For those who’ve spent any time in a on line casino, you’ve seen gamers utilizing chips on the tables. Chips are authorized tender for on line casino video games, however they’re additionally a well-liked collectible for followers of playing historical past and on line casino memorabilia.
The On line casino Collectibles Affiliation exists to assist collectors establish their chips, community with different collectors, and be taught extra concerning the historical past of gaming and casinos. Members gather completely different objects from casinos, however the group’s specialty is the historical past of on line casino chips.
WorthPoint spoke to 3 key gamers within the CCA, Doug Balduini, Doug Smith, and Paul Schaffer, about chip accumulating. Whereas it’d seem to be a moderately area of interest merchandise to gather, WorthPoint realized that hundreds of chip collectors are in an lively community whose mission is to advertise the passion, protect classic chips and on line casino objects, and preserve a database of knowledge and pictures for future collectors.
HISTORY OF THE CCA
It wasn’t till the Nineteen Eighties that on line casino merchandise and chip collectors started organizing themselves. The group’s unique title, which is the CCA at this time, was “The On line casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Membership (CC>CC).” The group started as a solution to join collectors and share info.
Doug Smith, at present the CCA’s Membership Progress and Engagement Committee Chair and a previous President, instructed WorthPoint, “The CCA is 30 years within the making. It started with a small e-newsletter, after which, after our first conference in 1988, it started to develop. We have now about 1,500 members, and our annual conference in Las Vegas brings many individuals collectively to purchase, promote, and commerce chips.”
One of many group’s unique targets was to create a Museum of Gaming Historical past, which they’re shifting towards. Nonetheless, it should probably be a digital museum since making a bodily house could be a extra in depth challenge over a few years. Doug Balduini instructed WorthPoint, “A museum is an enormous a part of what we wish to do, to herald extra collectors and get new folks concerned, and whereas we’d hoped to have a constructing and house, a digital museum can attain hundreds of individuals, so we’re working to make that occur.”
WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT CASINO CHIPS
Whereas some members of the CCA gather on line casino objects aside from chips, the group prides itself on its database of various chips, full with manufacturing historical past and images. The ChipGuide is searchable by location and key phrases like on line casino and membership names. Anybody can use the information to establish and analysis info on chips they could have or need.
Balduini, Smith, and Schaffer shared a few of their tales about accumulating chips. Schaffer instructed WorthPoint that one in all his favourite chips got here from a on line casino in Oklahoma that was concerned in a dispute with another Cherokee tribes over the place they may open places. Schaffer had at all times needed a chip from Keetoowah On line casino, which is now closed, and by networking by way of social media and the CCA, he was capable of finding one. Chips imply fairly a bit to Schaffer as he holds the Guinness World File for the biggest on line casino chip assortment.
Smith associated that he discovered a chip from the Sans Souci on line casino he’d been trying to purchase. “Discovering this one was a objective for me, and that’s what it’s like for lots of collectors; discovering a sure chip is thrilling; it’s the joys of the chase.”
Balduini’s pursuits lie in a number of the chips and tokens from mob-related backroom card video games and unlawful gaming. Balduini lives within the NY/NJ space and is particularly focused on Atlantic Metropolis casinos and gaming historical past. His favourite discover is a chip from the Tuna Membership, an Atlantic Metropolis unauthorized card room that opened in 1936.
Balduini defined that chips from backroom video games or unlawful gaming parlors are particularly prized by collectors, stating, “There’s virtually no historical past on many of those card rooms and video games. They existed beneath the radar, and so not a lot is understood about them, which makes them extra enticing to some collectors.”
VALUES, SUPPLY AND DEMAND
On line casino chips are a bit extra advanced when it comes to provide and demand. Casinos which have closed or that have been by no means opened legitimately don’t have lots of data. Whereas the CCA has collected some data from chip producers, that solely reveals what number of chips a producer made. Balduini defined, “It’s the survivor rely that issues. It’s very exhausting to know what number of chips from a defunct card room or on line casino nonetheless exist. Trendy chips have holograms, RFID expertise, and different methods collectors can monitor their historical past; the older chips will not be like that.”
Balduini instructed WorthPoint about some Playboy on line casino chips that have been as soon as very uncommon. In 2008, development staff digging up a street so as to add a sidewalk discovered hundreds of Playboy chips in Hernando, Mississippi. Residents and others have been grabbing the chips for souvenirs, so as soon as the accumulating neighborhood turned conscious of so many accessible chips, the worth decreased. For collectors, nonetheless, the discover was thrilling, with all types of theories about how they received from Atlantic Metropolis to a development web site in Mississippi.
Many chips are priced affordably, however there are just a few gross sales of uncommon chips that made headlines. Smith instructed WorthPoint about two uncommon chips that reached epic costs in 2014 on the CCA conference. One was from the Golden Goose On line casino, which was solely open briefly, and the opposite was from the Fortunate On line casino. The Golden Goose chip was a $5 chip and offered for $75,000. It’s believed to be the one chip of its variety in existence. The chip from the Fortunate On line casino offered for $52,000 and is one in all two recognized chips from the now-closed on line casino. On the time, Smith instructed Coin Week, “It’s good to see that even in a slowing economic system, gross sales of the tremendous uncommon chips are nonetheless going sturdy. These chips have been greater than probably the one ones recognized and are positive to be highlights of anybody’s assortment.”
FINDING CHIPS TO COLLECT
So, if these tales about old-school casinos, the early days of Vegas, and mobbed-up card rooms intrigue you, the place is one of the best place to search out chips? Smith says that it was once that collectors would collect on the CCA reveals to commerce handfuls of chips, however now that there are collectors who purchase and promote, it’s a bit completely different. EBay has loads of chips on the market, and a few collectors like to enter a on line casino, sit at a desk recreation, and buy a chip at its face worth.
It’s additionally doable for chips to indicate up at yard gross sales or in thrift shops. Gathering chips is just not as effectively generally known as stamp accumulating or coin accumulating, so there are bargains to be discovered within the wild since many individuals would possibly overlook batches of chips as simply items of plastic. As casinos proceed to evolve, including completely different chip designs for safety, the older chips are a solution to bear in mind the video games of days passed by, and the On line casino Collectibles Affiliation has a treasure trove of knowledge for anybody focused on testing this passion.
Brenda Kelley Kim lives within the Boston space. She is the creator of Sink or Swim: Tales From the Deep Finish of All over the place and writes a weekly syndicated column for The Marblehead Weekly Information/Essex Media Group. When not writing or strolling her snorty pug, Penny, she enjoys yard gross sales, flea markets, and badminton.
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