Casino Chip of the Day

I have often commented that I keep my chip collection on display under glass on the top of the desk in my home office. Since I have added a number of chips to the collection in the last couple of months (and since this thread is not really a hotbed of activity any more), I thought I would post another image of the collection in its entirety. The current count is 422 casinos represented.



At the extreme right of the photo, there are three chips and four tokens that are not part of the array, and these are not included in the count of 422. The three chips were gifts from members of this forum and have previously been acknowledged and posted here. The four tokens are duplicates -- tokens from casinos where I later acquired clay chips to represent those casinos in the display.

I have on several previous occasions presented photos of this display, and in case anyone is interested in the changing image of my physical desktop, here are links to those posts:

216 chips on 5/11/10

270 chips on 10/19/11

318 chips on 1/25/13

386 chips on 10/3/13

Although the current status as shown above may not leave the impression there is much room left for more chips, that black inlay region of the desktop (where the 422 are in the array) still has room for a little more than 200 additional chips.

Quote: Doc

Although the current status as shown above may not leave the impression there is much room left for more chips, that black inlay region of the desktop (where the 422 are in the array) still has room for a little more than 200 additional chips.

Hm. I don't think 200 more will be enough. We should get a Kickstarter going for a bigger desk :)

So, it seems that I have been a bit negligent in keeping my Chips-I-Might-Get-Some-Day list up to date. And all of you other members failed to mention that a Harrah's casino was changing it's name. Yes, I know that the Grand Biloxi has become the Harrah's Gulf Coast, and that one has been on my list for quite a while.

But I just discovered this evening that Harrah's Rincon changed its name to Harrah's Resort Southern California sometime this year. I don't even know exactly when that happened. I did a search for that name in this forum and got no hits at all! The MoGH Chip Guide shows one $5 chip with the new name, so I don't know whether they have had a complete change-out of chips or not.

Anyway, I have now added that establishment to my list for a re-visit. My wife and I have talked about another visit to Pacific Time some time this winter, but we haven't nailed down whether it will take us to Las Vegas, San Diego, Palm Springs, or some combination of those. Next time I make it to Palm Springs, I will definitely pick up a chip from the Turtle Rock casino in 29Palms, and I suspect I will get down to the renamed Harrah's on that same trip, whenever it comes to pass.

The Rivers in pittsburgh is celebrating its 5th anniversary. They have $1 and $5 chips with a new inlay.

Thanks for the info, but it is not one that I will be looking to add to my collection. I only collect one chip per casino. Except if the casino changes its name, in which case I consider it a different casino, such as the Harrah's Resort Southern California. I got my souvenir from Rivers back in August 2011.

Some people want to collect one of each type of chip, or at least one of each series (if not of every denomination), but that's not for a cheapskate like me.

Quote: Doc

Anyway, I have now added that establishment to my list for a re-visit. My wife and I have talked about another visit to Pacific Time some time this winter, but we haven't nailed down whether it will take us to Las Vegas, San Diego, Palm Springs, or some combination of those.

You should come to the Pacific NW! Lots of casinos up here, and I don't believe you have chips from very many, if any of them...also very nice country. Best in the summer, though.

Just got back from Oklahoma. Flew into Tulsa, out of OKC, and hit up 20 casinos over 2 days. About 14 hours of driving total.

Collected 20 chips and a quick glance at the index shows I got about 10 not posted yet. I'll go ahead and start tomorrow when I get my pictures organized.

Excellent! I have picked up one so far on my current trip and expect to gather four more. I'll start posting when you finish your Oklahoma set.

A few housekeeping things on day 1...

3 chips I got look different enough from the ones already posted that I thought I'd share that here.

State: Oklahoma
City: Lawton
Casino: Comanche

Original post

My chip:


------------------------------
State: Oklahoma
City: Lawton
Casino: Fort Sill Apache

Original post

My chip:


No mention of Fort Still anymore on the chip.
------------------------------
State: Oklahoma
City: Wyandotte
Casino: Wyandotte

Original post

My chip:

Thanks for the post Wezvidz! This is the first time I can recall seeing the edge insert design on the Comanche chip.

What is the design in the little square on the Apache chip supposed to represent, especially since it doesn't match the mountains in the image below it?

State: Oklahoma
City: Shawnee
Casino: Black Hawk



Visited on the drive from Tulsa to OKC. Nothing significant to note about this place, but about Oklahoma casinos in general, there were a few interesting things I noticed across the board. All the slots constantly had a ringing bell sound in every casino, I assume to signify a "bingo winner" on these Class II machines. It was insanely annoying.

The other was the ante system for table games and how loose the rules were. I played some UTH at a few places, and some required a 50 cent ante per hand, some had special "no ante" days like every Thursday, and some places allowed you to play with no ante if you had a player's card.

It was also crazy hot, 100 degrees each day, I suppose I didn't realize I was basically in Texas desert-like heat. And if I thought my drive across Missouri last summer from St Louis to KC visiting casinos wasn't very scenic, Oklahoma definitely takes takes over the throne for most boring state to drive through.

Are the casinos in OK set up with shelters in case of tornadoes? Are there signs posted with instructions on what to do in case of this emergency?

The size of the "Black Hawk" signage and the rectangles make the building look small. However, the cars parked next to the building give away the scale. You must be able to see the sign from a long way off.

State: Oklahoma
City: Shawnee
Casino: Grand



Another casino in the wasteland between Tulsa and OKC, but this is a bigger one right off of I-40 west of OKC proper. I didn't take any notes on the place, which I only really did when a place was an absolute dump/dive or when it was surprisingly nice. So this must have been middle of the road.

Quote: wezvidz

I didn't take any notes on the place, which I only really did when a place was an absolute dump/dive or when it was surprisingly nice. So this must have been middle of the road.

So, "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium"? ;)

State: Oklahoma
City: Tulsa
Casino: Hard Rock



The Hard Rock properties never disappoint in being consistently big in scope and nice places to play, especially in lesser markets like this and where I live in south Florida. Just like the Hard Rock Hollywood near Ft Lauderdale is the premier place to play in South FL and a huge property with the biggest casino and lots of bars/restaurants, this was one of the nicest and biggest casinos I visited in Oklahoma.

My visit came last on a day that I visited 10 places, so I decided to gamble and chill out a bit here. Even though it's bingo, I'll take this nice little VP hit. First DDB quad As in a long long time.

OK, so I'm back home now and have updated the thread index to include the Black Hawk, Grand, and Hard Rock casinos in Oklahoma. Thanks for these additions Wezvidz. Looking forward to the rest of your new chips.

Just so I have something to add to this, I will note that the Hard Rock chip is from Chipco (with the CI logo visible at the 8:30 position); the Grand chip is a Paulson RHC, and the Black Hawk chip looks like another one from Chipco, though I cannot be certain just from viewing Wezvidz's photo. The MoGH chip guide agrees with that identification and includes a nice photo of the edge of the chip, where the full casino name is printed -- a nice touch.

State: Oklahoma
City: Harrah
Casino: Kickapoo

This was a fun one in the middle of nowhere. My GPS couldn't find its exact address so I marked an intersection. It was to the right and I went left for 5 miles before turning around and finding it. Passed a beautiful field of sunflowers on the way so it was partly worth it.



If the big casino sign wasn't by the road, I would never know this was a casino. It looks like a greenhouse-like structure. It's actually pretty nice inside though. One other casino on this trip had the exact same structure, really strange.

State: Oklahoma
City: Newcastle
Casino: Newcastle

"Newcastle Casino opened in Newcastle, Oklahoma in 1996. The 83,000-square-foot casino is owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation"



Located basically in OKC, this is one weird casino (OK has some of the stranger ones I've been to).

The building looked like a fairly small one story grocery store-like building from the outside. There were a few buildings next door that I later realized were all connected. This equates to an enormous amount of floor space inside that goes on and on. There are tons of machines and as I walked through the place, before realizing all the buildings were connected, I thought I accidentally went to a place that didn't have tables. The last giant room in the final building had a wide array of table games. UTH was present here and interestingly was the most common table game I found in OK, more than BJ. It's my favorite personally and always seemed more popular here in FL than when I'm out in Vegas.

Other than entering these casinos/chips in the thread's directory, I don't really have anything to contribute. (Guess I could say that the Kickapoo chip looks like another Chipco product, and the Newcastle chip is definitely a Paulson RHC.)

Maybe the reason I can't offer anything is that not only have I never been to a casino in Oklahoma, I have never even been to the state! I have been to each of the six surrounding states multiple times, but somehow I never have made it to Oklahoma. I think the closest I ever came (not counting flying over it in a plane) was a one-night stop in Texarkana in February 1971, while my wife and I were driving back east after my discharge from the army.

The only thing I really know about Oklahoma is that the corn is as high as an elephant's eye. (Yep, I like the play.)

Quote: Ayecarumba (back at the bottom of page 456)

What is the design in the little square on the Apache chip supposed to represent, especially since it doesn't match the mountains in the image below it?

I meant to reply to this question earlier, but I forgot. I think that little square on wezvidz's Apache chip (second chip in this post) really does represent the same mountain shown in the image below it on the chip, perhaps from a very slightly different perspective -- it extends the scene just a tad to the right but stops at about the same point on the left end. Ignore the pale blue background in the lower image. Looks like the same three projections on the ridge to me. I have no idea whether it really represents a genuine mountain. Most of the area around the casino appears to be flat, but there is a wilderness area just a few miles to the northwest that has some mountains.

State: Oklahoma
City: Skiatook
Casino: Osage

"Skiatook is a city in Osage and Tulsa counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the northeastern part of the state, about twenty miles north and west of Tulsa, it is a suburb of Tulsa."



The first 3 places I visited after flying into Tulsa were Osage casinos in close proximity to each other. This one opened in late 2013 so it's relatively new.

rdw posted Bartlesville here which I also visited, and this is the first of 2 chips that look identical to Bartlesville.

State: Oklahoma
City: Tulsa
Casino: Osage

Part two of yesterday's post of identical chips from nearly identical casinos.



The thing I'm confused about is that in rdw's post about Bartlesville's location, he states "This casino is also known as the Osage Million Dollar Elm. The Million Dollar Elm name was not on the casino at the time that I visited, and it is also not on the chip. I'm not quite sure if that name has been dropped, or if it's just that the Osage Nation name is posted despite the casino's alternative name/nickname. "

But then when looking into how old the Skiatook and Tulsa locations are, I found an article about the Skiatook location being newly opened stating "The $16.5 million Osage Casino-Tulsa opened in 2005 — then named the Million Dollar Elm Casino — at 36th Street North and the L.L. Tisdale Parkway.".

So it looks rdw may have mixed up the information on which Osage location is which.

I really don't understand the Million Dollar Elm thing at all. The Museum of Gaming History seems to think that ALL of the Osage Nation's casinos are associated with the Million Dollar Elm name. But I don't think that name is actually on any of the casinos or chips that are currently in play...

My typical chip-of-the-day commentary: These Osage chips are manufactured by Gemaco. It's their pattern 139.25.14.32.

As I have mentioned before, I maintain a list of "Chips I might get some day." One of the chips currently on that list is the Westgate Las Vegas, former LVH, former Las Vegas Hilton, former International (before my time in Las Vegas). The MoGH Chip Guide has a page for Westgate chips but currently just lists it as "Scans needed."

Today, I happened to look at the Westgate web site and saw that the place is described as "LVH Casino at Westgate Las Vegas Resort." Does anyone know whether Westgate owns/operates the casino now? Is this just a delay waiting for licensing, or will the casino retain the LVH name and perhaps be operated by a different party? The NGC Chip and Token Report does not yet show any chips being approved under the Westgate name.

If anyone has (or ever gets) some definite info on this topic, please let me know.

I just realized that I had never added to the thread directory the chip that wezvidz posted back on July 27 from the renamed Harrah's Gulf Coast. I was on travel at that time and just plain forgot about it when I got home. Sorry about that; I have now corrected my oversight.

If anyone ever happens to notice other casinos that have been covered in this thread with a chip-of-the-day but haven't been included in the index, please let me know.

Quote: Doc

As I have mentioned before, I maintain a list of "Chips I might get some day." One of the chips currently on that list is the Westgate Las Vegas, former LVH, former Las Vegas Hilton, former International (before my time in Las Vegas). The MoGH Chip Guide has a page for Westgate chips but currently just lists it as "Scans needed."

Today, I happened to look at the Westgate web site and saw that the place is described as "LVH Casino at Westgate Las Vegas Resort." Does anyone know whether Westgate owns/operates the casino now? Is this just a delay waiting for licensing, or will the casino retain the LVH name and perhaps be operated by a different party? The NGC Chip and Token Report does not yet show any chips being approved under the Westgate name.

If anyone has (or ever gets) some definite info on this topic, please let me know.

Articles written during the takeover indicate that Westgate is operating the hotel side as timeshares/condos/hotel. The casino operator may have stayed as a different subsidiary (it's my impression that's what happened, as that's how it operated at the time of purchase. However, I don't know Mr. Seigel's business). When I was a frequent guest of the LV Hilton, they were two separate entities co-located, and comps were sometimes complicated, with me as the runner between the pit/host/marketing and the hotel desk. Can't say I ever saw those type of complications at any of the other properties I frequented, but they specifically told me at the time it was because they were two companies, not one, no matter what the promotional materials said.

Thanks for the info, Babs. I'll leave the Westgate on my list in case things change, but my current LVH chip might represent this place for quite some time to come.


On a completely different topic, I just noticed another indicator of the "success" of this thread, or at least the interest level. While it has ranked in the #1 position for number of posts for quite some time (being challenged somewhat now by the Discussion of the Suspension List), the thread has very recently (don't know just when) overtaken the Spanish Word of the Day thread for the #1 position in total number of views. As I type this, the thread has 667,921 views to date. I think there are only seven threads in the forum that have reached the 100k view level.

And all this in spite of this thread being one of the most blocked threads in the forum!

Quote: Doc

Thanks for the info, Babs. I'll leave the Westgate on my list in case things change, but my current LVH chip might represent this place for quite some time to come.


On a completely different topic, I just noticed another indicator of the "success" of this thread, or at least the interest level. While it has ranked in the #1 position for number of posts for quite some time (being challenged somewhat now by the Discussion of the Suspension List), the thread has very recently (don't know just when) overtaken the Spanish Word of the Day thread for the #1 position in total number of views. As I type this, the thread has 667,921 views to date. I think there are only seven threads in the forum that have reached the 100k view level.

And all this in spite of this thread being one of the most blocked threads in the forum!

Is there a way to tell how many people have blocked a thread?

What I like about this thread is that it never strays very far off topic. That's quite an accomplishment for the size of it.

Quote: Doc

the thread has very recently (don't know just when) overtaken the Spanish Word of the Day thread for the #1 position in total number of views. As I type this, the thread has 667,921 views to date. I think there are only seven threads in the forum that have reached the 100k view level.

Let's do something nice when the thread hits one million views.

Quote: 1BB

Is there a way to tell how many people have blocked a thread?

I don't have a way, but JB does. Back on April 26, 2014 2013 (oops!), he made this post which reported the most blocked threads at that time.

State: Oklahoma
City: Tulsa
Casino: River Spirit



Expansive casino inside and a nice place run by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The best VP I had found thus far on my trip was here at 9/5 DDB. I still don't know if that's the "actual" paytable due to the bingo/class II style of the machines.

Looks like they're doing an expansion to add a Margaritaville casino to it that will open in 2015.

What are those four items on the perimeter of the chip's center inlay? I can't tell whether they are text that I can't decipher because of the resolution or just some patches of decorative scroll work.

In the photo of the casino, at the bottom of what looks like a video screen, there is a slogan that maybe says "Rollin' on the River". Whenever I hear that expression, I automatically think of the CCR song "Proud Mary". Does anyone know where that expression started? Was it around before the song (circa 1970)? Just curious whether the casino might be playing off a copyrighted lyric.

there's a car show, inline skating, blues festival themed "rollin' on the river" among other things playing off Fogarty's 1969 tune

Quote: wezvidz

State: Oklahoma
City: Tulsa
Casino: River Spirit

The roofline looks "Wynnesqe",and even the script "Casino" on their sign harkens to Mr. Wynn's signature.

Quote: Doc

...In the photo of the casino, at the bottom of what looks like a video screen, there is a slogan that maybe says "Rollin' on the River". Whenever I hear that expression, I automatically think of the CCR song "Proud Mary". Does anyone know where that expression started? Was it around before the song (circa 1970)? Just curious whether the casino might be playing off a copyrighted lyric.

According to this website, Fogerty came up with the phrase to describe, the "Proud Mary" which is a paddleboat. Given the general nature of the phrase, I think they can get away without paying as long as they don't play the music.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Quote: wezvidz

State: Oklahoma
City: Tulsa
Casino: River Spirit

The roofline looks "Wynnesqe",and even the script "Casino" on their sign harkens to Mr. Wynn's signature.

I haven't been inside, so I could be wrong, but the casino roofline looks a lot more like a flyloft for a stage/auditorium to me than a steal from Wynn.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Quote: Ayecarumba

Quote: wezvidz

State: Oklahoma
City: Tulsa
Casino: River Spirit

The roofline looks "Wynnesqe",and even the script "Casino" on their sign harkens to Mr. Wynn's signature.

I haven't been inside, so I could be wrong, but the casino roofline looks a lot more like a flyloft for a stage/auditorium to me than a steal from Wynn.

They are building a new theatre/showroom as part of an expansion, but the roofline in question looks more like a facade from this angle:



Note the curve in the roof line of the central structure in the photo above. It is clearly an echo of the Wynncore.

State: Oklahoma
City: Norman
Casino: Riverwind

"Riverwind Casino is a casino located in Norman, Oklahoma that opened in 2006. The 219,000 square feet casino, owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation is one of the largest in the state."



Large casino that was very lively on a Saturday afternoon. Tons of table games and machines ringing away. Their center bar was very similar to the circular center bar at the Hard Rock down here in Hollywood. Found some bartop All Star machines which had STP, my holy grail of bartops. 7/5 BP. Won $150.



Where's the love bingo machine? 10x and can't pull a single quad when dealt 3 of a kind.

State: Oklahoma
City: Norman
Casino: Thunderbird Wild Wild West

"One of the oldest Native American casinos in the state and operated by the Absentee Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma, Thunderbird Casino opened in 1987, located 15 miles east of Norman on Highway 9. "

The website for this casino doesn't seem to say anything about the "Wild Wild West" name, but the chip and other websites mention it. I don't believe the building had the name on it (just said Thunderbird).

This was one of the unimpressive places that left no impression on me, and the chip I got is pretty old looking.




This was the last chip from my less than exciting OK run! So if anyone else wants to takeover, now is the time.

First, thanks to wezvidz for adding a nice set of Oklahoma chips to this thread. We need similar contributions from other members who have chips from casinos not yet covered in this thread.

Second, as for this particular chip and casino, that's an interesting issue. I looked at the MoGH page for these chips and found some that just say Wild Wild West, some that just say Thunderbird, and some that have both names. I haven't tried looking into the history to see how the name may have evolved. The MoGH image for this particular chip shows that the other side is quite different and has the Thunderbird name on it. If your chip is like that and you can get an image of the other side, that would be a nice edit/addition to your post.

Third, yes, we need other members to post some chips in this thread. DeadMansHand had offered to post some chips quite a while ago. He last visited the forum on 9/1/14, but he still hasn't read the PM that I sent to him on 7/4/14 asking whether he was ready to start posting chips back then. I don't know how to interpret that.

I myself have five chips available to post. However, I will be out of town on Monday and Tuesday, so I'm thinking about waiting until Wednesday to start posting my new ones. If anyone else has some chips to offer for Saturday through Tuesday, please speak up ASAP.

Quote: Doc

We need similar contributions from other members who have chips from casinos not yet covered in this thread.

Frequent lurker, first time poster here. Like Doc, I collect a $1 chip (or the next closest denomination) from casinos by visiting and playing there. I've been collecting since about 1998, so I have many chips that haven't been posted here yet, including older Vegas institutions like the Desert Inn. My collection started with the 11 (at the time) casinos in Atlantic City but has grown to 26 states and 7 countries.

I'm not sure if or when I'll be able to start contributing but I thought I'd say hi.

Welcome, ChipmanSpiff. I'm happy you chose this thread for your first post.

You started collecting chips about five years before I started, and there was a bit of change to the Las Vegas strip during those years. I look forward to seeing your chips and hearing what stories you may have to tell. Let me know, either in this thread or by PM when you are ready to start posting them. I try to coordinate who has the lead role so that we don't have multiple people trying to post the chip for a particular day.

If you browse through this thread, it should be easy to figure out the standard format we have been following for the chip of the day, even though we can't keep it up every day any more. Before you start, you might want to check into what's involved in posting a photo on this forum. This has been discussed several places, but the key issue is that this forum doesn't store images -- the image must be hosted somewhere else on the web that is publicly accessible and linked to by the post.

State: Maryland
City: Baltimore
Casino: Horseshoe

When I was planning our August trip – North Carolina to New Jersey to Massachusetts to Maine and return – the real objective was to visit family in NJ and MA. I had four casinos in mind to visit and collect chips (which I will be posting over the next few days), but I had no route or specific stops in mind for the trip home from the Maine casinos.

Then there was a new thread that appeared in the forum, noting that a Horseshoe casino would be opening in Baltimore on the last night of our trip, a night that I expected to spend in either PA or NJ. This is the fourth casino in Maryland, and somehow I had completely missed that this casino had even been announced.

It seemed reasonable (reasonable to a chip collector anyway) to route our way south the following day via Baltimore and make it a five-casino trip instead of four. Normally, I avoid the Washington-Baltimore area on our trips to NJ, but in my warped thinking, a new casino and chip would justify the agony of the traffic.

We followed that route, played at the new casino, and I posted my brief report on the second page of that linked thread. The two most relevant parts were that (1) table minimums on day #2 were above my comfort level and (2) I lost money while playing craps. I did get my souvenir chip. I don’t think I need to discuss this casino any further here, since it is discussed fairly well in that other thread.

My souvenir chip is a Long-Cane-Version (LCV) Paulson in white, with two wide, orange, edge inserts. It is in excellent condition, which shouldn't be surprising, since the casino had only been in operation for 16 or 17 hours when I got to the table. The center inlays are the same on both sides, a bit undersized and including a gold horseshoe, the denomination, the casino name twice, and the city name twice, but just once with the state. UV light reveals the Paulson logo near the center, with nothing else fluorescing.

Quote: Doc

State: Maryland
City: Baltimore
Casino: Horseshoe

That is a nice chip, Doc. It appears that the border between the edge and the outer circle above the hats is thicker than other THC chips. Could it be that the long cane version has smaller diameter rings?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Could it be that the long cane version has smaller diameter rings?

O.K., I suppose this is a reasonable time to talk about top hat and cane chips, particularly in case there might be some newer members who haven't been wading through this thread for the several years since it started.

The image of a top hat and walking cane (usually across the hat) has been part of casino chips for many years. I'm not sure just where it started, who was the first company to use it in their designs, and who really manufactured those chips. Remember that years ago, there were chip vendors who owned designs and even owned the chip molds but did not have manufacturing facilities of their own. They just contracted for production runs to support their sales.

For decades, though, the top hat and cane has been the exclusive logo of the Paulson company, founded by Paul Endy, with the name originally being written Paul-Son and basically meaning "Paul and Son" company. Paulson is now a division of Gaming Partners International.

Paulson has produced quite a few chip designs. Three of the most common versions of their chips -- and two less-common ones (just keep reading) -- feature eight hats and canes molded into the perimeter of the chip, between the center inlay and the edge. Those three designs are known as the Long Cane Version (LCV), the Short Cane Version (SCV), and the Reversed Hat and Cane version (RHC). The RHC chips do not have a ring around the outside of the chip at all. The LCV and SCV chips have a ring outside of the set of hats and canes, with a small band of chip between the ring and the edge, at least on a brand new chip. Once the chips have substantial use, the edges cease to be crisp -- they wear away or the "clay" material gets broken (chipped?) off -- and the ring may appear quite close to the outside, rounded/beveled edge of the chip.

I am posting examples of each of these three designs below, each being a chip I have previously posted in this thread and each being in rather good condition, since I collected them when the casinos were quite new. This gives us a reasonable basis for examining the differences between the three versions. As a reminder (or new info for newcomers) for any of the chip images I post in this thread, you may click on the image in the thread and get a larger image in a separate tab or window, in case you want to see it better.

The Valley Forge Casino used the Reversed Hat and Cane design for their chip shown below. The "Reversed" part of the name is in reference to two of the logos on the chip, 180° apart (at the 11:00 and 5:00 positions in this image), in which the cane crosses the top hat in the opposite direction from the way it does on the other six hats. I think that it is always the case that six of the canes have the hook to the right of the hat and two have the hook to the left (as viewed from the center of the chip), but I could be mistaken on that.



The chip below from the Silver Sevens Casino shows the Short Cane Version. Short and Long are relative measures, particularly in terms of these chip designs. There seem to be quite a range of cane lengths that can be found. The clearer distinction between the SCV and LCV can be found by looking at how close the cane comes to the brim of the top hat. On some, the cane is very close to the brim, and the tip of the cane may even dip below the brim. Those chips are the SCV design. In general, the SCV chips really do have canes that are shorter than the ones on the LCV chips, even though there is a variety of cane lengths.

I am posting the LCV chip from the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore right beside the Silver Sevens chip so that it may be easier to examine the two together and note the differences.

Can you see the difference? Can you tell that on the Horseshoe chip the cane emerges from the side of the hat farther above the brim than the cane does on the Silver Sevens chip? Yes, it's a rather subtle difference, and you really might have to click on these two images and examine the larger ones. Does the cane on the LCV chip really look longer to you than the cane on the SCV chip?



In response to Ayecarumba's question quoted above, the perimeter band (outside the outer ring) on the Horseshoe chip does indeed look a little wider than the one on the Silver Sevens chip. I have no idea whether that is a consistent characteristic of LCV chips versus SCV chips.


Now, there are two other, less-common versions of the Paulson chips that I am aware of that have the top hats and canes around the perimeter. One is the LCV/SCV (or maybe SCV/LCV depending on which direction you are facing). Those chips have the LCV design on one side of the chip and the SCV design on the other. Sometimes chips are issued for a casino with some being LCV, some being SCV, and some being LCV/SCV, with all of them being issued at the same time. All I can guess is that there may have been a rush order for chips, and they had to use every mold set they could get their hands on. Or perhaps someone just has a sense of humor.

The other design for the Paulson hat and cane chips just has to be very rare. I'm pretty sure that I don't have one anywhere in my collection. That design is the Inverted Hat and Cane or IHC. On those, the brims of the top hats are toward the perimeter of the chip with the top of the hat and the hook of the cane toward the center inlay. I haven't seen enough of the IHC chips to know whether there are long and short cane variations of that.

I think we only have had three chips of the IHC design presented in this thread. Member/collector rdw4potus posted here a $5 IHC chip from the Lake of the Torches Casino in Wisconsin, and the Wizard posted here and here $8 IHC chips from the Venetian, which were their 2012 and 2013 Chinese New Year commemorative chips. Maybe some day I'll encounter an IHC chip for my own collection.

I'm happy to report I collected a few chips during my trip in Colombia. I plan to post it all together after I get it uploaded and write a summary of my experience.

Great write up Doc! Please add a reference to it in the index.

Quote: Konbu

I'm happy to report I collected a few chips during my trip in Colombia. I plan to post it all together after I get it uploaded and write a summary of my experience.

If you want to tell the whole tale about your Colombia experience at once, I suggest either a blog post or maybe check with the Wizard about your writing an article about "Gambling in Columbia" for this site. As for your new chips, it would be better to post them separately as chips of the day. The only South American chip thus far in this thread is from the Coliseum Casino in Bolivia, and I really got that chip at a casino in Curacao.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Great write up Doc! Please add a reference to it in the index.

O.K., that post about top hat and cane chips is now included with that bunch of other "Handy reference links" behind a spoiler at the very end of the Thread Index -- Part 2 on the first page of the thread.

State: New Hampshire
City: Hampton Beach
Casino: Ocean Gaming

OK, here’s a brand new state for this thread.

Hampton Beach is a New England summer vacation spot that I stopped by during my recent trip to the northeast. I went there specifically to collect a souvenir chip from the Ocean Gaming Charity Casino located there. I think the only “charity casino” I have ever been to before was the one in Brantford, Ontario, and I’m not sure that this is quite the same. I first heard of this casino back in June, when it was discussed on this forum in this thread.

I found that parking was a problem – no free parking available that I could find, at least not in the summer. Many/most of the pay parking lots were full. All of the parking seemed to be intended for folks coming to the beach for the entire day, and most were priced at $10 upon entry. Apparently, $10 for parking was a good deal for all-day visitors, and the beach was very crowded. I only had in mind to stop for just a few minutes, so this seemed like a rip-off. I was told that there were a couple of free, 15-minute spaces around but that the limit was strictly enforced with towing. I didn’t want to take the risk, and besides, I never saw an open one. I finally found a $5 parking lot a couple of blocks from the beach and the casino.

The ocean-front main drag (separated from the sand beach by a single-lane, two-row parking area) in Hampton Beach is filled with the typical tourist shops, restaurants, and lodging facilities. Many of the hotels offer rooms on floors above the shops, with some rooms having balconies with nice ocean views.

My “just-a-few-minutes” stop didn’t quite work out that way. We arrived in the morning, getting our vehicle parked just before 11:00, and it turns out that the Ocean Gaming casino doesn’t open until noon. Good thing I didn’t find a 15-minute parking space. While we waited, my wife and I walked down the street and found a four-story restaurant where we had lunch. The first three floors had restaurants that appeared to be operated separately, at least as far as the customer experience. They may have shared the kitchen facilities. We ate on the third level, an open-air restaurant and bar, and I didn’t go up to the top level to see what was there. Had a nice lunch and got back to the casino just after it opened.

I found that they offer craps but only in the evenings. I went to the only blackjack table in operation and took my spot as the second player in the game. As was discussed in the linked thread, wagering limits are quite low: $2 minimum and $4 maximum per hand, with a two-hand limit. There was a side bet that I didn’t play – don’t remember what it was, but I think it was mentioned in that other thread. I played $2 blackjack for 20 minutes and broke even.

Shortly before I left, I told the dealer that I had a chip for him and asked whether he wanted to play it with me or just have it as a hand-in. He said he was not allowed to participate in the game. I had encountered that once before at a casino in Curacao, but I think that’s the only time, so I just tossed him the chip.

There are a few other charity casinos in New Hampshire that have table games and chips, plus a number of card rooms where chips could be collected. Some of these are co-located with racing facilities. I doubt that I will loop New Hampshire searching for these, but if any of you do, please contribute chip images to this thread.

The Ocean Gaming $1 chip is a very plain, mostly-blue chip with six white “inserts” separated by six white dice faces. I think that the lines beside two edges of each die face are supposed to make the dice look three-dimensional. (Doesn't really work for me.) Opposing dice faces total 7, but they are not arranged in numerical order. There are twelve white dashes separating the “inserts” and dice from the center area of the chip. In the center, the casino name is embossed on one side (note the sea gull sitting on top of the "O") and the denomination on the other. Higher denomination chips were just as plain.

I have no idea who manufactured this chip, but a brief search on the web suggested that several manufacturers produce this pattern – called “6 Dice” by several sites. I read that this pattern is offered in quite a range of quality levels. If you do a search for “6 Dice chips”, I think you will find a number of vendors offering to sell sets of these chips (without the casino name or denomination) at rather modest prices for home games, including in the set a supply of chips in a variety of colors, a carrying case, and maybe even some decks of cards.

I even found this site that specifically states that their supply comes from a Chinese manufacturer. Ocean Gaming probably found such a manufacturer to produce these chips and add the required identification and denomination.




Edit 5/12/20: Member RideTheEdge posted some additional Ocean Gaming chips as part of his post here.