Casino Chip of the Day

State: California
City: Geyserville
Casino: River Rock (http://www.riverrockcasino.com/)

According to the website they have over 1,250 slots, and from what I remember, about 20 tables. The website says they have BJ, PGP, 3CP, and mini bac. I took a casino bus from Daly City to get there. The bus fare was about $10, with $30 given back in match play. I also had their lunch buffet while I was there. It was nothing to write about. I can't remember anything else about this place even though it was less than 2 years ago that I visited, so the place wasn't too impressionable. Also, with the Graton being newer, bigger, and 30 miles closer to SF, I don't see the appeal of this property to the SF bay area population anymore.

The chip is the same on both sides.

I was going to say this is the last chip in my collection that has not been posted on this thread, but I just found 1 more that hasn't. I will post that tomorrow then the next member can post his/hers Tuesday.



Edit: photos re-uploaded.

The logo on that chip looks very familiar to me. I scanned my set of chips quickly and didn't see anything like it, so I don't know whether it is just my imagination or a pattern I saw on one of rdw's chips.

I often find it interesting when unrelated casinos have the same name. Almost a year ago, I posted a chip from the River Rock Casino in Richmond, British Columbia. Of course, I have also posted chips from Edgewater casinos in both Laughlin and Vancouver.

Quote: Konbu

I was going to say this is the last chip in my collection that has not been posted on this thread, but I just found 1 more that hasn't. I will post that tomorrow then the next member can post his/hers Tuesday.

Excellent! Glad to hear that we will get to see one more from you. Two members have recently mentioned that they have chips that could entertain us. One is "currently" working on his post, which I had suggested he could post tomorrow. I sent him a PM asking that he delay until Tuesday so you can post your final chip first. The other member didn't seem to want to bask in the fabulous limelight of the lead role in this thread, but he did provide me with an image of his chip and a few comments about the casino. I will post those things for him on Wednesday, along with a little info I dug up on the web.

After that, I'm down to just the few chips that I have left unposted from my own collection, so once again I am asking for volunteers who have chips to share with the rest of us. No, I am not asking for "chippies". I just want posts of the images and some stories about the casinos.    ;-)

Quote: Doc

After that, I'm down to just the few chips that I have left unposted from my own collection, so once again I am asking for volunteers who have chips to share with the rest of us. No, I am not asking for "chippies". I just want posts of the images and some stories about the casinos.    ;-)

I hope I'm not out of line here but as I have been a part of this thread I would like to see it continue as much as you.

How about changing the thread to "chip of the week"? This would allow the continuous flow of the thread with many more weeks to look forward to?

Just a thought, like I said it is not my place, just want to see the thread continue in some form :)

Thanks again Doc!

You are certainly not out of line to make that suggestion, but I don't think that changing it formally to a chip of the week thread would make much difference. We have one more chip coming from Konbu, then two from other members, then nine that I collected in the past six months and have not yet posted. That should carry us through Friday 4/11, at which point I don't know what other chips are available from any of our members. Posting just one chip a week would drag that out through the middle of June, but it would likely just mean a lot of dead time for the thread in the interim.

I know there will be additional chips posted in this thread. I have already talked about trips from now through August in which I will collect chips to post, and rdw4potus will certainly do the same. When we don't have anyone "scheduled" to lead the thread and post on a particular day, perhaps this will just be a thread where anyone who shows up can post and say, "Here's my chip for today!" The thread can also serve, perhaps, as a convenient place for general discussions about chip collecting.

Of course, I'm still expecting you, Tom, to step up and tell us you found a bunch more chips in your collection that haven't yet been covered in the thread!

Quote: Doc

I often find it interesting when unrelated casinos have the same name. Almost a year ago, I posted a chip from the River Rock Casino in Richmond, British Columbia. Of course, I have also posted chips from Edgewater casinos in both Laughlin and Vancouver.

At the last WoV meet-up, the Wiz brought some rack cards from his Ties Win Blackjack game that unfortunately never went anywhere (to be used as trivia answer sheets). I asked him about it and he said it had a field trial at the Edgewater. Being a casino n00b, I immediately asked him "really, the Edgewater in Vancouver, BC? How'd it end up all the way up there?" Followed by an answer of "uh, no, the Edgewater in Laughlin" answer, probably followed mentally by a "there's an Edgewater casino in Vancouver, BC?" haha.

Category: Caribbean
City: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Casino: Caribe Hilton

This is 1 of 2 chips in my collection that I did not personally collect, the other being from Artichoke Joe's. This has also been with me the longest, way before I started collecting. I don't know how old this is but it's definitely from before 1995. That's when my brother kept this for whatever reason and ended up in my possession. MoGH shows this property closed in 1999. Basic Googling doesn't show much info about the former casino. Anything anyone has to add about this property would be greatly appreciated.

This chip is the same on both sides. It has a matte screen print sort of finish.

It's been my pleasure contributing to this thread. I will now pass the baton to the next member. There are so many more casinos around the world. It's just too bad that the right people are not reading/aware of this thread.




Edit: photos re-uploaded.

That looks like a Chipco chip, and that's the way the MOGH catalog lists it. Chipco offers three different surface finishes -- linen, recessed, and satin -- described here. My guess is that yours is the linen finish, but you can compare the chip to the descriptions on that linked page and perhaps tell us for certain.

Thank you very much, Konbu, for this set of a half dozen chips from two states and two overseas categories for the thread. Excellent contributions.

For tomorrow, we can look forward to a chip and story from member beerseason. That post will take us to a brand new country for this thread.

Looks like waffles, seems to be of the recessed kind.

Quote: Doc

You are certainly not out of line to make that suggestion, but I don't think that changing it formally to a chip of the week thread would make much difference. We have one more chip coming from Konbu, then two from other members, then nine that I collected in the past six months and have not yet posted. That should carry us through Friday 4/11, at which point I don't know what other chips are available from any of our members. Posting just one chip a week would drag that out through the middle of June, but it would likely just mean a lot of dead time for the thread in the interim.

I know there will be additional chips posted in this thread. I have already talked about trips from now through August in which I will collect chips to post, and rdw4potus will certainly do the same. When we don't have anyone "scheduled" to lead the thread and post on a particular day, perhaps this will just be a thread where anyone who shows up can post and say, "Here's my chip for today!" The thread can also serve, perhaps, as a convenient place for general discussions about chip collecting.

Of course, I'm still expecting you, Tom, to step up and tell us you found a bunch more chips in your collection that haven't yet been covered in the thread!

Ok, sounds good.

I know I have one from OR which hasn't been posted here but to be honest it is a pain getting my wife to sort through them and getting her tot ake the pics and so on. I will again take up the lead in August when I get back from my baseball vacation to Baltimore.

State:Mexico
City: Cancun
Casino:Playboy Casino (http://www.playboycancun.com/)

I took a chance to visit the Playboy Casino on a week night during a trip to Cancun. We were staying at the Hard Rock in Cancun, so we had to take a taxi to the Playboy, which cost including the tip around 200 pesos. At first when we pulled up I thought the building was huge. But being that it was night out, I couldn't tell you the condition of the exterior.

Me and my father then strolled inside of the "club" and what I found was down right shocking. It was the smallest casino I have ever set foot into. The ceiling was high with an outer ring around three walls with Texas Hold'em and slot machines. There was a bar, the "sportbook" on the elevated portion inside the room along with the enterance. You went down the stairs into the pit with the table games and slot machines. The interior was nicely decorated. It was what you would think of for a Playboy club. It was posh with rather dark colors and dimly lit. Evidently the casino took up just a portion of the building. So I took a brief look around (it didn't take long), and scoped out the table games. There were maybe 2 or 3 blackjack games going on, 1 table of roulette, and a UTH game. My memory is a bit foggy due to the fact that there was a lot of eye candy inside. Needless to say I was looking at the bunnies more then looking at the games. I believe there was a craps table not in operation and another roulette table and some other blackjack tables also not in operation. In doing some post research I learned that the craps table was a half a craps table, cannot verify as I don't remember. I would guess there was about 150-250 slot machines, I didn't even go up to any as they did not interest me. There is also a "sportsbook" but I will get to that later.

To get my chips I sat down at blackjack table that wasn't full as the others were full, the drawback was the dealer was a guy. However, that quickly changed as an absolutely gorgeous bunny started dealing along with someone I am assuming was training. She was probably the best looking native I seen down there. They were "wearing" the traditional bunny outfit with the ears and french cuffs. Being that she was well endowed, her top was a little too small, but I definitely wasn't complaining. So I settled in and ordered a Malibu and Diet(7$ usd, ouch), from another bunny. The outfits were similar but had different colors. Waitress wore black and white and dealers wore red and black with white french cuffs.

Now to the rules, I honestly don't remember much as the eye candy was distracting. But I remember the limits were 100/1000 in pesos. They dealt the game face up with the dealer taking her last card after all the players. I believe it was dealer hits on soft 17, six deck, I don't believe there was double after split, re-splitting aces or late surrender. I started out doing pretty well, but it went south soon after. There was a floorman that stood over the two blackjack games the whole time. They were really sweating the action as there was guy playing both tables betting table max. So I decided to get up as the dealers personality was about that of a rock. Around this time i learned there was Texas Hold'em on the upper outer ring. So I strolled over to UTH and proceed to lose a little bit more of my money on absolutely horrible rules. I believe the ante/blind royal payout was 100-1, don't remember the rest. Played two hands and got up, as I wanted to place a small bet on Illinois to win the B1G Conference Championship.

This is where I go up to where the sportsbook was at, even though I could tell it was closed. There was another floorman standing on the elevated portion by the sportsbook sweating action directly over the roulette. So I asked him where I could place a bet at. Him being rather annoyed that I was bothering him with a question pointed at the cage and said that is where you make the bets. Odd. So I go over to the cage and am instructed to go to another cage employee who finally could help me out. I ask what I could bet as there was no boards or papers showing what you can bet. So the lady printed me out a piece of paper, the size of a McDonald's receipt with games they are taking action on. The list consisted of two basketball games. TWO. I was stunned, one college and one NBA game. I asked if there were any others and they said no. Either they weren't understanding me or it was a really crappy book. So no sportsbook action for me.

It was definitely a nice experience for me, but I doubt I would go back again. There really was no reason to gamble, unless you wanted to get drunk on overpriced booze, stare at gorgeous bunnies and lose your butt on crappy rules.

Notes: On the way back I was chit chatting with the cabby and he mentioned there was another casino that was bigger, but it only had machines. But I don't remember the name of the other casino.

Also, I was told there was a membership fee that I was expecting to pay when I arrived, but I did not have to sign up or pay anything to play.

Quote: beerseason

State:Mexico
City: Cancun
Casino:Playboy Casino (http://www.playboycancun.com/)

And this is our first chip from a casino in Mexico (which should probably be listed as "Category" rather than "State"). Perhaps we will get a few more, eventually.

I assume that the "50" is in pesos, which I think is a little more than $3.80 U.S. The 100 peso minimum bet would be between $7.60 and $7.70, which (unless I have the rate wrong) seems quite reasonable for a blackjack game at a Playboy club.

Thanks, beerseason, for both your chip contribution and the tale about the casino. Sounds as if the eyecandy might be the best part of the experience. I've only been to Cancun once in my life, for a cruise stop in March of 1987. Since I haven't made it back in 27 years, I doubt that I ever will.

Doc, you would be correct it is in pesos. But before I went to the Playboy I withdrew money at the Hard Rock (HSBC ATM I believe, 2000 pesos for roughly 152.xx (13.07/1) including all of the charges. But when I was at the Playboy I noticed there was an electronic sign that had the conversion factor of 12.25 for 1 dollar and other currency rates. Assuming there wasn't a different rate, I could have turned around and got 163.25 for my 2000 pesos. Nice little EV+ play at 6.5% return.

Also, a little bit of irony was I was born in March of 1987.

My phone app says that the pesos:dollars rate is 13.06:1. Sounds as if the Playboy casino was boosting the house edge by selling pesos to the American tourists at a very unfavorable rate. If that's the case, I'm guessing they would not have bought your pesos at 12.25 to the dollar, unless you had a receipt that you had bought at least that many pesos from them.

When I posted my chip from Casino Rama in Ontario, I told about a related (though favorable) experience there:

Quote: Doc

The thing I do remember is that they had a very reasonable policy for currency exchange. At the time, the Canadian dollar was worth about $0.94 US, though it dropped to about $0.80 in 2009. I went to the cage and changed some of the USD that I was carrying for the CAD used at the tables. Any exchange fee was hidden in the exchange rate, but they gave me a receipt and said I could exchange up to that amount from CAD back to USD at the same rate within 24 hours. As a result of that policy, players lost on the exchange only to the extent they lost the converted currency at the table, not the all-to-common practice of losing in the exchange in both directions.

State: Washington
City: Marysville
Casino: Tulalip

The Tulalip Resort Casino – this thread's first from the state of Washington – opened in July 1992. It is a Native American establishment operated by the Tulalip Tribes. The tribal web site has this greeting, telling a little bit about them:

Quote:

Welcome, friends and neighbors; we are the Tulalip (pronounced Tuh’-lay-lup) Tribes, successors in interest to the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish and other allied tribes and bands signatory to the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. Our tribal population is about 4,000 and growing, with 2,500 members residing on the 22,000 acre Tulalip Indian Reservation located north of Everett and the Snohomish River and west of Marysville, Washington.

Here is a photo of the casino that I found on the web.


(Edit 12/6/17: Just noticed that the link to that photo is now broken. As noted in posts below, the photo showed a sculpture of a leaping orca. Best I can offer now is a link to a similar photo on the Yelp page covering the resort, and I don't know how long this link will be good. Here is that link.)


The casino's web site ( http://www.tulalipresortcasino.com ) describes their games as including Blackjack, Spanish 21, Three-Card Poker Progressive, Four-Card Poker Progressive, Ultimate Texas Hold’em Progressive, Let It Ride Progressive, Fortune Pai Gow Progressive, EZ Baccarat, Dragon Bonus Baccarat, Roulette and Craps. As I write this, the Pai Gow Progressive is listed at $447,460, which seems like a pretty good chunk of change for a tribal casino.

The casino has a poker room spreading Texas Hold'em, Krazy Pineapple, 7-Card Stud, High/Low and Omaha, with limits ranging from $1 to $500 plus No Limit games. They also offer what they describe as "more than 2,000 of the newest slots."

One mile south of the resort, the tribe operates a bingo facility that they describe this way:

Quote:

Offering 23 sessions a week, Tulalip Bingo is open everyday at 8:00 AM. Class II slot machines, high-stakes pull tabs and daily promotions add to the excitement. Ages 16 and over can enjoy bingo and 18+ can try the fun of Class II slots.

Now, I have not personally been to the Tulalip resort, or to any of the Washington casinos for that matter. Today's chip is provided for us by member SlangNRox, who did not want to write this post personally but shared the following with me via P.M.:

Quote: SlangNRox

Not sure if I want to post my chip, but here is a scan I just made. It is a fairly generic chip with no markings on it. Stopped by there on the way back from a day trip from Seattle to Vancouver. It seemed to be the biggest/nicest casino in the area when we drove up to Canada on I-5. We stopped by on the way to Canada and then since we still had 2 of these $1 chips when we left we stopped by again on the trip back to Seattle There is a nice outlet mall right next to the casino and an Olive Garden on the far side of the casino parking lot. Played some mini baccarat which was unremarkable although it did feel good to bet against the table and win my $10 bet while someone else lost around $1500.
Feel free to edit this and post it if you want.

The MOGH chip guide attributes the chip to Bud Jones, as they do almost all plastic injection molded chips. I don't know the connection between the orca and the tribe or the casino, but the use of that creature on both the chip and the water feature in the lake suggests they like it as an icon at least.




Thanks, SlangNRox, for entertaining us with this chip and your recollections of the casino.

Wow. Orcas right outside the casino!

And less than four miles from open water!

Quote: chickenman

Wow. Orcas right outside the casino!

I know. Usually the whales are inside the casino ;D

Good one!

Category: South America
City: Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Casino: Coliseum

It seem that this thread has again come around to an appropriate opportunity for me to post a few chips from my own collection. I decided to begin this little series with the thread's first chip from South America.

The Coliseum (according to the Museum of Gaming History) is a former casino that was located in the Los Tajibos Hotel and Convention Center in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Neither the MOGH nor CasinoCity.com list any currently operating casinos in the entire country of Bolivia. There is, however, conflicting information available from OnlineCasinoSuite.com, which claims that there are currently three small brick-and-mortar casinos in Bolivia, including the Coliseum. That site goes on to say:

Quote:

Bolivia is currently under the administration of a left-leaning government, which seized corporate property in Bolivia in 2006. Given these actions, it is unlikely that foreign investors will build any new casinos in Bolivia in the years to come.

I cannot explain the conflicting information. I also cannot provide any more enlightenment about the Coliseum Casino based on my personal experience, because I have never visited there and have never even been to Bolivia. However, I did collect this souvenir chip by playing in a casino, which makes it a legitimate part of my collection. ;-)

I obtained this chip while visiting Curacao during a cruise that my wife and I took last November. I have previously noted that many of the casinos in the Caribbean don't seem to care just whose chips they are using in play. As I described when I posted my chip from the Plaza Casino in Curacao, they also don't seem to pay much attention to what denomination the chips claim to be. And there can even arise some possible confusion about the names of casinos: which is the "Plaza" casino -- the Paradise Plaza or the Royal Plaza? Answer: the Royal Plaza used to be called the Plaza.

When I visited Curacao in 2009, I played in the Paradise Plaza Casino, which had previously been called the Americana casino. On that visit, I picked up two souvenir chips, one of which was a $1 token from the Treasure Island casino in Sint Maartin and the other a $1 chip bearing the casino's previous "Americana" name. I have posted both of those previously.

Since they didn't have any "Paradise Plaza" chips in 2009, I went back to play again in 2013, hoping to get one. They still didn't have any with that designation in any denomination, and the MOGH catalog doesn't show any either. What they did have in play were the Treasure Island tokens in the $1 denomination and $5 chips from the Coliseum Casino in Bolivia. This time I kept the $5 souvenir – what the heck, I could afford to be a spendthrift, since I still came out $15 ahead at blackjack.

The chip is a red plastic injection molded chip with four gray edge "inserts" and four matching crescents, with a center ring around a silver coin insert. I believe it was made by Matsui, but I am not certain. The name of the casino is presented in a font similar to what is used on the Caesars Palace chip that I posted. The MOGH catalog says that this chip was used at the former Coliseum Casino in Bolivia and is currently used at both the Paradise Plaza where I got it and at the Coliseum Casino in Phillipsburg, Sint Maartin (which CasinoCity.com claims is called the Coliseum Princess.)

Doc thanks for posting my chip and helping me make a small contribution to this epic thead of forum members chip collections. Sure hope you make it out to this area soon. Seems like there are a lot of casinos around this area and in Richmond just past the border.

Quote: Doc

Category: South America
City: Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Casino: Coliseum

It seem that this thread has again come around to an appropriate opportunity for me to post a few chips from my own collection. I decided to begin this little series with the thread's first chip from South America.

The Coliseum (according to the Museum of Gaming History) is a former casino that was located in the Los Tajibos Hotel and Convention Center in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Neither the MOGH nor CasinoCity.com list any currently operating casinos in the entire country of Bolivia. There is, however, conflicting information available from OnlineCasinoSuite.com, which claims that there are currently three small brick-and-mortar casinos in Bolivia, including the Coliseum. That site goes on to say:

I cannot explain the conflicting information. I also cannot provide any more enlightenment about the Coliseum Casino based on my personal experience, because I have never visited there and have never even been to Bolivia. However, I did collect this souvenir chip by playing in a casino, which makes it a legitimate part of my collection. ;-)

I obtained this chip while visiting Curacao during a cruise that my wife and I took last November. I have previously noted that many of the casinos in the Caribbean don't seem to care just whose chips they are using in play. As I described when I posted my chip from the Plaza Casino in Curacao, they also don't seem to pay much attention to what denomination the chips claim to be. And there can even arise some possible confusion about the names of casinos: which is the "Plaza" casino -- the Paradise Plaza or the Royal Plaza? Answer: the Royal Plaza used to be called the Plaza.

When I visited Curacao in 2009, I played in the Paradise Plaza Casino, which had previously been called the Americana casino. On that visit, I picked up two souvenir chips, one of which was a $1 token from the Treasure Island casino in Sint Maartin and the other a $1 chip bearing the casino's previous "Americana" name. I have posted both of those previously.

Since they didn't have any "Paradise Plaza" chips in 2009, I went back to play again in 2013, hoping to get one. They still didn't have any with that designation in any denomination, and the MOGH catalog doesn't show any either. What they did have in play were the Treasure Island tokens in the $1 denomination and $5 chips from the Coliseum Casino in Bolivia. This time I kept the $5 souvenir – what the heck, I could afford to be a spendthrift, since I still came out $15 ahead at blackjack.

The chip is a red plastic injection molded chip with four gray edge "inserts" and four matching crescents, with a center ring around a silver coin insert. I believe it was made by Matsui, but I am not certain. The name of the casino is presented in a font similar to what is used on the Caesars Palace chip that I posted. The MOGH catalog says that this chip was used at the former Coliseum Casino in Bolivia and is currently used at both the Paradise Plaza where I got it and at the Coliseum Casino in Phillipsburg, Sint Maartin (which CasinoCity.com claims is called the Coliseum Princess.)

Doc, I have spent an awful lot of time inside the Coliseum casino in Phillipsburg, St. Maarten and this chip bears a strong resemblance to the $5 chips used there. The chips have a coin center but the outside rim looks a little different to this one, not much though. The writing is in the same font.

SOme of the unfriendliest dealers on the planet inside that casino. Also some of the worst. I remember a girl dealing blackjack and she couldn't pick up the chips with her fingers because her fingernails were so long........a common occurance in the Caribbean :)

See, Tom, if you had just kept some chips from there, you could have posted a reply image, and we could have multiple "Bolivia" casino souvenir chips, all of which were collected in casinos but none while in South America!

The MOGH chip guide collection for the Coliseum casino in Philipsburg includes three $5 chips that are almost identical. One matches mine, saying "Bolivia" but the other two have brass coin inserts and say "St. Maarten". Those two differ very slightly in the length of the edge inserts and the size of the crescents. Naturally, MOGH attributes the chips to Bud Jones, but I remain skeptical.

Category: Caribbean Islands
City: Kralendijk, Bonaire
Casino: Divi Flamingo

The principal city of the island of Bonaire is Kralendijk, which translates as "bead dike," where the "beads" are the coral shells that form the undersea walls of a scuba paradise just off the Bonaire beach. The Divi Flamingo Beach Resort & Casino is located in Kralendijk, just a few blocks up the street from the cruise ship port. The property has two restaurants and a hotel with 129 rooms.

According to CasinoCity.com, the Divi Flamingo casino's 2,500 square foot gaming space features sixty gaming machines and seven table games, including:
• American Roulette, 1 table
• Blackjack, 3 tables
• Poker
• Roulette, 1 table

Now that list certainly makes it seem that there should be a total of two roulette tables, with one possibly having only a single zero. That is not the case, as may clearly be seen in this photo that shows the entire table gaming area of the casino. If you think that area looks small, I should note that I believe it is roughly half of the entire casino floor.


I can only guess that the CasinoCity listing is an example of double counting the roulette table. I don't think they have a real poker room elsewhere, though a two-table room somewhere to the side would bring the five tables visible in the photo to the total of seven that CasinoCity lists. I think they have just these five tables, and probably one of these card tables offers some poker variant.

My wife and I visited Bonaire last Novemer on our cruise, and I took that walk down to the Divi Flamingo. As you can see in the photo, the table games were not in operation while I was there, so I resorted to the practice I developed early last year to handle such situations: buy the chip(s) at the cashier and play $1 in a slot machine so that I can say I added the souvenir chip to my collection while gambling in the casino.

The Divi Flamingo is another Caribbean casino that doesn't get uptight about whose chips they are using. The $1 chips they had were from the Alhambra casino in Aruba. I have already posted an Alhambra $1 token that I got in play at the Seaport Casino in Aruba, and I later edited that post to include an Alhambra $1 chip that member JW17 picked up in the real Alhambra and sent to me as a gift. The $1 chips that they had at the Divi Flamingo were identical to the chip that JW17 provided.

In order to better represent the casino where I "gambled", I picked up a $5 souvenir from the cashier. It is a red, somewhat-faded Chipco ceramic chip, and it does indeed have the name and logo of the Divi Flamingo – the namesake bird wading at sunset. It does not include an image of the Divi-divi tree.

This is off topic but does anyone know how current are the casino lists at https://wizardofvegas.com/hotels/ and https://easy.vegas/casinos/list ?? I'm planning to visit some 20-25 casinos on this trip and collect.

Quote: Konbu

This is off topic but does anyone know how current are the casino lists at https://wizardofvegas.com/hotels/ and https://easy.vegas/casinos/list ?? I'm planning to visit some 20-25 casinos on this trip and collect.

I just skimmed the lists and they both look pretty OK to me. Aliante is no longer associated with Stations, but that's the only glaring error I see (oddly, on both lists). The list on WOV is more complete, as it includes properties in the whole Vegas area while the EasyVegas list doesn't include several excellent properties (M, GVR, Sunset Station) that happen to be in Henderson.

Category: Caribbean Islands
City: Otrabanda, Willemstad, Curacao
Casino: Kura Hulanda

The Casino Kura Hulanda is/was located on the Otrabanda (other side) section of Willemstad, meaning that it is not in the Punda, or "point" section of the city. Before sailing on our cruise last fall, I checked the web and tried to pick out casinos that I wanted to visit in the ports that had such facilities.

The Kura Hulanda Spa and Casino was one establishment that made my list, but I had conflicting information about whether it was still in operation. The MOGH chip guide said that the casino had closed in 2012, but CasinoCity.com said (and still says) that it is still in operation, though maybe with only poker in play. Several sites on the web offered to book stays at what was described as the 5-star Kura Hulanda Hotel, so I thought it was worth taking a look.

I had the address of the facility, and it was within reasonable walking distance of the ship's port. It was also very close to the Pelikaan casino that I wanted to check out. After leaving the Paradise Plaza Casino, we wandered through a couple of alleys and up a hill to the hotel-spa-casino site, and as we arrived, it was clear that something was amiss. There were guards at the entrance gate, and they didn't look like the typical security staff. As best I could figure, it seemed that the whole place – hotel, spa, casino, everything – had been shut down in the way you would expect for a U.S. casino if there had been a raid by the IRS. No, there is nothing to see here. Go away.

I accepted that, and we walked down the block to the Pelikaan casino, where I played blackjack. So what kind of chips do you suspect that they were using at the Pelikaan? Yes, this is the Caribbean, so don't worry about whose chips are in the racks. The Pelikaan was using exclusively chips that said Casino Kura Hulanda. Of course, just to show how bad the info is that a potential visitor can scope out, CasinoCity says that the Pelikaan has only gaming machines, and the MOGH catalog includes only a no-cash-value token from the Pelikaan.

I am not sure what to make of all that. One possibility is that the Pelikaan used to be a machines-only establishment but that the tables, chips, dealers, etc. moved there when the Kura Hulanda was shut down. Anyway, they were dealing $5 blackjack at the Pelikaan, and in a ten-minute session I won a whopping $5 plus a $1 Kura Hulanda souvenir chip.



I have no idea what "Kura Hulanda" means. Google Translate indicates that it "detects" the Swahili language, but it only offers a translation of "lots Hulanda", so I'm not convinced. It does sound a wee bit like the name of the song "Hakuna Matata" from "The Lion King", which is a Swahili expression.

Category: Caribbean Islands
City: Oranjestad, Aruba
Casino: Seaport

I'm off with my wife and a couple of our neighbors for a day trip to Harrah's Cherokee today (three hour drive each direction), so I have to make this post early this morning. When we get home, it might be early Monday in our time zone, and I might be too beat to make the post before going to bed. Anyway, I am continuing with chips I gathered while on a cruise last November.

Two weeks less than a year ago, I posted in this thread the first entry from the Caribbean, a token from the Alhambra casino in Aruba that I had collected on a visit in 2009. In that post, I commented:

Quote: Doc

I received this souvenir token while it was in play at the Seaport Casino in the Seaport Village commercial development in downtown Oranjestad, just a short walk from the cruise ship port. That casino opened in 1993 and is listed in CasinoCity.com as having 788 machines, 7 poker tables, and 33 other gaming tables. I don't remember it as being that big. I played blackjack and lost $50. The Seaport Casino used only Alhambra tokens as their $1 chips while I was there.

When we visited Aruba again in 2013, I decided to return to the Seaport Casino to see whether I could get a chip with that facility's name on it, even if it had to be in a $5 denomination. This time I did not/could not play because the tables would not open until minutes before we had to be back on board our ship. However, I was able to buy a $1 chip from the cashier, and this one does indeed say "Seaport", unlike what was available before.

With regard to my comment last spring, the Seaport did seem to have a larger gaming floor than I remembered, but 33 still seems like an over estimate of the number of tables, at least in the main room. I didn't count them, and my impression could still be unreliable.

This is a light blue, plastic injection molded chip with twelve white edge inserts and a simple white center inlay with the casino name, the denomination, and the country all printed in black. Surprisingly, the MOGH catalog does not attribute this chip to Bud Jones. In fact, they don't attribute it to any manufacturer at all. I think it is from Icon and that it is what they call their "6 split" design, as if there are six (double) edge inserts with a gap within each.

Category: Caribbean Islands
City: Otrabanda, Willemstad, Curacao
Casino: Veneto

My wife and I wandered all around the downtown areas of both the Otrabanda and Punda sections of Willemstad on our cruise ship visit last November. We stopped by the Carnaval, the Paradise Plaza, the closed Kura Hulanda, the Pelikaan, and the Royal Plaza casinos, then she declared that she had had enough, and went back to our stateroom to rest. I decided to head out alone to collect just one more chip for the day.

The Veneto Casino and Holiday Beach Resort is a very nice facility, located about half a mile straight line (or more like a mile via the roads) from the cruise ship port, away from the center of town. The trail did not seem at all to be a likely one for the tourists on foot, but I made my way just fine. The hotel has more than 200 rooms, including beachfront cabana suites, and it seems to cater to the scuba crowd. Highlights among their dining options are the Lucky Beach Bar and Grill and a Denny's, so it's not quite the place to go looking for a high-end steak house.

CasinoCity describes Casino Veneto as having 29,848 sq. ft. of gaming space with 450 machines and 14 table games. The casino's own page agrees with that number of machines but does not give a count of their tables; my recollection is that they might have had more than that. They do list the games offered as a non-smoking poker pit, roulette, craps, blackjack, and Caribbean Stud. The craps table was not operating when I visited at about 4p.m., so I played $10 minimum blackjack for ten minutes and left $50 and a souvenir chip ahead.

I think there was some kind of side bet on the blackjack table, but I don't remember what it was. Their web site describes it as "Magic Blackjack" – is that the name of a patented side bet? The web site notes "a single $1.00 side bet qualifies each player for the chance to hit the Big One."

Perhaps because they offer the side bet, they were prepared when I asked to change a $5 chip to $1 chips. I don't know whether I played the side bet at all, but my reason for the cheque change was to have my souvenir in hand from the very beginning. Usually when I do that, I wind up betting the rest of the $1 chips for the dealer, one at a time. In this instance, however, I found that while players were allowed to toke the dealers, the casino did not permit players to wager for the dealers. I didn't ask for the details about that policy.

My souvenir chip is a white, plastic injection molded chip with three sets of two black edge inserts centered above a black bar on the inner ring. The inner ring also has the denomination three times, spaced between the bars. The center inlay is white with three colors of printing: the denomination in a blue script font, the logo script V in brown, and a red imprint with the name twice (as a script "Veneto" with "Veneto Casino" in all Roman caps below it) with the country at the bottom.

Naturally, the MOGH chip guide says this plastic chip is from Bud Jones, and this time I have to concede that they are probably correct. I have other chips with a similar inner ring and with the BJ logo on the center inlay, example here.



This concludes the set of chips that I collected last fall in the Caribbean, so tomorrow's Casino Chip of the Day will be one that I collected in Nevada back in September.

Quote: Doc

Category: Caribbean Islands
City: Otrabanda, Willemstad, Curacao
Casino: Veneto

I note that this casino has the same, or very similar, name to a casino the Wizard visited in Panama that was crawling with prostitutes. Is "Veneto" the brand name of a chain of casinos?

Quote: Ayecarumba

I note that this casino has the same, or very similar, name to a casino the Wizard visited in Panama that was crawling with prostitutes. Is "Veneto" the brand name of a chain of casinos?

Veneto is a region in Italy, and it's possible the casinos are named after it. The biggest city of the region is Venice (notice the similarities in name?). Possibly, too, the casinos are named rather after a street in Rome known as Via Veneto, which is a rather elegant and expensive comercial street, not entirely unlike Rodeo Drive. The third possibility is that the names were taken to kind of allude to the Venetian casino in las Vegas.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Is "Veneto" the brand name of a chain of casinos?

I think so, but I am not certain and had not checked into it until after reading your post this morning.

The web site for the casino-hotel in Curacao has a corporate information page that says it is "run by Silver Entertainment, a New York-based corporation that focuses on the acquisition and prime development of casino gaming and resort operations in Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States." The web site for the casino in Panama does not have a similar page but notes that it is the Veneto Wyndham Grand Hotel and Casino.

I checked the web site for Silver Entertainment. About all I can get to (without being able to log in) is a home page that includes a statement about their focus and notes locations in New York, Panama, Miami, and the Caribbean. There is a "Careers" link that leads to an address for sending resumes and also shows a photo of a hotel entrance with "Veneto" in the same script as on the Curacao chip, with a smaller sign saying "A Wyndham Grand Hotel." That second part sounds more like the Panama establishment, so I think the two places are affiliated.

State: Nevada
City: Carson City
Casino: Carson Station

If I had a good supply of chips left to post in this thread, either my own chips or a list of chips that others had offered to post, I would delay this particular chip for another month or so. That would give rdw4potus a chance to get back to Carson City to pick up a souvenir from the same casino to post in reply. Last I heard, he plans to drop by the Carson Station as part of an 1,800-mile-side-trip drive on his visit to Las Vegas for the WoV 2014 Spring Fling.

Unfortunately, it looks as if this thread is about to run dry temporarily, so maybe rdw can just post something now to serve as a place holder for his future post of a Carson Station chip.

I first visited the Carson Station casino in October 2011. The casino was under new management, and the table games were not in operation. I returned to Carson City last September and learned that the Carson Station casino once again was operating their table games. I played $1 craps – an activity that reminds me of a comment I heard from a comedian during my very first visit to Las Vegas. He said, "If you find that you are playing penny slots, just go ahead and shoot yourself. What's the potential for the game? You hit the jackpot and Wow! Three bucks." Of course, his comedy routine assumed that penny slots means you are betting just 1¢ per spin.

So I played $1 craps for over an hour at Carson Station and came out ahead by $15 and a souvenir chip.

This is a white chip with a gold foil print in the center providing the casino name, the denomination, the city, and the state. It is a rather old Bud Jones design known as "8-suits", with the sequence of suit pips around the perimeter not repeating. The mold design is so old that I initially assumed these were the same chips they used at the Carson Station before the change in management and the temporary closing of the table games. If this chip were very old, then it would be in remarkable condition. There is a tiny nick at the 7:00 position, but usually the gold imprint on this kind of chip is worn off very quickly, and it looks pretty much intact on this one.

I checked the MOGH chip guide. It indicates that this chip was issued in 2013 and does not show any older $1 chips from the Carson Station, just some $1 tokens and some 25¢ chips from Paulson. That surprised me, so I also checked the NGC Chip and Token Report. It does not indicate that there were any $1 chips ever approved for the Carson Station prior to one in December 2012, presumably this chip. Bud Jones/GPI must still be using a very old mold design.

And no, Carson Station is not part of Station Casinos, whose properties are all in the Las Vegas vicinity so far as I can determine.

I don't remember playing craps at this place. I must have gone during the day when the table was closed. I collected the same chip posted, maybe from blackjack. I did enjoy very much playing dollar craps at the Gold Dust West for the second time, just a month ago. My brother won a bunch of field bets on my rolls and successfully parlayed a field bet 5 times for a win of $60 on a $20 buy in. On the other hand, I slowly bled my $40 buy in away.

Quote: Konbu

I collected the same chip posted, maybe from blackjack.

Aha! That certainly sounds like a confession that you have (had) souvenir chip(s) from casinos not yet posted in this thread.

Considering the dire shortage of prospective daily posts, you need to check your collection for any more that we haven't yet covered here. My "final" chip will be posted on Friday of this week. I have communicated with one member who has agreed to post two chips, likely on Saturday and Sunday, and another member who has a single chip she will post, maybe Monday or maybe another day soon. Still looking for more folks with chips to add to the thread.

Quote: Doc

Aha! That certainly sounds like a confession that you have (had) souvenir chip(s) from casinos not yet posted in this thread.

Considering the dire shortage of prospective daily posts, you need to check your collection for any more that we haven't yet covered here. My "final" chip will be posted on Friday of this week. I have communicated with one member who has agreed to post two chips, likely on Saturday and Sunday, and another member who has a single chip she will post, maybe Monday or maybe another day soon. Still looking for more folks with chips to add to the thread.

If only Doc did a better job of convincing people to start their collections earlier. 8 years ago would have been perfect. I would have 12 chips instead of 2. I might even sneak in a 3rd.

Quote: miplet

I might even sneak in a 3rd.

Excellent! Just let me know for sure so that I don't ask two people to post on the same day -- we need to keep this going, not double up.

Quote: Doc

Aha! That certainly sounds like a confession that you have (had) souvenir chip(s) from casinos not yet posted in this thread.
...

Not intentionally... I thought it was covered already. I don't have any other chips from properties not yet covered on this thread.

I have a 50c chip from the Carson Nugget but that property was presented in 2012. Maybe I should go check out the Graton one of these days.

I don't suppose souvenir chips from a museum gift store should be posted here... ;)

Only if they are the kind that were directly in play on the casino floor.

Quote: Konbu

I thought it was covered already.

If you have more chips in your collection, please do check the directory on the first page of this thread. I'd hate to miss out on your chips just because of another misunderstanding.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Downtown Grand

As I wind down my posting of chips to this thread once again, I have three to offer from a visit to Las Vegas earlier this year.

The Downtown Grand is the new incarnation of the former Lady Luck hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas, on 3rd Street between Stewart Avenue and Ogden Avenue, just over a block to the northeast from the center of the Fremont Street Experience.

During the first half decade of the 21st century, the Lady Luck went through three changes in ownership then closed in February 2006 for what was expected to be nine months to a year of renovations.

That closing was before I completed collecting my souvenir chips from downtown Las Vegas, so I never went to the Lady Luck and don't have a souvenir chip to post from there. If anyone has a Lady Luck chip, please do NOT post it now. Just let me know, and we will devote a whole other day to that casino and chip.

Financing for the 2006 renovation collapsed, and the property was sold again. More financing problems arose, and conflicts with the city ensued due to lack of progress on the renovation and reopening. Actual work began on a limited basis in 2009, but the place did not reopen until October 2013. The web site of the casino operator tells some of the current structure but still makes the opening sound like a future event:

Quote:

Downtown Grand Las Vegas will bring nearly 600 slot machines, 28 table games, 634 hotel rooms and 800 permanent jobs to a resurgent Downtown Las Vegas in 2013. Fifth Street Gaming is the operator of the gaming space, DTG Las Vegas Manager is the operator of the Hotel & Restaurant Operations, and CIM Group is the owner of the property. Located on the site of the former Lady Luck Hotel & Casino and in the center of the Downtown3rd metropolitan district, Downtown Grand Las Vegas will be the first property to open in downtown Las Vegas in more than 20 years.

My wife and I visited Las Vegas for a week in February 2014, and my gaming results stunk. I won at the first place I played and in my very last session, but I lost at nine of the ten sessions in between. My visit to the Downtown Grand was one of those sessions in between. I lost $100 playing $5 craps for just 20 minutes. I brushed it aside like the other losses, and we walked down to Main Street Station for the buffet, with me pretending not to be in a bad mood.

I don't know what the inverted V logo for the Downtown Grand is supposed to represent. At first I thought it might be the peak of a skyscraper, but the top of their building is not shaped like that at all. The logo is present on their web site, on images around the building, and on my souvenir chip.

The chip is a light blue, though not quite so light as it appears in the photos. It has six darker blue edge inserts and a dark blue center inlay for each side. Each center inlay has the denomination, the name, and the city/state in white, though the presentation differs. On one side, the name Grand is in a much larger font, with the inverted V logo used in place of the A. The other side has that logo appearing in a large scale above the casino name, with two white crescents containing the denomination numerically and in text.

UV light reveals that the base material fluoresces where it is exposed on the perimeter, but the edge inserts do not. On the center inlay, the "GRAND" on one side fluoresces in diagonal stripes as if it is partially covered by something. The large inverted V on the other side also fluoresces, and there are four smaller inverted Vs surrounding it, which are not seen under visible light. On that side only, there is a discontinuity in the fluorescence of the ring around the center inlay; I am not completely sure whether something is blocking part of a fluorescing ring or that there is an added partial ring in the vicinity of the small inverted Vs.

I am not certain who manufactured this chip. It's pattern under visible light shows some similarity to the Apache Gold chip I posted here, and that one I claimed was from Bud Jones. The other Downtown Grand chips in play have this same design but with the expected base colors for the higher denominations.

That Downtown Grand chip looks exactly like Icon's "2-color standard phase II" chip. But, the inserts are so basic that I bet many manufacturers have a very similar chip available.

I agree on all points there.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Max

Back in a previous century (prior to my Vegas experiences), the Maxim Hotel and Casino provided the backdrop for the shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur, who has reportedly been seen almost as often post mortem as has Elvis. The hotel became the Westin, with the casino and maybe the hotel carrying the name Casuarina. More recently, the hotel has been known as the Westin Las Vegas, and as of November 2013 the gaming area became the Max Casino. CasinoCity.com still lists the place as "The Westin Las Vegas Hotel, Casino and Spa."

I visited the Max in February and found the gaming operations as casual and friendly as I remembered from the Casuarina days. I played $5 craps for an hour and left ahead by $50 and a souvenir chip, one of my very few winning sessions on that trip. After I left the table, I joined my wife in a lounging/lobby area where she had been enjoying a glass of wine, reading her Nook, and ignoring the surroundings. We chatted a while then headed back to our marvelous suite at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which I described extensively in a review for this site.

When we got to the Cosmopolitan, I realized that my Android phone/PDA was not in my belt clip, and ten seconds later we realized that I had left it on a table in the Westin lounge area after recording my gaming results on my calendar. Panic and self-loathing for my stupidity immediately ensued, and I called the Westin expecting the worst. Nope, they sent security to the area, recovered my phone, and said I could pick it up at my convenience. Which meant about ten minutes later. Crisis averted.

A chip from the Max casino was initially posted in this thread by s2dbaker back in December as a reply to my much earlier post about the Casuarina. A page later, I asked s2dbaker to edit his post to look more like a standard Casino Chip of the Day new offering, but he never did, and now the link to his image of a $5 Max chip is broken. He last visited this site almost two weeks ago, but if he makes it back to see this post, I hope he will repost his chip in reply.

This $1 chip is a dark blue (darker than it appears in the photo) Short Cane Version of the Paulson hat and cane design. According to the MOGH chip guide, this chip is available with the SCV on one side and the Long Cane Version on the other, though mine is the same on both sides. Both versions have two medium-wide edge inserts in black and white. The slightly undersized, black center inlay has the casino name/logo and denomination in red and both the word Casino and the city/state in white. Nothing on this chip fluoresces under UV light.

The higher denomination standard chips from the Max casino are similar designs in the expected colors, with combinations of SCV and LCV and various sets of edge inserts, all narrower than the ones on this $1 chip. There was also a set of Grand Opening commemorative chips issued in $5, $25, and $100 denominations. I think s2dbaker's chip was one of these commemorative chips. I wonder how many people keep $100 commemorative chips as souvenirs.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Silver Sevens

The former Terrible's Casino opened under the Silver Sevens name in July 2013, too late for me to get a souvenir chip during last year's WoVCon. I did not get back to Las Vegas until February. Upon arrival, between the McCarran rental car center and my hotel, I made a stop to check out the renamed establishment. I played $5 craps for an hour and left up $300 and a souvenir chip. If only the rest of the trip had shown such favorable variance. 'Twas not to be.

After I played, my wife and I had lunch in the café upstairs from the casino, but I did not look around the place enough to be able to describe any of the changes from when the place was Terrible's. Maybe my head was just swirling with dreams/delusions that gaming the rest of the trip would be like that first session at the Silver Sevens.

This chip is a white Short Cane Version of the Paulson hat and cane design, with three medium-wide edge inserts in pink, blue, and brown. The MOGH chip guide shows that the chip is also available in a combination of SCV and LCV, though mine is the same on both sides. That guide notes that the SCV/LCV chips are also available with the sides reversed, i.e., with respect to the sequence of the insert colors.

The slightly undersized center inlay has a background color that drifts from white to silver-gray in keeping with the name of the casino. The casino name is presented in a red logo form with a silver numeral 7 forming half of each V. The city/state is in black with the denomination in white outlined in black. UV light reveals that the pink edge insert fluoresces, but nothing else does.

The MOGH guide shows a $2 chip in a similar design, except for its peach color, the denomination mark, and the edge inserts, but the higher denomination chips use the Paulson Reversed Hat and Cane mold. There is also a $5 Grand Opening commemorative chip with the RHC mold.



This post presents the last installment of my current collection of casino chips. Beginning tomorrow, member miplet will begin serving a short term (2 or 3 days, I understand) in the lead role of this thread, followed by a 1-day run for another member. Hopefully we will find some additional volunteer chip posters soon.

Quote: Doc

the former Terrible's Casino opened under the Silver Sevens name in July 2013, too late for me to get a souvenir chip during last year's WoVCon. I did not get back to Las Vegas until February. Upon arrival, between the McCarran rental car center and my hotel, I made a stop to check out the renamed establishment. I played $5 craps for an hour and left up $300 and a souvenir chip. If only the rest of the trip had shown such favorable variance. 'Twas not to be.

Too bad the rest of the trip did not follow the beginning of it.

Did you happen to notice whether there's a new club card as well? I assume there is. I still have the one I got when it was Terrible's (and the T-shirt, too). Normally I wouldn't have visited an undistinguished casino off the Strip, but this one was on the way back from the Atomic Testing Museum. As that first visit I walked back to the Strip, it seemed silly not to go in while walking right past it.

Their web site indicates that they now use Affinity Gaming's "A-Play Club" card. Maybe you should post an image of your Terrible's card to the Casino Club Card of the Day (sic) thread. The one that s2dbaker posted is now a broken link, as are all of the images he has posted here, I think.

Quote: Doc

Their web site indicates that they now use Affinity Gaming's "A-Play Club" card.

Thanks

Quote:

Maybe you should post an image of your Terrible's card to the Casino Club Card of the Day (sic) thread. The one that s2dbaker posted is now a broken link, as are all of the images he has posted here, I think.

Oh, too much work. I need to scan the card, or take a photo, then edit it to obscure the name on it, then find a place to host it online, then write the HTML code to post it here.... I'm just not that committed to visual media, sorry :)

deleted

State: Washington
City: Mountlake Terrace
Casino: Crazy Moose

The Crazy Moose is my home casino. Well technically it's just a card room. It has Ultimate Texas Hold'em, Texas Shootout, Four Card Poker, BJ (two tables), Pai Gow Poker (two tables), and Spanish 21 (four tables). It also has four poker tables.

It is one of ten owned by Washington Gold Casinos.

I have no clue how I ended up with my 50 cent chip. Must have left it in my pocket. They use fifty cent pieces now. I acquired my $1 chip chasing one of their promotions this past Thursday. Who knew trying to a 777 of mixed suits in Spanish 21 would deplete my $200 buy in. :+)

That is one crazy moose -- he's smiling while looking at the backs of his cards, exposing the faces to everyone else. Are there AP opportunities at the poker tables there?

Now miplet told me that he was going to be late in the day posting his chip for Saturday, but dang it, he missed the whole day by three full minutes! We might have to string him up and flog him with a wet noodle.

But thanks for the contribution!