I heard them report 100/60 and 97/57. My pulse rate, which is usually 60-70 was around 100. They ran an EKG and said it was normal; they ran another one later and said it was "different." A few people with stethoscopes were saying something about a murmur, which has never been mentioned before.

As time passed, they noted some blood chemistry issues, including a dangerously low level of magnesium. In retrospect, that was likely the result of the bowel/vomiting problems and in turn was the cause of all the symptoms that looked like cardiac issues. They collected fees (or will) for their catscan, x-ray, and sonogram machinery, too.

Conclusion? I had a bug. IV injection of fluids and electrolytes brought things back to normal. Right now, they are delaying my release to determine whether I can keep food down. To my engineering thinking, that would be easier to judge if they would let me eat something -- I have not had any food for more than 27 hours.

If they decide to let me out of here this afternoon, we will check in to a motel and get some rest and quiet, then drive home in the morning. Quite a "day trip."

Quote: Doc

If they decide to let me out of here this afternoon, we will check in to a motel and get some rest and quiet, then drive home in the morning. Quite a "day trip."

Well, at least you didn't collapse in the sauna.

Hopefully that's all it is and you'll get over it soon.

Thanks for the update Doc. I hope you are better soon. Could it be "Norovirus", the pesky bug that's been bringing the cruise ship industry to its knees?

I have not been on a cruise ship since November, and no one here has suggested just what bug was bugging me. I'm awaiting the discharge papers now.

Turns out, we really will have a Casino Chip of the Day today; it just won't be one of mine. Anyone care to guess who has offered to post a PA chip that is not in my collection?

Quote: Doc

I have not been on a cruise ship since November, and no one here has suggested just what bug was bugging me. I'm awaiting the discharge papers now.

Turns out, we really will have a Casino Chip of the Day today; it just won't be one of mine. Anyone care to guess who has offered to post a PA chip that is not in my collection?

Doc, you didn't eat at any El Salvadorean restaurants lately, did you? Get well soon.

I'm guessing Ross will post a Valley Forge chip.

Well, assuming that a chip really does get posted today, that answer is closer to correct than Ayecarumba's. A hint as to what part you missed was provided (I think) in my first post of a PA chip.

And no, I have not had any "adventurous" meals recently.

State: Pennsylvania
City: Erie
Casino: Presque Isle Downs

Today's chip of the day comes from Presque Isle Downs. Presque Isle is in Erie PA. Erie, PA is less than 2 hours from, and between, Pittsburgh and Salamanca. Doc has been to casinos in those other communities, but not to Presque Isle in Erie. This casino is the only one in PA that Doc has not visited. Since he's busy today (mmm...jello!) I've offered to post this chip today so that we can neatly close-out PA tomorrow.

Presque Isle downs opened in 2007 and added table games in July of 2010. The casino has 1720 gaming machines and 49 table and poker games. According to CasinoCity, 9 of those tables are in the poker room which leaves 40 for the main floor. That seems about right, based on what I remember. I really didn't spend much time at Presque Isle at all. I was on my way to a meeting, but this was my only chance to grab a chip, so...

My impressions of the casino were largely negative. I visited at a time when there was a LOT of cleaning and maintenance going on, and I lost money, so my view is probably skewed. But also, this was a casino that absolutely felt like it was sort of squished into the grandstand of a racetrack - and, really, that's exactly what it is. I'm sure it wasn't actually like this, but in my mind, even the ceiling was slanted in an under-the-bleachers sort of way.

I'm going to test my new chip identification logic here. My chip bears no identifying markings, is not clay, and is not an Icon design. So, I'm going to say it's a Gemaco product! How'd I do, Doc? :-) Based on this page that Doc shared when I posted my Rising Sun chip a couple weeks ago, maybe this is 139.15.25.00?

Quote: rdw4potus

How'd I do, Doc? :-) Based on this page that Doc shared when I posted my Rising Sun chip a couple weeks ago, maybe this is 139.15.25.00?

First, thank you very much for covering for me once again in this thread. We spent the night at a motel, and my problem from yesterday seems to be gone. My brain started functioning a bit better, and I remebered that I had my tablet along, which is easier to post with than my phone. I used it for several posts last night. I expect to get home this afternoon and post another chip.

Second, I think you made a typo and meant 139.25.15.00, which would be close. This assumes that is a 39mm chip. I suspect that it should really be 139.30.15.00, which would indicate a 30mm center inlay, which is what yours looks like.

The thing that leads me to think a chip is from Gemaco is the shape of those edge inserts. To me, they look like the tip of a pair of slip-joint pliers.


Edit (6/15/14): Well, I finally made it to Erie to pick up a souvenir chip from the casino that rdw4potus covered above. I posted my photos here.

State: Pennsylvania
City: King of Prussia
Casino: Valley Forge

Ah, yes. Back home, safe, and reasonably sound. Back to a real keyboard. It is quite difficult for me to edit a post using my 7" tablet and dang near impossible with my mobile phone. I would be a total failure as a 14 year old in this texting world of today.

Anyway, after that drama of the week, today we come to the last Pennsylvania casino currently represented in my chip collection, and (thanks to timely help from rdw4potus) it is also the last Pennsylvania casino currently operating. It also is the last chip currently in my collection from any casino within the United States, so tomorrow this thread will cross the border.

The Valley Forge Casino Resort is located on the northwest side of metropolitan Philadelphia, adjacent to the National Historic Park. It is the only Pennsylvania casino (to date) that my wife and I visited some time other than on that 2011 Grand Adventure associated with Hurricane Irene.

In post #1, I said I might talk about "some extraneous issue that the chip brings to my mind." In this case, I wondered immediately: How the heck did they wind up with a town named "King of Prussia"? According to the Wikipedia page, the town had a population of 19,936 as of the 2010 census and was named for a local tavern.

The early establishment there was a cottage converted to a public house in 1769 and renamed Berry's Tavern in 1774. George Washington visited the place on Thanksgiving Day in 1777, a few weeks before settling his forces in nearby for the winter. The justification for an inn there was its location about a day's ride by horse from the center of Philadelphia.

By the mid 1780s, the place was known as the King of Prussia Inn. One story is that it was possibly renamed in honor of Benjamin Franklin's 1773 pro-American, satirical essay "An Edict by the King of Prussia." If you are interested in 18th century satire, you can read Franklin's article here. Whether a reference to Franklin's writing or not, the inn was renamed after Frederick II, the real King of Prussia.

The casino was constructed on the site of the Valley Forge Convention Center and was the first casino in the state to be granted the "Category 3" license as a resort casino. The Parx casino challenged the appropriateness of that license but lost in court.

The Category 3 license limits the size of the gaming operation, and the Valley Forge casino is operating at the maximum allowed 600 slot machines and 50 table games. The license also requires that gamblers either purchase a membership or spend non-gambling money on each visit. The process by which they sell the daily admission ticket ($10 price, including a $10 credit in any of their non-gaming establishments) is outrageously inefficient, keeping a line of prospective gamblers off the floor for way too long.

My wife and I visited the place in July 2012 on our drive up to New Jersey (to complete the visit that was abandoned in 2011 due to the hurricane.) I played craps for an hour, won $155, and went over to their food court to spend our $10 credit before getting back on the road.

The chip shown below is yet another white RHC Paulson with four narrow edge inserts, this time in orange and pale green. The center inlay has an orange perimeter ring and a trademarked "V" logo that looks as if it is intended to be a 3-D, polished metal block. UV light reveals the hidden Paulson logo and the fact that the orange edge inserts fluoresce while the green ones do not – when I look at the chip with my little UV flashlight, I am not certain whether the green inserts may really fluoresce very slightly, but I suspect that is mostly reflection of the blue-violet portion of the spectrum emitted by the flashlight.

Here's my Valley Forge chip. It's been kind of fun watching this property sort things out in the time that I've been visiting it. There are stilll some kinks - the pit congifuration doesn't make much sense, for example - but it's gotten much better. They used to require two cards, one for membership/access and a separate players club card. Now they're combined. The entry and exit to the casino used to be the same two turnstiles, now there's a dedicated exit. What used to be a mostly unattended nightclub in the basement of the Radisson is now a mostly empty western-themed bar.

I stayed at Valley Forge for about a month last summer. It was random - I used Priceline's name-your-price tool to arrange my stay - and it was a largely positive experience. I was right above the ballroom, and there were a couple nights that were noisy. But, it's hard to tell someone that their wedding reception is too loud. The food options were varied and good. I especially like the asian restaurant in the food court. But, since spending $10 on-property is a requirement for entry to the casino, all of the food is ridiculously overpriced. General Tso's chicken and 3 spring rolls is $22 without a drink. A burger (it's a GOOD burger) and fries is $16 next door.

The casino itself is well laid-out, and has a variety of games. One thing that is odd, and I do think they're working on it, is the table game pit configuration. Parts of 3 of the 5 pits are always open. Craps, roulette, BJ, PGP, PG tiles, and Bacc are available 24/7. But UTH, LIR, and 3CP are completely closed during non-peak hours. There are 3 (or 4?) 3CP tables. I don't understand at all why they don't move one to a pit with extended hours. Same with UTH and LIR. There are always frozen out BJ tables in the open pits - why not move those other games into that space?

My chip is a Paulson RHC. I picked it up this summer while I was staying at the property. Like with my Sands chip, I replaced an earlier chip with this one because this chip was in better shape.

Quote: rdw4potus

... But, since spending $10 on-property is a requirement for entry to the casino...

What is the, "most" of something you could get for the $10 minimum? Could you get 18 pancakes, or 20 packs of gum...??