Casino Chip of the Day

Opinions welcome.. doing a quick weekend trip into Tucson, flying out of PHX for a chip collecting jaunt in 3 weeks.

Staying 2 nights are Harrahs Ak-Chin. I used this thread and World Casino Directory to plan my route. Am I missing any casinos in the area?

Desert Diamond Tucson
Casino Del Sol
Casino of the Sun
Desert Diamond Casino Sahaurita
Apache Gold Casino Resort
Harrah's Phoenix Ak-Chin
-----------
Harrahs >
Wildhorse Pass
Casino Arizona
Talking Stick Resort
Fort McDowell Casino
Mazatzal Hotel & Casino
Cliff Castle Casino Hotel
Bucky's Casino
Yavapai Casino>
Harrahs

My understanding from this thread is that Gila River Casinos all use same chips so I don't need to visit them all (Lone Butte, Vee Quiva, and Wild Horse Pass)

Quote: wezvidz

Opinions welcome.. doing a quick weekend trip into Tucson, flying out of PHX for a chip collecting jaunt in 3 weeks.

Staying 2 nights are Harrahs Ak-Chin. I used this thread and World Casino Directory to plan my route. Am I missing any casinos in the area?

Desert Diamond Tucson
Casino Del Sol
Casino of the Sun
Desert Diamond Casino Sahaurita
Apache Gold Casino Resort
Harrah's Phoenix Ak-Chin
-----------
Harrahs >
Wildhorse Pass
Casino Arizona
Talking Stick Resort
Fort McDowell Casino
Mazatzal Hotel & Casino
Cliff Castle Casino Hotel
Bucky's Casino
Yavapai Casino>
Harrahs

My understanding from this thread is that Gila River Casinos all use same chips so I don't need to visit them all (Lone Butte, Vee Quiva, and Wild Horse Pass)

This looks like all of the right casinos to me. You'll be missing Yuma, Pinetop, Lake Havasu, and Flagstaff's casinos. But, there's no (fun) way to get those as a part of a weekend trip.

Quote: wezvidz

My understanding from this thread is that Gila River Casinos all use same chips so I don't need to visit them all (Lone Butte, Vee Quiva, and Wild Horse Pass)

(Edit: rdw4potus posted while I was typing.)

Correct. And if your objective is specifically to collect chips, you don't need to make all of the other stops either:

Casino of the Sun no longer has table games, but the chip from Casino del Sol says "Casino of the Sun" on one side. Pick up two of them there if you like, and you can display the two sides separately. I probably should have done that myself.

You only need to go to one of the Desert Diamond locations -- I think you will find the same chips at all three. I went to the one on South Nogales Highway in Tuscon.

Yavapai casino no longer has table games. When you go to Bucky's (across the street from Yavapai and at the top of the hill), you will likely find both Bucky's and Yavapai chips in play at the same table.

You don't need to go to both Casino Arizona and Talking Stick -- same chips. I got mine at Talking Stick.

When you go to the Cliff Castle Casino, I highly recommend that you go during the daylight hours and take the time for a side trip across the road to the real castle on the cliff -- at the Montezuma Castle National Monument. When I posted most of my chips from Arizona, I included one of my photos from the monument behind a spoiler button.

There are only two casinos that strike me as missing from your list, and they may be outside the range that you want to drive. One is the Hon-Dah casino out in Pine Top, and the other is the Twin Arrows Navajo Casino off I-40 east of Flagstaff.

Twin Arrows is a fairly new casino. It opened in May 2013 a few months after my tour of the area, and I don't yet have a chip from there. If you go there and pick one up, I hope you will post an image and story here as a new Casino Chip of the Day for this thread.

Super helpful Doc, exactly what I was looking for.

Have a great trip wezvidz, we look forward to your trip report (and pictures). Do you plan to play at each place, or just collect a chip and run to the next place?

New modified route to include the 2 casinos Doc mentioned.. it's only 30 minutes net extra driving. I give up one comped room at Harrah's to stay at Twin Arrows for $99 but that's not a big deal.

Desert Diamond Tucson>
Casino Del Sol (get 2 chips for Sun/Sol)
Apache Gold Casino Resort
Hon-Dah Resort-Casino
Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort
-----------
Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort
Bucky's Casino (get Yavapai chip)
Cliff Castle Casino Hotel
Mazatzal Hotel & Casino
Fort McDowell Casino
Casino Arizona
WILDHORSEPASS HOTEL & CASINO
Harrahs

Huge help Doc. I definitely plan to play. Not as much at the close proximity places, those might be more hit and run. The first day of my trip has a lot of 2 hour drives between casinos so I'll definitely need a break from driving to gamble.

Quote: wezvidz

Huge help Doc.

You are quite welcome. Once again, this thread serves its role as a travel guide.

If you haven't done it already, I suggest that you go to the index of this thread (post #1) and click the links to each of the casinos you plan to visit. In addition to the chip images, most of the chip-of-the-day posts contain info about the casino and might help you know what to expect.

Time for me to admit to, and make up for, a couple of demonstrations of my senility that I exhibited in this thread. When ChipmanSpiff posted his chip from the Linq, he pointed out that he could see a manufacturer's logo on it but couldn't identify it. In the very next post, I verified that I couldn't make it out either. Later, when I posted that I had collected an identical chip, I said that I still couldn't identify the logo.

Finally, my brain started functioning, and I realized that this is the logo for Icon chips. I also realized that when I posted my chip from the Cromwell last year, I had speculated that it was from Icon but wasn't certain. Today, I found that exact Cromwell chip displayed on the Icon web site.

Quote: Doc

if your objective is specifically to collect chips, you don't need to make all of the other stops either

I made the extra stops anyway when I was hopping around Arizona, for two reasons. One, it's always possible the information I had about using the same chips at multiple locations was wrong, and/or maybe they added different chips recently. That said, I can't remember if I stopped by Desert Diamond III in Why, but I don't think they have table games.

Second, I consider myself eligible for a chip once I walk in the door (and preferably play), for whatever name is on the door at that time. I have a separate Casino Arizona Salt River chip that I bought online, even though that wasn't the type of chip in circulation when I visited. I kind of regret this sort of "cheat" but only have a few of them in my collection.

Quote: Dieter

Quote: Brewfangrb

Menominee was disappointing.

The odd part for me was the 1972 vintage bowling alley decor.

Off topic, but they've recently remodeled. Blackjack/Roulette/Craps/Carnival game/poker area is far, far nicer now.

Seemed to be all new tables. I didn't go crawling around under the tables, but they all appear to have a lot of hardware underneath, exactly where you might put RFID readers.

I hope I am not out of line here, but I just stumbled across this section and wanted to post a few chips that I didn't see.

I have a Caesars Atlantic City chip that was issued before this current series.



I never though about looking at them under a UV light, I'll have to get one and check it out!

Here's an older Resorts chip:



It's the original Ocean Tower, since I'm guessing the Rendezvous Tower didn't exist then.

Here's a newer Showboat chip:



Of course, it's closed now. . .

My Hilton chip is slightly different than the one previously posted:



It doesn't have the image of the hotel there, there's nothing there!

State: New Jersey
City: Atlantic City
Casino: Sands

Looking up the history of Sands (from Wikipedia), it operated from August 13, 1980 until November 11, 2006. It was formerly known as the Brighton Hotel & Casino. It consisted of a 21-story hotel tower with 532 rooms and a 5-story podium housing the 57,045 square foot casino and various other amenities.

It originally opened as the Brighton and was the fourth casino open in Atlantic City and the first to be built ground up, rather than as a renovation of an existing hotel. After less than a month in operation, Holiday Inns agreed to buy the Brighton for $121 million in cash and stock plus assumption of the property's $37 million mortgage. Holiday Inns pulled out of the deal a month later. The Brighton was rescued in the first months of 1981 by $10 million in financing from Inns of the Americas and financiers Burton and Richard Koffman. Inns of the Americas had recently bought the Sands Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, and immediately renamed the Atlantic City property under the well-known Sands name.

It did well for a while, but fell behind the newer casinos and, at the time of its closing, had become the smallest of the city's 12 casinos. They joined with the neighboring Claridge Hotel and Casino to build an elevated moving sidewalk, opened in 1988, to bring visitors from the Boardwalk to the two properties.

A second-floor gaming area was opened in 1994. The extra 26,000 square feet, including a new racebook, gave the Sands the fourth largest casino in Atlantic City. The Sands announced a new plan in 1994 to rebrand itself as a Hollywood Casino within two years. A video store was opened at the property, along with the film-themed "Epic Buffet", decorated with props from classic movies. The rebranding was never completed.

In 1998, the Sands filed for bankruptcy protection, with Park Place Entertainment and Carl Icahn submitting plans. Icahn was selected and the business was reorganized in September 2000. Also in 2000, The Sands took over the adjacent historic Madison Hotel under a lease agreement. The Sands spent $25 million on a renovation of The Madison, completed in 2005, turning the hotel's 230 rooms into 126 suites.

In May 2006, American Real Estate Partners purchased the vacant former site of the Traymore Hotel from Harrah's Entertainment for $61 million. The Traymore site separated the Sands from the Boardwalk, which had always hampered the Sand's ability to expand, and reduced its attractiveness to potential buyers. Icahn indicated that he might use the Traymore site for an expansion of the Sands, or might bundle it together with the Sands for sale.

In September 2006, Pinnacle Entertainment agreed to buy the Sands and the Traymore site for a total of $250 million, with plans to close and demolish the Sands, and build a larger casino. The Sands closed on November 11, 2006, and the sale to Pinnacle was completed days later.

The building was imploded at 9:37 PM EDT on October 18, 2007, the first-ever casino-hotel implosion on the East Coast. It was accompanied by a fireworks show and numerous parties along the Boardwalk. Coincidentally, Sands was demolished less than 24 hours after the death of the last surviving member of the Rat Pack, comedian Joey Bishop.

Pinnacle canceled its planned casino in 2010, and sold the land in 2013 for $29.5 million to a group of local developers who planned to build a casino or family entertainment attraction. After being a dirt lot for many years, it is now sort of a park with artwork in it.

It was Sands when I was going there, in the last 1990s. As stated before editing, this was the first casino I went to in Atlantic City because they did not charge for parking like the other casinos did. You'd park in the Madison House parking garage, walk down the hallway through the Madison House to get to the Sands. You entered the second level of the casino and went down an escalator in the middle of the casino to get to the main level.

I had quite a few wins here playing 25c Jeopardy slots. One time I made a side trip from Philadelphia, put in $20, hit the bonus for $250, cashed out and left, being in the casino for only about 15 minutes. Another time I was there with friends and we didn't have that much money, but I hit aces on double bonus for $200, so that was pretty cool.

I remember the re-theming, they closed their buffet and used a ballroom space for a temporary buffet, which was quite odd. I don't recall if they ever re-opened the buffet. I recall them having a bar near the escalators on the main floor, which was pretty cool.

I don't recall when I obtained the chip, but Sands does hold special memories for me. I was fortunate enough to stay in the hotel, although I originally had a reservation in the Madison Hotel, we arrived late and they had to put us in the Sands tower, which would have been okay, except it just had one Murphy bed and I was sharing the room with my mother. There was a small couch in the room, so my mom decided that she'd sleep on that.

It was a fine little casino that just couldn't keep up with the (then) growing competition. It was older and a bit dirtier, but still had a some old school charm. I know a lot of my friends have fond memories of Sands.

Looking at that MOGH catalog, it appears that this is the second run of chip. It is a white chip with 4 grey inserts and has "Sands" and the "Sun image" impressed on the outer portion of the chip. I do not have a UV light, so I'm not sure what shows up that way. I'm not a chip expert, so I'm not sure what else to say about the chip itself.

State: New Jersey
City: Atlantic City
Casino: Claridge

From Wikipedia:

"The Claridge Hotel is a historic hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, opened in 1930. It operated for many years as a casino, known first as "Del Webb's Claridge Hotel and Casino", then the "Claridge Hotel and Casino". The hotel was acquired by Bally's on December 30, 2002. They ran the building as a hotel tower of Bally's Atlantic City, until February, 2014 when the property was acquired by TJM Properties of Clearwater, Florida, who returned the property to a stand-alone hotel".

It had a really strange layout, with table games on a main floor, with an Asian gaming pit a few steps down, then you'd go up an escalator to another level of slots and then up another level to another gaming area. It was across from the Sands and, since they were both a block off the Boardwalk, there was a moving walkway that took you from the Boardwalk to the casinos. The walkway was dismantled shortly after the implosion of the Sands hotel-casino. The Boardwalk entryway did house a Visitor's Center for some time, now it is vacant.

Park Place Entertainment purchased Claridge in 2001 and became the Claridge Tower for Bally's. I think it was Caesars Entertainment when the construction to complete a walkway directly from Bally's to Claridge was built. They then tried to brand the gaming area there as The Ridge, with DJs and dancing and music, but it didn't quite work. Caesars Entertainment sold off the Claridge to TJM Properties and has operated as a hotel only since May 2014.

I recently walked through the building and they are still in the process of converting the main casino floor into something (a large conference room? ballroom?). I didn't see anyone walking around there, I didn't even see anyone at the front desk.

I've stayed on this property, but only after it was purchased by PPE. The rooms in the "Claridge Tower" were typically small and in poor shape. They did start a remodel and offer up their "Ruby Rooms" at a premium, but it still didn't change the small room footprint, although the furnishings were nicer. One room here and one room in the Ocean Tower at Resorts were probably the smallest casino hotel rooms in Atlantic City. It did have a small indoor pool, that Bally's did not charge to use (they charged $10/day to use the Main Tower pool), and there was also a game room there. It was the last casino that had full-pay Pick'em VP, which we played until the day they removed them.

There was an "advantage" parking play here when they were with Caesars Entertainment and the casino was attached to Bally's by a walkway, their parking garage was actually closer to the Bally's casino than the Bally's parking garage. Also, more often than not, the attendant never swiped your Diamond card for free parking, so you wouldn't be "tripped". Plus since Claridge wasn't too popular, the parking garage was hardly full, and one could typically get a parking space close to the main level entrance (second floor) and not have to take the elevator.

I could probably do some math and figure out when I got the chip, but that seems like too much work, obviously I got it before the PPE purchase in 2001. The Claridge was probably the second casino I went to, since it was right next door to Sands.

The MOGH Catalog shows that this is a second run chip, as the first chips had "Del Webb's Claridge" and a metal insert, this chip is a Chipco ceramic. After the purchase by PPE, they started using chips from Bally's.



Here's a picture I took showing the Sands and Claridge:

Thanks for the posts Harv29! The chips look brand new. Did you clean them?

Do you recall to approximate dates you collected them?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Thanks for the posts Harv29! The chips look brand new. Did you clean them?

Do you recall to approximate dates you collected them?

I did clean them and one of the things I do when I collect a chip is to get the best edges possible. Sometimes I won't find a $1 chip I like, so I'll get a $5 chip.

I would have picked them up between 1999 - 2005. With some thought, I could probably get a better range.

I never thought about "documenting" exactly when I picked them up, I just decided that I'd like to pick up a chip from each casino I've visited. There are a few casinos I have visited where I haven't been able to pick up a chip, but I'm working on it.

I also like collecting the pink $2.50 chips, since most casinos do not use them. I have them from:

Atlantic City Club (in addition to their 25c and 50c chips)
Bally's
Borgata
Golden Nugget
Harrah's Marina
Resorts Atlantic City
Showboat

Since the chips that Harv29 posted from the AC Sands and Claridge are from casinos not previously covered in this thread, I have asked that he revise his posts to fit the general format for an official Casino Chip of the Day post. After that is done, I will add those two posts/chips/casinos to the thread's directory.

I think those are nice additions to our set of New Jersey casinos represented.

Quote: Doc

Since the chips that Harv29 posted from the AC Sands and Claridge are from casinos not previously covered in this thread, I have asked that he revise his posts to fit the general format for an official Casino Chip of the Day post. After that is done, I will add those two posts/chips/casinos to the thread's directory.

I think those are nice additions to our set of New Jersey casinos represented.

LOL. My next post was going to be...

How soon til Doc sees these posts and has an aneurysm from the formatting?

Countdown starts now...

Quote: teddys

How soon til Doc sees these posts and has an aneurysm from the formatting?

I had seen the posts and liked the chip images, but I was slow to recognize that two of them were from casinos we hadn't covered before -- I just lost them among the others. When I caught on, I asked Harv29 to reformat just those two posts.

The pinkies are nice to collect... you only get them in Blackjack. I have Trump Castle, Bally's, Caeser's, and Harrah's Marina. I lost my GN and ShowBoat tho. Also Fowoods "set" of Pavarotti, Sinatra, Anka, and Como $10 chips.

Quote: Doc

I had seen the posts and liked the chip images, but I was slow to recognize that two of them were from casinos we hadn't covered before -- I just lost them among the others. When I caught on, I asked Harv29 to reformat just those two posts.

I'm working on that now. . .

And done, hopefully it looks okay.

Excellent! When I get home, I will update the index.

Edit: Done.

Quote: Doc

Excellent! When I get home, I will update the index.

Edit: Done.

Yay! I'm almost famous. . .

OK, weird story, but after you guys helped me with my Phoenix/Tucson routing, I missed my flight to Tucson and made a last minute switch to Vegas last weekend.

I'm going on a trip with family this week to San Francisco (and don't plan on missing my flight).. planned on renting a car Saturday for a chip collecting trip while they do other things.

Based on my knowledge of casinos in the area, this was my route looping around down to San Jose and back up around. Times listed are from google maps. I'm hoping traffic isn't horrible on a Saturday. Thoughts? Missing any? Any closed that I shouldn't go to?

27 min Lucky Chances
12 min Artichoke Joe's Casino
36 min Casino M8trix
3 min Bay 101
31 min The Palace Poker Casino
23 min Oaks Card Club
28 min California Grand Casino
27 min Napa Valley Casino
26 min San Pablo Lytton Casino
24 min Pete's 881 Club
25 min hotel

(4hr 22min 10 casinos)

I started my collection 11 years ago on my first trip to Las Vegas. I pretty much started it by accident by being too lazy to walk to the cage and cash in $1 chips after I lost my buy in. At the end of the day I had like 5 random chips in my collection.

Now I see that many strip casinos have newer chips than what I have in my collection. Do you collectors try to keep your collection up to date if possible? I'm feeling like I need to get all of the new chips on my next trip.

Quote: wezvidz

OK, weird story, but after you guys helped me with my Phoenix/Tucson routing, I missed my flight to Tucson and made a last minute switch to Vegas last weekend.

I'm going on a trip with family this week to San Francisco (and don't plan on missing my flight).. planned on renting a car Saturday for a chip collecting trip while they do other things.

Based on my knowledge of casinos in the area, this was my route looping around down to San Jose and back up around. Times listed are from google maps. I'm hoping traffic isn't horrible on a Saturday. Thoughts? Missing any? Any closed that I shouldn't go to?

27 min Lucky Chances
12 min Artichoke Joe's Casino
36 min Casino M8trix
3 min Bay 101
31 min The Palace Poker Casino
23 min Oaks Card Club
28 min California Grand Casino
27 min Napa Valley Casino
26 min San Pablo Lytton Casino
24 min Pete's 881 Club
25 min hotel

(4hr 22min 10 casinos)

Shouldn't be traffic problems (not sure it's ever really light, though...). But, expect some very busy card clubs to navigate.

Quote: Beardgoat

I started my collection 11 years ago on my first trip to Las Vegas. I pretty much started it by accident by being too lazy to walk to the cage and cash in $1 chips after I lost my buy in. At the end of the day I had like 5 random chips in my collection.

Now I see that many strip casinos have newer chips than what I have in my collection. Do you collectors try to keep your collection up to date if possible? I'm feeling like I need to get all of the new chips on my next trip.

If there's no name change, I don't go out of my way to get a new chip. But, I will grab one if I happen to be there.

I think the only times that I have replaced one of the souvenirs in my collection has been when I first collected a slot token from in play at a table and later obtained a cheque. I just keep those tokens to the side as extras. If the casino changes name, with or without a change in ownership, I get another souvenir and consider the establishment a "different" casino. I make no effort to collect a souvenir from each new chip series or to collect multiple denominations from the same place. I also do not seek out commemorative chips, but I have gathered a few when that was what was in play.



Edit: Of course, in the case of Caribbean casinos, where the name on the chip is only sometimes related to the name on the building, I have indeed collected multiple chips from the same casino. I keep them in my collection based on the name on the chip, with my notes (and posts in this thread) indicating just where I obtained the chip.

I'm not necessarily replacing older chips with newer chips. Just adding to the collection really

Red Rock

Chip with significant meaning to me:[IMG]http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn179/glprodcrew/PART_1425278483920_zpsmzqidqna.jpg[/IMG]

I was there shortly after their Grand Opening and won numerous table max wagers of $10k with this one $25 chip and of course my gold monkey. I would never turn it loose, in fact every time I ever broke it out after that time, it only lost once. I bought the chip back of course. My gold monkey comes to the table when it is a sizable hand and we need a monkey to win, but he cant be overly taken for granted as well. (I think he belongs to a union)

A few months back I mentioned I will be doing a cross country trip from California to DC. Well, I'm going in April and would appreciate any input/advice/correction anyone can provide me. I started a thread at the following link:

https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-topic/general/21283-cross-country-and-chip-collecting-trip/#post439125

Thanks!

Update...most casino dense trip ever. About 5 hours driving, collected 9 chips.

Casino M8trix beside Bay101 in San Jose looks like one that hasn't appeared in this thread yet so I most post it tonight. I'll check if all the others have been posted. Collection now up to 321 chips. Trip through Iowa in April, trip through Buffalo>Pittsburgh>Baltimore>Philly in June should get me closer to my 4th frame full of 99.

State: California
City: San Jose
Casino: Casino M8trix



Out of all the cardrooms, this was the nicest and most "Vegas" looking. Large wide open room, nice lighting, techno type music lightly playing. All tables and poker games, no machines from what I saw.

Very weird dynamic throughout the SF/San Jose/Oakland rooms I visited. Most were non-smoking, table/card game only venues. One venue specifically (San Pablo Lytton) was all machines and took me forever to find the small alcove of tables games, with smoking inside. The other weird things: no craps found anywhere, although I've heard on You Can Bet on That podcast that Harrahs Rincon in San Diego has craps, so do the laws vary throughout the state? The also strange thing was, like the Palm Beach Kennel Club 3 card poker game in West Palm Beach, all tables games seemed to be "banked" at each venue by a player, as if the venue can't spread the games themselves technically but allow players to play each other (via a banker) then take a commission or table rental fee from the banker.

Weird stuff.

Very casino dense area though, I visited 9 casinos/card rooms and collected chips in 4-5 hours driving.

That's a good looking chip! I visited this property when it was the Garden City Club. As I was walking in, they were throwing someone out because he was violating their 36 hour rule - apparently, it's a state law that players can only have a seat at a poker table for 36 hours straight before they must take an 8 hour break?

Rincon's "craps" game is card-based. You roll the dice to determine how many cards are burned, and the card values determine the outcomes. I don't remember seeing "craps" around SF, but one of the Sacramento area clubs has/had it I think.

San Pablo Lytton is an Indian casino. So, machines, different rules for cards/games, and smoking are all fair game.

Yes, card clubs in CA cannot bank their own games. So there's a corporate player that usually sits at first base and books the action. Players can also bank in turn, but that's really only done at pai gow poker and pai gow tiles games.

Casino M8trix is the 100th California casino/card room covered in this thread. I thought that was worth noting here.

I'm just a bit confused by that image of the casino interior. A few of the people look like real people, while most of the others look like fashion mag artists' renditions. I don't understand the table layout either. Each of the hemispherical tables has a single chair on the flat side, presumably for the dealer, but the tables seem to be arranged so that the players are grouped into the interior of the "pit" with the dealer positions on the outside. Did I misunderstand something there?

I think that's an HDR image. Makes the lighting (and the lights themselves) stand out, but also makes the people translucent because they're only there in some of the layered images. No idea on the table layout - that's just weird.

Stock photo I found online that definitely shows what the lighting/ceiling/vibe is like, I didn't notice the weird tables/peoples though. I didn't take it. :)

Well, the ides of March has rolled around once more. Instead of pondering/asking whether Brutus has et one or tu meals, I'm just going to make the annual announcement: Today is the anniversary of the beginning of this thread on 3/15/2012.

In the first year, we had a total of 326 almost-daily presentations of a Casino Chip of the Day. In the second year, we did even better, with 334 new casinos being represented for a total of 660.

Then, the reservoir seemed to be running a bit dry. In this third year, we have had but 130 presentations of a new Casino Chip of the day. I thank all those who have presented images of their collection, whether it be the official daily chip or a supplement, and I hope we can soon get more additions to the thread. I anticipate gathering just one more souvenir in April and probably two more in May, so I won't be presenting many more myself in the near future.

So here we go again.. trip collecting chips in 2 weeks, flying into Des Moines, driving up the west side of the state then curving over into Minneapolis to fly out. Am I missing any stops? Just found out about Hard Rock Sioux City today that wasn't on my list, so now I'm worried I've missed some others.

DAY 1
Prairie Meadows

DAY 2
Terrible's Lakeside Casino
Horseshoe Casino Council Bluffs
Ameristar Casino Hotel Council Bluffs
Harrah's Council Bluffs Hotel & Casino
Blackbird Bend Casino
WinnaVegas Casino
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City
Grand Falls Casino Resort (stay)

DAY 3
Prairie's Edge Casino Resort
Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel
Mystic Lake Casino Hotel
Little Six Casino
Canterbury Park
Treasure Island Resort & Casino (stay)

A couple fall in no man's land that add a ton of travel time to detour to hit south of Minneapolis (Diamond Jo Worth Casino, Wild Rose Casino Emmetsburg).. so those I may try to visit on a Milwaukee>eastern Iowa>Minneapolis trip in the future.

Quote: wezvidz

Very weird dynamic throughout the SF/San Jose/Oakland rooms I visited. Most were non-smoking, table/card game only venues. One venue specifically (San Pablo Lytton) was all machines and took me forever to find the small alcove of tables games, with smoking inside. The other weird things: no craps found anywhere, although I've heard on You Can Bet on That podcast that Harrahs Rincon in San Diego has craps, so do the laws vary throughout the state? The also strange thing was, like the Palm Beach Kennel Club 3 card poker game in West Palm Beach, all tables games seemed to be "banked" at each venue by a player, as if the venue can't spread the games themselves technically but allow players to play each other (via a banker) then take a commission or table rental fee from the banker.

Some California "casinos" are really just card rooms. Casino San Pablo was called that long before the Lytton Indians got involved, but there were no machines back then - just cards and Pai Gow Tiles.

As for craps, "card craps" should be legal in all tribal casinos, although the ones that have opened or had their compacts with Sacramento renegotiated since 2010 can't use "physical dice" in any way (i.e. no dice/card hybrids); these casinos can't have card roulette or E-roulette either. For example, Cache Creek does have card roulette, but Graton, which is one of the new ones, cannot. The only theory I can come up with, and it's weak, is that the few people who are interested in craps don't want to play "phony" craps when you can play the real thing in Reno or Tahoe, which is not that far away (although the drought probably seriously affected the area's ski season, and I can only imagine what effect the size of Lake Tahoe is going to have on summer tourism).

Quote: wezvidz

So here we go again.. trip collecting chips in 2 weeks, flying into Des Moines, driving up the west side of the state then curving over into Minneapolis to fly out. Am I missing any stops? Just found out about Hard Rock Sioux City today that wasn't on my list, so now I'm worried I've missed some others.

DAY 1
Prairie Meadows

DAY 2
Terrible's Lakeside Casino
Horseshoe Casino Council Bluffs
Ameristar Casino Hotel Council Bluffs
Harrah's Council Bluffs Hotel & Casino
Blackbird Bend Casino
WinnaVegas Casino
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City
Grand Falls Casino Resort (stay)

DAY 3
Prairie's Edge Casino Resort
Jackpot Junction Casino Hotel
Mystic Lake Casino Hotel
Little Six Casino
Canterbury Park
Treasure Island Resort & Casino (stay)

A couple fall in no man's land that add a ton of travel time to detour to hit south of Minneapolis (Diamond Jo Worth Casino, Wild Rose Casino Emmetsburg).. so those I may try to visit on a Milwaukee>eastern Iowa>Minneapolis trip in the future.

Running Aces is in the Minneapolis area, on the north side of town. I see that's not on your list. Are you planning on going there on your second trip (when you go to eastern Iowa)?

How are you getting from Grand Falls to Prairie's edge? There are casinos in SD (royal river and Dakota Sioux) that you could hit if you went up I29 & then east on US 212. Or Emmetsburg is close to in-path if you take US18 east to US71 north (you'd drive past the intersection about 15 miles and then backtrack to get NB on 71.)

There's no harm in checking, but I think Little Six and Mystic Lake use the same chips.

I-29 -> 212 was my intended route so thank you! I would have driven right past Royal River and Dakota Sioux. Those are easy stops.

We are leaving on Saturday for a cruise out of NOLA. After the cruise we are flying out of Birmingham which is perfect for my chip collection. We will only have 9 hours to make the 5 hour drive and squeeze in as many casinos as possible. Are there any that are cant miss along the way or that may have a good new player promo. I have a list of 32 casinos that I could stop at but that would take 9 hours of driving time so I have to cut a bunch out. I don't plan on playing at any of them unless there is a good promo. We will basically walk in, get a chip, get a players card and back on the road.

State: Iowa
City: Onawa
Casino: Blackbird Bend

First, an overall review of the trip I outlined last week.. drove many miles, saw a highly varied group of casinos, people and scenery. Overall, I'm happy I live in Florida. The cold, desolate landscape of my trip from Des Moines, west toward Sioux City, up the west side of the state to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and then east into Minneapolis yielded 16 new chips for my collection (up to 337 total casinos visited & chips collected). I was able to catch up on a bunch of podcasts that had been building up on my phone so that was a plus, drove ~7 hours each day before gambling at the casino I was staying at for the night.

Not sure how this particular casino hadn't been posted yet (unless it's just not listed on the index) since it's so close to WinnaVegas which has been posted. This was by FAR the most isolated, remote and middle-of-nowhere casino I visited on this trip. It reminded me of a few I visited in Oklahoma last summer, but reminded me specifically of one I visited in Missouri two years ago, I believe it was the Sac & Fox. Just a plain looking building on Native American land surround by barren wasteland of dead cornfields and gray skies, lol.



My photo is a bit blurry unfortunately.



Stayed that night right outside of Sioux Falls SD at Grand Falls Resort & Casino. Surprisingly nice place. Big event center that had some country artist I never heard of drawing a huge crowd. Had a great run on the craps table on the don'ts.

The funny thing was the Mormon-like running of the place. I wanted to watch some hockey so I played at the bartops in the center bar that had good TV views. There was a sign (posted below) that was strictly enforced. 20 minutes between drinks which was strictly enforced, and no shots allowed. First time I've seen something like this. I still managed to be hungover for my drive the next morning but c'mon. And one thing I keep forgetting is my flask for these casinos where drinks aren't comp. I'll definitely remember that for my Philly>Pittsburgh>Buffalo trip in June.

Two pics, one of the of the funny babysitting sign, and one out of my room window showing the golf course they're opening soon but just reflects the weather/desolate landscape I saw on my travels.



I have one more chip tomorrow from this trip that's new to this thread.

Quote: wezvidz

State: Iowa
City: Onawa
Casino: Blackbird Bend

Not sure how this particular casino hadn't been posted yet (unless it's just not listed on the index) since it's so close to WinnaVegas which has been posted. This was by FAR the most isolated, remote and middle-of-nowhere casino I visited on this trip. It reminded me of a few I visited in Oklahoma last summer, but reminded me specifically of one I visited in Missouri two years ago, I believe it was the Sac & Fox. Just a plain looking building on Native American land surround by barren wasteland of dead cornfields and gray skies, lol.

Great post! Glad your trip went well. This casino has an interesting history. It was CasinOmaha, and operated with a small table games pit. Then they removed the tables. Then they closed (in 2009). Then they reopened (in 2011). Then this happened:



The flood totally destroyed the former CasinOmaha. But, partially because of a large grant from the Mdewakanton tribe (the tribe that runs Mystic Lake in MN), the Onawa were able to rebuild the casino. They reopened without tables, but have added them in now. I'm actually a little upset. I tried to visit during the flood (failed for obvious reasons), then went back when they reopened but there were no table games. Now they have tables. But, as you mentioned, this is an awfully remote place. I'm not sure how/when/why I'd ever go there again. I guess I do also need a chip from the casino you'll post tomorrow and that's not toooo far from here.

Wow... guess that explains it. Very interesting history.

Based on your sig, are you a Buckeye fan rdw? I am an OSU alum in FL and saw one guy this weekend in a casino in a OSU hoody I shot an "O-H" to and got my reponse. The oldies band at Grand Falls even played Hang On Sloopy while I was on the bartops and I was the only one shouting O-H-I-O.

The one time I stopped into Winnevegas, a group of older ladies tried to get us to play live poker on the one table they had there. They were playing 7 card stud.

Quote: wezvidz

Wow... guess that explains it. Very interesting history.

Based on your sig, are you a Buckeye fan rdw? I am an OSU alum in FL and saw one guy this weekend in a casino in a OSU hoody I shot an "O-H" to and got my reponse. The oldies band at Grand Falls even played Hang On Sloopy while I was on the bartops and I was the only one shouting O-H-I-O.

I'm a Minnesota alum, so I can't really claim to be a Buckeye fan:-) But, I'm a Wolverine anti-fan. I thought Clarett was a great player, and I was intrigued by his take on success (and I thought it was applicable to gambling).