Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: Brewfangrb

I was actually going to make a deck of cards from every casino part of my collection as well

You probably would need more than that... most places use at least 2 different back colors.

Of course, if you're really gung-ho for collecting, you'll get a sample of their alternate chips, too. (This will be trickier.)

Quote: Dieter

If you don't see them at a gift shop, ask at the player's club. Good for all the Ho-Chunk properties with card tables.

Potawatomi in Milwaukee has bins of them on the bridge to the parking ramp - if you're fortunate enough to walk by right after they've dumped them full. It's amazing if they last more than an hour or two. (They change out their cards at least daily, have mostly machine-shuffle tables, and a lot of 8 deck games... so they cancel a fair number of decks.)

I didn't pick up a deck from North Star, but... I didn't particularly like the cards they use (Gemaco Sentinels), so I don't feel bad about that.

If you get over to Nekoosa and want a box of souvenirs, they had been selling their retired chips (from when it was Rainbow) for $10 a box. 40x$1, 60x$5 to a box. They're usually fairly dirty. 5 minutes, warm water, and a squirt of dish soap does wonders. (Useful if you want to practice chip tricks - they handle much better than the $8/100 "dice" chips you can get at Wal-Mart.)

Since Baraboo just retired their chips, it may be interesting to see if they sell off the retirees next month.

Good advice, thanks. Never thought of asking at the players club. Also, the idea of grabbing 60 chips for $5 just to have for like a home game, etc would be pretty cool. I'll have to see if I can get to Nekoosa in time. Final date for the chips in the Dells is 10/31, I think, so maybe I'll make my trip there after that.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Silver City

Today's chip of the day comes from the Silver City Casino in Las Vegas, NV. The casino opened in 1974 on the Vegas Strip, just north of Desert Inn Road, and next door to the Sports World Casino that was discussed a few days ago. The site originally opened as a casino called Riata in 1972, but it went out of business in less than a year. It was then purchased by Major Riddle, a well-known casino owner in the city, who also owned the Silver Nugget in North Las Vegas and the International (later the Las Vegas Hilton). Riddle died in 1980 afer a long illness.

In 1979 the casino was purchased by Circus Circus Enterprises (later Mandalay Resorts Group). The casino did fairly well, but it sat on rented land, and Mandalay closed the property on October 31, 1999, after being evicted by their landlord, who wanted to develop the land for commercial purposes (isn't a casino a commercial enterprise?). The developer, Luke Brugnara, would later be denied a gaming license and lost his bid to purchase the partially finished Fountainebleu resort, after his indictment by a federal grand jury for tax evasion. Today, the site holds a Walgreens and a Ross. Personally, I'd rather have that little piece of Old Vegas back instead. I remember it being a modest sized place - say, 500 or so slot machines and 12-15 table games. The dealers were friendly enough, but I think the closure had already been announced when I visited, so everyone was a bit sullen.

Silver City also had the distinction of becoming the first smoke-free casino in Southern Nevada in 1991, but lost business caused them to reverse the policy soon after.

The chip is a blue Paulson H&C (SCV) with a gold hotstamp center. I'm not generally a fan of this style, as it's fairly plain and boring, but fortunately they aren't very common in Vegas.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Key Largo

Today's chip of the day is from the Key Largo Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Key Largo was located on East Flamingo Road, near the Hard Rock Casino and what used to be Terrible's (now Silver Sevens).

Key Largo was at least the fifth casino to occupy the site. According to MOGH, originally the property opened as the Ambassador Casino in the 1970s (sources vary on the exact year). In 1985, it became La Mirage; in 1989, when Steve Wynn was about to open the new Mirage resort, he bought the rights to the name so there would be no confusion between the two. The property was then called Anthony's until 1993, when it became a Quality Inn. This lasted a few years, and the property may have closed for a while (there's gaps in the history of this place). In 1997, it re-opened with a South Florida theme and the name Key Largo.

In 2005, the owners closed the casino, with an eye towards building condos on the site. That never happened, and the building languished until March 28, 2013, when it burned down. It was not the first fire at the abandoned building; in 2008, a man was electrocuted trying to steal copper wiring and started another fire. ATF investigators believed that the 2013 fire was arson, and the county ordered that the remains be torn down. The owner was a company called Flamingo 2005 LLC, which sounds a lot like a holding company. I do not have any NGC records far enough back to know more about them.

A $5 chip was all I was able to get at the time, as they were using $1 slot tokens at the tables; according to MOGH, Key Largo never had $1 chips.

The chip is a Bud Jones product in red with a light colored inlay. The photo of this chip on MOGH shows a white inlay but my chip actually looks more like a very faded peach - maybe it just discolored over the years. The chip has 8 pairs of white inserts with an additional 4 half-circle inserts, alternating with the denomination of the chip. The inlay includes an image of a ... not sure, swordfish or marlin.

I'm going to say that's definitely a marlin. That's the moneyfish in the Florida Keys.

The design really looks similar to the Matsui products we have seen from other joints.

Quote: Ayecarumba

The design really looks similar to the Matsui products we have seen from other joints.

That could be. I used MOGH as a reference, which identifies it as a Bud Jones. There is no manufacturer logo or stamp on the chip that I could see.

Quote: Brewfangrb

Quote: Doc

State: Arkansas
City: West Memphis
Casino: Southland Park

The blackjack game is the iTable from Shufflemaster, where a live dealer deals real cards from a shoe that reads the cards as they are dealt, entering the info into the table's computer system. A cash buy-in results in credits appearing on the table-top touch screen in front of the player, where wagers and hit/stand/insurance/double/split decisions are entered. When a player leaves the table, chips are used to pay out the balance of credits, and that appears to be the only use for the chips. It seems that a TITO printout and a redemption kiosk would be more efficient than issuing chips to be carried over to the cashier cage or another table, but then they would never get someone like me into their place even for a first visit.

What, exactly, is the point of this? Live dealers, real cards, but with it basically converted to video Blackjack? Do they not trust the dealers to count and do math? This is very strange to me.

State law only authorized "electronic games of skill" at racetracks. All games must have a skill element (i.e. hit/stand etc.) while playing the game on an electronic device as the law is currently written.

http://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/OFFICES/FIELDAUDIT/EGS/Pages/Definitions.aspx

10.17 "Electronic game(s) of skill" (hereinafter EGS) means game(s) played through any electronic device or machine that affords an opportunity for the exercise of skill or judgment where the outcome is not completely controlled by chance alone.

Why did they force all games to be electronic? Typical stupid politician behavior.

Quote: tringlomane

Why did they force all games to be electronic? Typical stupid politician behavior.

I would imagine it's the same logic that required Indiana's riverboats to cruise every two hours, or Missouri's $400 session buy-in limits, or Mississippi requiring casinos to be built touching the Mississippi River or the Gulf of Mexico - they create an illusion of restriction and limitation, so gambling in their state doesn't appear wild and uninhibited like in Nevada and won't be as "damaging" to the people. By the way, all of those restrictions I mentioned no longer exist.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Hotel San Remo

Today's chip of the day comes from the Hotel San Remo in Las Vegas, NV. This property is today the Hooters Casino Hotel and was previously discussed by Doc, here. The San Remo was located on East Tropicana Avenue, next to the Tropicana and across the street from the MGM Grand.

As Doc mentioned in his post, the hotel originally opened as a Howard Johnson's in 1973, but being a casino-hotel did not fit in with their family-friendly persona so it did not last long. After that, the history of the property is a little hard to reconstruct: it was known as the Paradise Hotel for a mere six months in 1976 then became the 20th Century for a year in 1977. It then became known as the Treasury in late 1979, and that too only lasted a few years. In 1986, it tried to open as the Polynesian, but the owners were denied a gaming license. In 1989, it was purchased by the Izumi family of Japan, remodeled with an Italian Riviera theme, and opened as the San Remo.

The hotel had approximately 700 rooms across two small towers and motel-style rooms in the rear of the property. The casino was small by Vegas standards - about 30,000 square feet - and included 20-some table games and about 600 slot machines. In late 2004, it was announced that the property would be remodeled as a Hooters, which was completed in early 2006. I don't remember thinking very much of the San Remo - I probably stopped by in the late 1990s when I walked the entire Strip from end to end, and didn't stay long, as I was trying not to lose time wandering too far from the Strip.. but the San Remo was so tantalizingly close to the Tropicana I made a quick visit.

The chip is a Paulson H&C (SCV) in white, with an off-white inlay with red and yellow accents, and the letters S and R intertwined in brown.

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

Quote: Ayecarumba (regarding the Key Largo chip)

The design really looks similar to the Matsui products we have seen from other joints.

That could be. I used MOGH as a reference, which identifies it as a Bud Jones. There is no manufacturer logo or stamp on the chip that I could see.

I have developed the impression that somebody at MoGH believes that EVERY ceramic chip is manufactured by Bud Jones.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Klondike Hotel

Today's chip of the day is from the Klondike Inn/Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. This should not be confused with Klondike Sunset in Henderson, which was discussed here and contains some background on the Klondike Inn. The Klondike was located on Las Vegas Boulevard just south of the Mandalay Bay resort and adjacent to McCarran International Airport.

To add to what Doc already posted, Klondike was a gold rush themed hotel (really more of a motel) that had gone through several names and owners throughout the years. It apparently opened in 1962 as the Kona Kai Motel, was a Motel 6 at some point, and became the Klondike Inn in 1975, then the Klondike Hotel and Casino in 1982. However, that information, from Wikipedia, is inconsistent with what MOGH has to say chip-wise, which appears that the place was known as the Klondike Inn when the casino opened in 1982, and became Klondike Hotel much later. MOGH indicates that the place was only open for one year from 1982-1983 then again from 1996-2006 but it's not clear if this simply refers to the casino or the entire property. I'm assuming the former, as all the articles about the site mention its 45-year existence. The Klondike closed its doors in June 2006. There were plans to build a resort on the site called Paramount Las Vegas, but the project was cancelled after an investor pulled out. A 2002 non-restricted count report I have indicates that the Klondike's fairly small casino had 4 table games and about 350 slots.

One little bit of trivia, according to Wikipedia, is that the exterior of the Klondike Casino was used for the scene in Vegas Vacation where Clark tries to win back his money, playing games like Pick A Number and War (which, despite the joke, actually exists in casinos).

I think I visited Klondike in 2002 or so; I know I didn't walk there from the Tropicana when I trekked up and down the Strip in the late 1990s. I remember it being kind of dumpy by that point, in desperate need of a refresh or just to give it all up (which it soon did). While MOGH shows that the Klondike Inn, ca. 1982, had $1 chips, it looks like they only had $5 chips of a later series by the time I visited.

The chip is shown below, but it's not a particular good image. My scanner gets confused by reds, so this bright red chip looks more like a rose color. MOGH refers to this chip as a Paulson H&C but it looks more like an RHC. There is a dark red inlay; I can't tell what the pattern is on it - it sort of looks like a brick wall, but not really. The chip has a logo of a gold miner holding a pickax and has 3 inserts in pink, yellow, and green.

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Hotel San Remo

The very first time that I visited Las Vegas (March 2003), I stayed at the Tropicana. I was working with a crew in that area of the country for a couple of weeks, and the other guys decided we should spend our idle weekend in Sin City. We stayed at the Trop because that was the only hotel we could identify ahead of time on the strip that would offer us weekend rooms that fit into the constraints of our government contract per diem rates, since we didn't have any player histories anywhere.

Based on that extremely limited experience with Las Vegas hotels, that's the place I chose to stay when I took my wife there for our next eleven visits to the city, extending through April 2007. Maybe not the best way to choose a Vegas hotel, but it worked rather well for us.

Of course the San Remo was operating right next door to the Tropicana from before I first got there, right through the start of my chip collecting obsession in September 2003, and right up until it became the Hooters. Somehow, I never managed to go to the little casino right next door to our hotel and get a souvenir chip until after the name changed. One of the many failures in my collecting experience.



BTW, I have been out of town for a couple of days again, but I have once more brought this thread's index back up to date with the chips that ChipmanSpiff has been posting. I still have a lot of trouble editing those long index posts successsfully with either my phone or tablet, so I just wait until I get back home to a real computer.

Quote: Doc

Somehow, I never managed to go to the little casino right next door to our hotel and get a souvenir chip until after the name changed. One of the many failures in my collecting experience.

I know how you feel - my failures are too numerous to mention. By 2001-2, I would have been to Vegas at least 2-3 times, yet somehow I didn't get to places like Vacation Village, or The Reserve. Even more bizarre is that I went to both Black Hawk, CO, and Deadwood, SD, in 2000, and only have 3 chips to show for it; I should have gathered dozens. I do recall that a number of places in one or both cities were using not only $1 slot tokens, but $5 tokens as well, and I wasn't going to collect $25 chips. I think I gave up fairly quickly and kept moving.

As recently as 4 years ago, I botched a cross-country trip where I would have had plenty of time to clean out the gulf coast, Oklahoma, and the southwest, but just felt like getting home. I think I mentioned once before that I track casino closings, and something like 600 have closed since I started collecting in 1998 that I didn't get to in time. It's all rather frustrating, and the recent closings that I missed out on (Revel, and Margaritaville in Biloxi) don't help.

Yes, this is more than a hobby - it's a compulsion.

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

I would imagine it's the same logic that required Indiana's riverboats to cruise every two hours, or Missouri's $400 session buy-in limits, or Mississippi requiring casinos to be built touching the Mississippi River or the Gulf of Mexico - they create an illusion of restriction and limitation, so gambling in their state doesn't appear wild and uninhibited like in Nevada and won't be as "damaging" to the people. By the way, all of those restrictions I mentioned no longer exist.

Missouri also required them to cruise every two hours before I turned 21. And also still requires casinos to close at least one hour per week. The most popular casinos choose 6a-7a Wed. Also considering my general low-rolling style...I actually had no problem with Missouri's $500 per 2 hour limit. One of the few games the rule was really bad for was "no-limit holdem" when that became more popular beyond 2006 (rule removed in 2009). And listening to my mother's own stories about the old rule (who has lost probably $50k in the last 5 years but probably never broke the now repealed rule)...I believe was the rule was correct to attempt to enforce because there were several people she witnessed in the past that "maxed out" and were going to drive 5 min. to the next casino to possibly lose another $500 (on slots). Again in principle, I think the rule was a good idea. Because most people in America, in my opinion, shouldn't be losing more than $500 within 2 hours. And those who can...go to Illinois, Tunica, or Vegas.

And actually, Tunica casinos are still required to touch the Mississippi in some weak fashion. Not like it matters, the Tunica market is NEVER expanding anyway. That being said...I'm going to Tunica on Saturday, yay!!! :D

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Lady Luck

Today's chip of the day is from the Lady Luck casino in Las Vegas, NV. Doc previously discussed this property in its current form, the Downtown Grand, here. The Lady Luck was located at 3rd Street and East Ogden Avenue in downtown Las Vegas.

The first casino on the site was called Honest Johns, a newsstand with a few slot machines, which opened in 1964. It became Lady Luck in 1968 and was expanded multiple times through the 1970s and 1980s to occupy an entire city block, including two hotel towers with a total of almost 800 rooms. Isle of Capri acquired the casino in 2000, then sold it to Steadfast AMX in 2002, who then sold it to the Henry Brent Company in 2005. In early 2006, the hotel and casino closed for a yearlong renovation, but financial troubles halted the work. In 2007, the property was sold to the CIM Group and - eventually - the renovated property opened as the Downtown Grand. In 2002, the Lady Luck had 20 table games and almost 800 slots; the Downtown Grand has 24 tables but only about 500 slots, so some reconfiguration of the casino floor must have been part of the renovation.

The chip is a white Bud Jones house mold with a coin inlay. MOGH has 6 variations on this particular chip - half are in a medium orange and the other half are dark orange. The earlier series chips seem to be distinguished by the typeface on the coin inlay lettering - the stems of the "K", for example, are either joined or separated. The third series, from 1998, have Bud Jones initials on them. There are 4 dark orange inserts interleaved with the initials "LL" in dark orange. Strangely, while I would have visited in 1999 or later, my chip is of the older design.

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

... In early 2006, the hotel and casino closed for a yearlong renovation....

Yep, the place was open for more than two more years after I started collecting chips in Las Vegas, and I never made it there.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Wildfire

Today's chip of the day comes from the Wildfire Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Wildfire is located on North Rancho Drive, diagonally across the corner of Rancho Drive and Coran Lane from Texas Station.

The site originally opened as the Buckhorn Bar in the 1950s, serving as the first stop for traffic coming into the city on Tonopah Highway from the north. In 1962, two locals bought the place and named it Ernie's. Ernie's was popular with locals even after larger casinos, like Fiesta, opened in the area. In 1992, Ernie's was sold to the Bauchman brothers, who wanted to get into the gaming business. They built the new Wildfire Casino next Ernie's, and after Wildfire opened in 2001, the old site was demolished. In early 2003, Wildfire was sold to Station Casinos, who operate through their Wildfire Gaming division.

Wildfire still exists today, but has not had table games for some time. I would have visited probably in 2003, around the time of the sale to Station Casinos, and Wildfire had six table games then. The next oldest non-restricted count report I have is from 2008, and the casino only had slots at that point. The Wildfire brand has since expanded to six other Vegas locations, but they too are slots only. Wildfire Gaming also owns the Wild Wild West Casino as well as Barley's in Henderson, which has not yet been posted in this thread.

The chip is a white Paulson RHC with a black inlay. There are flames coming out of the casino's name, with two dice (a two and a five - Wildfire did apparently have a craps table in 2002). The chip has two inserts, one in a rusty brown color and one in a mustard yellow.

I went in June on my North Vegas chip collecting trip and found out there's no tables. Then I went to Texas Station and dropped $100 playing $5 craps. *boo*

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Wildfire

The chip is a white Paulson RHC with a black inlay. There are flames coming out of the casino's name, with two dice (a two and a five - Wildfire did apparently have a craps table in 2002). The chip has two inserts, one in a rusty brown color and one in a mustard yellow.

Cool looking chip/logo.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Santa Fe

Today's chip of the day is from the Santa Fe Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Doc previously discussed this property's successor, Santa Fe Station, here. Santa Fe Casino was located at the north end of Rancho Drive, where it splits off from US 95. Even though this area is fairly far north, it is still part of the city of Las Vegas, and not North Las Vegas, or unincorporated Clark County.

Doc already covered a bit of the history of Santa Fe in his post. The property was originally built in 1990 by Santa Fe Gaming, in an attempt to meet the needs of locals in the rapidly expanding city. Santa Fe Gaming started in 1983 as Hacienda Resorts, managing the Vegas casino of the same name. At various stages, Hacienda changed their name to Santa Fe, then to Sahara Gaming. In 1995, the company sold the Hacienda and Saraha casinos, and changed their name back to Santa Fe. Today, the company is known as Archon; their only gaming property seems to be the Pioneer Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, NV. The Santa Fe Casino was sold to Station Casinos in 2000 and became Santa Fe Station.

Looking back at this chip, it turns my collecting history on its head. I didn't remember going to more distant parts of Vegas (outside of the Strip and downtown) until about 2002, so the fact that I have this chip either means that Santa Fe Station was slow to take the old chips out of circulation, or my memory just isn't very good. Either way, I know my memory isn't very good. I never kept any notes from any of my chip excursions, except in a few cases where the notes are more about the roadtrip itself (what highways I took). What's also strange is that according to MOGH, Santa Fe issued a plastic Bud Jones suits mold chip in 1998, so I'm surprised I was able to pick up the older design. I'm sure I probably went to Santa Fe at the same time I went to other Rancho Drive properties, I'm just not sure when. When you've been to as many casinos as I have, they all start to blur together.

The chip is a fairly unusual design, known as a "horse head right" (HHR) mold, because of the 16 horse heads embossed into the rim of the chip. The chip is gray, with a gold hotstamp center. My chip is a little faded but it's still fairly readable. Interestingly, the logo at the top - what looks like a series of feathers - is the same as what's on the Santa Fe Station chips, with one minor exception. On the Santa Fe Station chip, just below the feathers are what looks like opposing faces or face masks, with one eye showing. On the Santa Fe chips, there is still a face on the left side of the logo, but where the other face would be is what looks like a clubs symbol (from a deck of cards).

Man, ChipmanSpiff! You just keep coming up with great additions to this thread. Thanks a bunch.

First point, I initially misread your Wildfire post and thought you meant that Barley's in Henderson still had table games. I looked at the chips in the MoGH guide, got excited, and added Barley's to my list of chips to collect when I get out to Las Vegas in a week and a half from now. Then reality sunk in. Bummer.

Second, I think your Santa Fe chip might be the first horse head right chip we have had posted in this thread. I can't find any reference to another.

Finally, a miniscule point -- a tiny typo you might want to fix in the second paragraph of the Santa Fe post refers to "Saraha properties" instead of "Sahara".

Hi Doc - sorry for the confusion on the Barley's chip - yes, they dropped their table games years ago. I'll be posting that chip in a few days; I think I have posted all of my (city of) Las Vegas chips, and have some from N. Las Vegas and Henderson, then will move on to other parts of Nevada. I think I have about 50 or so Nevada chips left to post.

I revised my post slightly - it now refers to the "Hacienda and Sahara casinos" as being sold in 1995. I hope that makes it a little clearer - the company divested itself of half of its casino holdings and kept Santa Fe and the Pioneer.

Hopefully by the time you get to Vegas, the Linq will have issued their new chip; the rebranding from The Quad is supposed to be in effect by 10/30. I was about to go to Vegas last week to pick up a few new chips I don't have yet (SLS, Westgate, Cromwell, etc.) but decided to wait for Linq. I'm also waiting for NGC to release the Q3 non-restricted count report so I can double-check if there's anything new out there that might have escaped my notice.

State: Nevada
City: North Las Vegas
Casino: Opera House

Today's chips (it's a two-fer) of the day come from the Opera House Casino in North Las Vegas, NV. Opera House is located on North Las Vegas Boulevard, about 2 miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas. Despite the name, the building doesn't much look anything like an opera house.

I've had some real trouble figuring out the history of this place. Some sources say that the casino, or at least the site, date back to 1968, but MOGH says that a casino called Opry House existed there from 1978 to 1985, and says that Opera House opened there in the same year. At some time, the casino was owned by the Mahoney family, which also owned Mahoney's Silver Nugget nearby (which is now just the Silver Nugget; I will be posting my Mahoney's chip soon). The current owners are Silver Nugget Gaming, aka Fifth Street Gaming, aka Lucky Silver Gaming, who also own the Lucky Club and Silver Nugget casinos in North Las Vegas. I can't entirely figure it all out; NGC ownership records indicate that their involvement only goes back to 2006.

The casino (sorry, Doc) no longer has table games. In 2002, they had 4 blackjack tables; by 2008 (the next records I have) they were slots-only. I probably first visited around 2002-3, when I went to other North Las Vegas casinos. Every non-restricted report I have since 2008 shows the casino as slots-only, but the Opera House's own Facebook page says they have 3 table games, and that they joined Facebook in 2011. Call me confused. Interestingly, I found an article that states that Opera House is closing on October 31st, to remodel and/or search for a buyer.

I'm not entirely sure how or when I ended up with two chips. I think I probably picked up the $5 chip on my first visit, and went back later in an attempt to get a $1 chip. While my primary collection is $1 chips (or the closest available), I have a very small number of $5 chips in a side collection, usually ones that were replaced by a $1 chip, but I kept the $5 if it was particularly interesting or of a commemorative nature. Oddly, though, this $1 chip is also a commemorative, which is unusual.

Sorry about the scan of the $5 chip - it's that scanner and red colors again; the chip is actually a dark pink color. It's a Paulson H&C, and while MOGH doesn't specify, it looks like an LCV with a curved hat rim, which is fairly uncommon. The chip is a limited edition marked "2000 MINTED 4/97" but is not numbered. The center of the chip has an image of an opera singer in a Viking helmet, holding a spear. There are 3 pairs of edge inserts, in yellow and green.


The $1 chip, according to MOGH, dates from 2001, though there is no year on it. It is marked "LTD 1250" but is also unnumbered. The chip is a white Paulson RHC with an oversize inlay in blue that half covers the H&C symbols. The image in the center is of a Christmas tree in front of a fireplace, with stockings hanging from the mantel. There are two long inserts, one in blue and one in a light peach color.

It's really nice to see so many historical Las Vegas chips. Thanks ChipmanSpiff!

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Speedway Casino and Cafe

Today's chip of the day comes from the Speedway Casino and Cafe in North Las Vegas, NV. Doc previously discussed the successor to Speedway, the Lucky Club Casino, here. Speedway was located on Civic Center Drive, at the intersection of Interstate 15 and East Cheyenne Avenue. Despite the name, it was not located close enough to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway to quite explain the naming choice.

Doc already discussed a little of the history of the property in his post. Some sources I found indicate that back in the 1980s, the site was an RV park or campground. At some point, a motel called Budget Host Inn was built on the site, and apparently either went bankrupt or was seized, as it was sold at auction in 1995. The buyer was a Shawn Scott, who owned a Henderson casino called Post Office (MOGH does not have an entry for this casino). The place was renamed the Cheyenne Hotel, and Wikipedia indicates that Scott added a casino, quote, "taking advantage of the site's grandfathered gaming status." I can't find anything about what this means, and MOGH does not have an entry for the Cheyenne either. Within a few years, the hotel was operating as a Days Inn.

In 1998, the property was sold to MTR Gaming, owner of the Mountaineer Racetrack in West Virginia. The place was renamed Speedway, with an expanded casino and the addition of table games in 2000, and the hotel became a Ramada Inn. After some number of years, the property was sold in 2007 to Ganaste, LLC, a partnership managed by Seth Schorr, son of the COO of Wynn Resorts, as a training ground for a group of budding casino owners. For the first year, MTR continued to lease and manage the casino, but in 2008, Ganaste took full control and renamed the casino Lucky Club.

Not surprisingly, I remember the casino being racing themed, and filled with racing memorabilia. There were several guides at the time that suggested taking the kids to the racing-themed cafe for the NASCAR experience.

The chip is a Paulson RHC in blue, with a white inlay ringed by a checkerboard pattern. There is also a checkered flag behind the casino name, as well as a strip of two lane blacktop (presumably a racetrack). The casino name has ... "speed lines" if that's the right term, a text alteration technique that suggests speed.

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Speedway Casino and Cafe

...The casino name has ... "speed lines" if that's the right term, a text alteration technique that suggests speed....

You mean like this:



There was a NASCAR themed section at the old Sahara, including a restaurant, arcade and rollercoaster. I wonder if they were contemporaries?

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Fiesta Casino Hotel

Today's chip of the day comes from the Fiesta Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Doc previously discussed the successor casino, Fiesta Rancho, here. Fiesta was located on North Rancho Drive at Lake Mead Boulevard in North Las Vegas, next to Texas Station and just across the street from the North Las Vegas Airport.

I don't have much to add this time, unfortunately. The small amount of information that's known about the original Fiesta Casino is in Doc's post. I'm almost hesitant to consider this a different casino than Fiesta Rancho, only because it wasn't much of a name change or rebranding. I actually don't even have a Fiesta Rancho chip in my collection. However, I have 4 Arizona Charlie's chips (original and "East" plus the newer "Decatur" and "Boulder") so the precedent is already set. I plan to pick up a Fiesta Rancho chip on my next visit to Vegas. Strangely, even though MOGH explicitly refers to the Fiesta to Fiesta Rancho as a name change, it only has a single entry for both.

Interestingly, while the Fiesta and Fiesta Rancho chips both refer to the casino as being in "N. Las Vegas" the website simply refers to the city as Las Vegas. Fiesta's location puts its right on the border between the two cities (at that spot, the border runs down Rancho Drive) but Fiesta is technically in the North Las Vegas side. Maybe just saying "Las Vegas" sounds better. What Fiesta does seem to pride itself on is their motto of "Royal Flush Capital of the World." I have not found anything that describes the basis for that. One other tidbit about the Fiesta was that it apparently had one of the only NHL-regulation ice rinks in Nevada.

Both sides of the chip are shown below. The chip is a Chipco product in white with shades of blue and orange, with the "Royal Flush Capital of the World" slogan on one side and a royal flush in hearts on the other. Behind that is a large heart in black, which is not a comforting metaphor for whether they're going to let you win. There are also small hearts in various colors surrounding the large black heart. This appears to have been part of a series, with similar chips in diamonds, clubs, and spades.

Is the spade on the Fiesta chip actually green?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Is the spade on the Fiesta chip actually green?

To me, it's the Club that looks green, with the Spade black. Was that a typo, Ayecarumba, or do we have that much difference in our spectral perceptions?

I suppose that most everyone who reads this thread or even stumbles upon it on occasion knows that there is an index of the chips that have been posted as the Chips of the Day. That index has grown over the past few years and is now in the first two posts of this thread, some 473 pages back from here.

What may not occur to everyone is that keeping that index at least reasonably up-to-date involves a bit of editing on my part each time a new casino/chip is added to the thread. The tedium of that editing mostly falls into keeping the layout neat and sticking to my current format of four casinos per line in the tables, with them in alphabetical order within state/category. That means I have to edit text to shift the position of the formatting codes in the links (sometimes a lot of them) and all that sort of crap. I have learned that I cannot edit those now-quite-huge posts using either my moble phone browser or even my tablet -- I have to wait until I am at home with a real computer. I know that comment may come across as a grumpy gripe from a curmudgeonly geezer, which is probably a very accurate description, but that is not my point here.

Instead, I just have to say Jeez!, ChipmanSpiff, you've really played a mind game with my strategy of listing chips in the index. Before today, two of the Nevada casinos were listed -- specifically to make their identities clear -- as "Fiesta (Henderson)" and "Fiesta (Rancho)". Now you've gone and introduced a new chip from a casino called "Fiesta", which happens to be located on Rancho but is not the current one known commonly as "Fiesta Rancho" that I had covered earlier as "Fiesta (Rancho)". Anyway, I figured out a simple solution, but it's way too early in the morning (5:21 a.m. here) for my brain to be trying to figure out such things.

Thanks anyway for posting a pretty new chip.

Quote: Doc

To me, it's the Club that looks green, with the Spade black. Was that a typo, Ayecarumba, or do we have that much difference in our spectral perceptions?

Sorry, you are right Doc. It is the Club that looks green. I have seen some "low vision" decks that use different colors for all four suits, perhaps something like that is going on...

or could it be a security feature?

I have to say thank you to Doc again for his effort in keeping all this organized. What you're doing is a great service to all. Also many thanks to ChipmanSpiff for posting all these chips from former casinos with plenty of detail to go with it.

I'm also happy to announce my report on the Golden Princess is ready for posting. ChipmanSpiff, if you need to take a break for a day let me know and I'll post mine, or if you wish to post everything you have first that's fine as well.

Lastly, I might be doing a cross country trip from San Francisco to D.C. and will need some help with routing my travel to (of course) maximize chip collection with the least amount of detour. I will open a thread (will be my first!) once the trip is confirmed so that I can post my plan and get some tips from you guys, especially rdw4potus, seeing as he's probably the one here who has been to the most casinos.

Quote: Konbu

I'm also happy to announce my report on the Golden Princess is ready for posting. ChipmanSpiff, if you need to take a break for a day let me know and I'll post mine, or if you wish to post everything you have first that's fine as well.

You can go ahead, if you're ready. I'm probably going to be unable to post for a few days. I still have a few more from the Las Vegas area (Henderson, mostly) then I'll fishhook south to Jean before moving north to Pahrump and beyond. My tediously compiled spreadsheet says I have almost 300 chips to post that aren't already in this thread, so I'm happy to yield if others want a turn.

Quote:

Lastly, I might be doing a cross country trip from San Francisco to D.C. and will need some help with routing my travel to (of course) maximize chip collection with the least amount of detour.

If it helps visualize what's out there, here's my "to get" list in map form:

[spoiler=To Get Map][/spoiler]

Quote:

I will open a thread (will be my first!) once the trip is confirmed so that I can post my plan and get some tips from you guys, especially rdw4potus, seeing as he's probably the one here who has been to the most casinos.

I wouldn't be too sure about that - my collection totals over 700. You can see from the map that I have the western U.S. (where I live) mostly cleaned out; Nevada, California, and Washington make up about 70% of my collection.

If you have the time, it looks from Chipmanspiff' s map that if you drive a sine wave into Canada first then hit everything around the Great Lakes before heading to DC, you can hit the bulk of them. That is a lot of casinos.

Quote: Ayecarumba

If you have the time, it looks from Chipmanspiff' s map that if you drive a sine wave into Canada first then hit everything around the Great Lakes before heading to DC, you can hit the bulk of them. That is a lot of casinos.

OH MY no no no hahahaha! I will keep more of a easterly direction and stay mostly on I-80 and/or I-70. Also, I will probably only have 9 days or so to make the drive all by myself, so it's more of a drive, gas, eat, collect, sleep. Repeat 8, 9 times.

And with thanks to Chipmanspiff, the following is my report on the Golden Princess.

Category: Cruise Ships
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Golden Princess

I did not know what to put for the header so I put down where I embarked the ship and the onboard name of the casino in parenthesis. The Golden Princess is one of the Grand-class cruise ship that was christened in 2001, with the last major refurbishment made in 2012. It weighs 108,865 GT and has a capacity of 2,590 passengers and 1,100 crew. Despite some negative reviews online about the general condition of the ship, I did not find any major faults with the ship and thought the style and décor contemporary and timeless, in contrast to my last cruise on Carnival Sensation.

The Grand Casino is located on deck 7 right behind the Princess Theatre, the ship's main show room, so it gets quite a bit of traffic when the show ends at night. It has a good variety of tables, with a 12 feet craps table, roulette, LIR, 3CP, CSP, 3 blackjack, 1 Fun 21, and a PokerPro for a total of 9 regular tables and 1 electronic. Craps did not open until around 7PM, even on the day at sea. BJ was open from 10AM on sea day. Table games start to close past midnight when there are no more players or in the case of the last night the supervisor announced at 1:45AM the tables will close at quarter past.

I've included photos of the rules placard for each of the available games, but to summarize craps is $5-500 double odds and a double field and of course upfront vig. BJ is available at $5-500, $10-1,000, and I saw a $25-2500 placard but doubt that the table minimum ever went to $25 on this cruise. BJ are all dealt from a CSM. Fun 21 is dealt from what appears to be a 6 deck shoe. LIR, 3CP, and CSP are hand-shuffled and also $5. Roulette is $1 inside $5 outside. A decent assortment of table games for all tastes.

The casino dealers hail from various countries including the Philippines, Ukraine, Romania, and South Africa. I was told by a dealer there are 16 dealers on the ship, but I was not sure if she included the 2 cashiers and 2 pit supervisors in the count. Only 4 dealers dealt craps with Maria from the Philippines and Jeordhe (like Jordy) from S. Africa being the more experienced ones, and Natalia from Ukraine and the Romanian dealer slowing down considerably when dealing with multiple (4-5 players) place and come bets and press moves from min bet. After reading about single odds at other nicer/larger ships I'm grateful there's 2x, which is my starting comfortable betting level anyway.

This time I paid more attention to the table games and forgot to look at VP game variety and paytables! VP is available but I don't think that the paytable would be better than indian casinos. There are 2 coin pushers that is played with tokens and stocked with $1, $5 chips and a small packet (maybe 50) of dollar bills. These are turned off when in port. Now that I mention it, it just occurred to me why I did not change a dollar and keep a coin as souvenir? Also, there are 2 SEGA key master machines with prizes such as ipad, pack of $100 one dollar bills and ipod touch. I read that these machines are not true game of skills and that there's a setting to auto deviate the stopping point by about 1mm so you can't always win even if you are as precise as a dice controller *wink*. Despite the built in element of chance I did witness one guy get the $100 prize.

Lastly, there are 3 versions of the $1 chip in play, with the following 2 below. The 3rd one is the same as the 1st one, but with the molded word of “Golden Princess” around the chip instead of the hat and cane. The first one has the name of the ship and the second one is a generic Princess Cruises chip. I thought I kept all 3 versions but now I'm missing the one with the ship's name. I must have cashed it in by mistake.








Don't forget Uncle Sam's share!


Edit: photos re-uploaded, only the chips and skipped the table photos.

Quote: Konbu

OH MY no no no hahahaha! I will keep more of a easterly direction and stay mostly on I-80 and/or I-70. Also, I will probably only have 9 days or so to make the drive all by myself, so it's more of a drive, gas, eat, collect, sleep. Repeat 8, 9 times.

You'll have plenty of opportunities on that route. A scattered number in NorCal, then Reno to Wendover and down to Black Hawk/Central City. After that, Missouri has quite a few, then here and there all the way to Maryland. If you diverted south to Oklahoma there's a lot there too.

A bit of road geek trivia: from San Francisco on I-80 to I-25 then I-70 to Maryland roughly follows the route, in reverse, taken by an army convoy in the early 1920s that was led by a young captain named Dwight Eisenhower. The trip took two months and inspired him to push for the Interstate Highway System when he was president.

Quote: Konbu

State: California
City: Los Angeles
Casino: Golden Princess (Grand Casino)

I did not know what to put for the header so I put down where I embarked the ship and the onboard name of the casino in parenthesis.

Konbu, I think this chip deserves to be in the "Cruise Ships" category rather than "California". That's where I'm going to put it in the thread index. It will make the formatting a little more consistent if you change your post to have a header like this:

Category: Cruise Ships
Cruise Line: Princess
Ship: Golden Princess

Maybe I missed something in your post, which could well be. My brain is a bit addled right now -- enough so that I am cancelling my trip to Las Vegas that has been scheduled to start this Tuesday. Anyway, if this change in category and header doesn't sound appropriate to you, please let me know, and I'll try to fix things when I regain my sanity.

Quote: Doc

Maybe I missed something in your post, which could well be. My brain is a bit addled right now -- enough so that I am cancelling my trip to Las Vegas that has been scheduled to start this Tuesday. Anyway, if this change in category and header doesn't sound appropriate to you, please let me know, and I'll try to fix things when I regain my sanity.

It is I who's missing a few nuts. Why I didn't think of "Category: Cruise Line: Ship:" I don't know... Anyway, it's been edited. Thanks!

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

You'll have plenty of opportunities on that route. A scattered number in NorCal, then Reno to Wendover and down to Black Hawk/Central City. After that, Missouri has quite a few, then here and there all the way to Maryland. If you diverted south to Oklahoma there's a lot there too.

That sounds just like my plan. I've driven I-80 all the way to Detroit before so once I get to Wendover (and maybe Jackpot) then I want to get off of I-80 and follow a route that allows me to collect with the minimum amount of detour. My main concern is missing out on lone/small properties along the way that I could have gotten. So once my plans are firm I will post a map and ask if I'm missing any properties or if the route can be tweaked a bit.

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

State: Nevada
City: North Las Vegas
Casino: Opera House

Every non-restricted report I have since 2008 shows the casino as slots-only, but the Opera House's own Facebook page says they have 3 table games, and that they joined Facebook in 2011.

I went there in June, 2014 on a chip run, but they had no table games.

Quote: Doc

My brain is a bit addled right now -- enough so that I am cancelling my trip to Las Vegas that has been scheduled to start this Tuesday.

I have received multiple PMs from members expressing concern for me based on this comment I made yesterday. Guess I shouldn't have left it hanging that way, but I didn't want to burden this thread with TMI unrelated to chips. I did provide one member a detailed reply that contained way TMI, and he is probably sorry that he ever asked about this. I'm not going to bore all of you with those details, so I'll just leave it with three points of explanation:

(1) My physician said I would not have much fun on a Vegas trip, soon after which a spinal specialist insisted that I get an MRI and get back to him in a week. I am totally PI$$ed that this conflicts with a Vegas trip that I booked two months ago. Yesterday I cancelled my hotel and rental car reservations and gave away show tickets, while today I need to attempt whatever negotiations are possible related to the last-minute cancelling of cheap-as-I-can-find-them airline tickets without losing out completely. To a guy who really loves his time visiting Sin City, this is a bummer of a redirection.

(2) For anyone who is particularly concerned about me, or perhaps for anyone who gives a rip at all, as far as I can tell the things the medical yokels are looking into are no big deal. (Hope I am right.) All of the addled-brain stuff is strictly reaction to drugs that were more than I probably needed and which didn't set well. The side effects have just lingered a lot longer than I like. The whole "what's wrong with my back" thing is something that has been coming up occasionally though rarely for 15 or 20 years maybe, gotten treated with drugs, and then gone away for an extended period. This time, they decided to look a little closer to see what is really causing this problem to recur. The timing just ruins my plans for a lot of fun and the adding of a few more casino chips to my collection.

(3) I'm going on record here to say that anyone with whom I have already shared more details about this by PM is free to share them with other members, provided they are the ones that take full responsibility for boring the gourds of the people who wind up reading that junk.

Quote: Doc

(2) For anyone who is particularly concerned about me, or perhaps for anyone who gives a rip at all, as far as I can tell the things the medical yokels are looking into are no big deal. (Hope I am right.)

I hope you're right, too. And I'm sorry about the Vegas trip.

I see I should also check in here more often, even if the board has gotten boring to me...

I'm sorry to hear that you were under the weather, and hope that it turns out to be no big deal Doc. Please keep us posted.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Linq

I had the chance for a last minute trip to Las Vegas this weekend, where I picked up 4 new chips, so today's chip of the day comes from the brand new (at least in name) Linq Casino. The Linq's predecessor, The Quad, was discussed here. The Linq is on the east side of the Las Vegas Strip, wedged in between the Flamingo and Harrah's.

As has been anticipated, the Linq is Caesar's new casino/hotel/shopping/dining/wheel bigger than the London Eye extravaganza. The core of the property is the former Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino, which changed its name to The Quad in 2012 as part of the gradual renovation of the site. The name did not last long, as Caesars decided to apply the name Linq to both the casino and the project as a whole. The new name took effect on October 29, 2014, with new chips; however, despite what some sources say, the older Quad chips have not yet been taken out of play. The tables I played at, several days after the name change, were about half and half old and new chips. Strangely, the new chips are just a very slightly larger diameter than the old ones.

I have to say I wasn't really a fan of the Linq. The renovations are certainly further along than they were when I visited the Quad early this year, but they still have some work to do. Sadly, they kept the Imperial Palace parking garage, which is not the easiest to navigate. I parked there twice and got completely lost finding my car again both times. I also wasn't too thrilled with the layout of the casino, as the largest area of tables is right next to the entrance to O'Sheas, the party casino, and it's quite loud. Oh yeah, and I lost at the tables, so I didn't like that either. (slightly off topic, and late to the conversation, I really liked the Cromwell).

The chip is a plain mold, similar to the chips at the Cromwell (another new Caesars property, so that's not surprising). I'm not sure of the manufacturer; there's a very faint logo of some kind on the chip but I can't make it out. The Linq $5 and higher chips, and the Cromwell chips, visually have the appearance of a ring around an inlay, but that's just the design - they are actually smooth, flat chips. The Linq $1 chip does not even have the black line that gives the illusion of a ring. Fairly unusual, though, is that the Linq chips have an center design in the shape of a hexagon. The chip is white with a blue center, and two blue inserts along the edge. I apologize for the low quality of this image, as my usual method of scanning wasn't working.

Quote: Nareed

I see I should also check in here more often, even if the board has gotten boring to me...

Now just how can this board be boring when my very last post before this one specifically said:

Quote: Doc

Anyway, the whole reason for the rest of this two-day-late post is to irritate Nareed, just in case she is reading this thread. ;-)

OK, so you may have to search for that one, but how many (non-blocked) folks around here make posts like that without anticipating wrath in return? I wasn't even sure that a winking smiley would be an adequate defense.


And ChipmanSpiff, that's a nice write-up about the Linq. I had planned to add that chip and the SLS and a few others on this now-delayed trip. They tell me that Vegas isn't going anywhere, so I just have to adjust my calendar.

As for that logo, I can't make it out either. Looks a little like a Chipco International "CI" logo crammed together, but that company had gone under and morphed into Game On before I ever heard of a Linq casino. The MoGH chip guide gives such helpful info. They describe it as:

"Mold: Plain
Logo: Logo"

Edit 1/28/15: Finally came to my senses and realized that this logo is from Icon chips.

Quote: Doc

Now just how can this board be boring when my very last post before this one specifically said:

You should know you're not the board (and more's the pity).

I completely missed that, which it no at all surprising. I hardly even log on any more(*).

Of course, if you read DT you'd know I've been cursed with a kind of cellphone whose model begins with an "i"

Quote:

OK, so you may have to search for that one, but how many (non-blocked) folks around here make posts like that without anticipating wrath in return? I wasn't even sure that a winking smiley would be an adequate defense.

Keep it up and you may find a Surface in your stocking some late December day ;)


(*) I've been busy testing the Windows 10 preview.

Quote: ChipmanSpiff

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Linq

...The chip is a plain mold, similar to the chips at the Cromwell (another new Caesars property, so that's not surprising). I'm not sure of the manufacturer; there's a very faint logo of some kind on the chip but I can't make it out. The Linq $5 and higher chips, and the Cromwell chips, visually have the appearance of a ring around an inlay, but that's just the design - they are actually smooth, flat chips. The Linq $1 chip does not even have the black line that gives the illusion of a ring. Fairly unusual, though, is that the Linq chips have an center design in the shape of a hexagon. The chip is white with a blue center, and two blue inserts along the edge. I apologize for the low quality of this image, as my usual method of scanning wasn't working.

Thanks for the post ChipmanSpiff. Does the center logo color go all the way through the chip, or is it only applied to the surface? Are both sides the same? Is there a texture applied to the surface?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Thanks for the post ChipmanSpiff. Does the center logo color go all the way through the chip, or is it only applied to the surface? Are both sides the same? Is there a texture applied to the surface?

I'm not certain but I think it's similar to a Chipco chip, where the ink is applied deep into the surface. If I had another chip to cut in half, I suspect it would be plain white most of the way through. Both sides of the chip are the same.

The chip visually has the appearance of texture - slightly wavy lines reminiscent of fingerprints - but the surface is actually completely smooth.