Quite a number of poker followers take pleasure in amassing chips, and never only for bullying opponents on the desk. Rare on line casino chips might be extremely wanted, and one aficionado has even amassed such a big assortment that it has been acknowledged by Guinness Records.
Paul Schaffer, of Kansas City, Missouri, is now identified for having the largest number of collectible casino chips, with 2,250 after stepping into the interest 20 years in the past. At a younger age, he discovered that snagging a chip may very well be a low-cost interest since he loved visiting casinos.
“Since I grew up in Minnesota where the legal age to gamble was 18, it was something we did for entertainment,” he instructed Guinness. “When my wife took me to Vegas for the first time for my 30th birthday, I saw all these cool chips on the tables. Instead of buying some trinkets that I would throw away, I would keep a chip from every casino we visited.”
Chips From Casinos Of The Past
Collecting on line casino chips has gained fairly a following in recent times. A on line casino collectors and memorabilia present is even held every summer time in Las Vegas.
Schaffer’s first chip got here as a present from his mom after she visited the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas. That property was open from 1950 to 1988 earlier than dealing with the wrecking ball to make manner for the Frontier. The on line casino was identified for the massive silver slipper that rotated above the constructing to beckon gamblers. The property gained a little bit of infamy in 1964 after changing into the primary on line casino to be shut down for dishonest after utilizing “flat dice” and different rigged video games.
Along with that collectible, one other favourite for Schaffer is a 1964 $1 Christy & Jones purple chip from the Thunderbird Casino in Las Vegas.
“Nothing says old Vegas like the Thunderbird, and purple along with the red inserts is something you don’t see these days,” he stated.
Schaffer enjoys speaking with on line casino employees about chips and accumulating. The thrill of the chip hunt stays and plenty of of those collectibles of now-forgotten casinos stay on his goal checklist. But he’s all the time searching for chips at newer properties as properly.
“I just got back from Las Vegas because since the last time I was there several new $1 chips were released,” he stated. “So, I drove around to all the casinos to get them for my collection.”
Not all chips of older casinos are uncommon. New Jersey gaming regulators just lately closed an account of the previous Playboy Casino in Atlantic City after it was decided that many extra chips have been in existence than was initially reported when the on line casino closed down within the Nineteen Eighties.
The perception that extra chips nonetheless remained was affirmed in 2008 when a building employee in Hernando, Mississippi hit a jackpot of the chips in a concrete slab whereas digging as a part of a group infrastructure venture. The firm in control of destroying the chips said that they didn’t know the way they as a substitute ended up buried greater than 1,000 miles away from the on line casino.