buying chips from casinos? |
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Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:27 pm GMT by TGuns
I've seen posts about people collecting $1 chips from casinos, and there was another post where someone mentioned using varios $1 casino chips as different denominations in their home games.
So, my question is - can you purchase (multiple) $1 chips from a casino to keep? Without making it obvious, is there anything stopping someone from buying 50 or 100 nice, real Paulson $1 chips from a Vegas casino and then taking them home?
Taking into account the uncertain information and design of the new Paulson home chips, soaring prices for real Paulsons on eBay, and the saturated market with fake "real clay casino" chips all over the internet - I think it would be pretty cool and unique to add a few hundred real (real) casino chips to the home game.
Add to the list if you want ---
Pro- real casino chips
Pro- no shipping charges
Pro- excellent chip for only $1
Con- have to travel to Vegas to buy them
Pro- have to travel to Vegas to buy them
Con- wouldn't match the rest of your chip set
Con- getting 200 chips out of the casino without being noticed might be a problem
-T Guns
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Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:30 pm GMT by MeridianFC
Hey it's hard to find a decent chip for a buck so it makes sense as long as the cheques you're getting don't have higher face values. The only downside I see is that casino chips, certainly the lower value ones, have been beat to shit and are usually firmly in the nasty category. Count on spending some time removing the grime.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:51 pm GMT by hachkc
Couple of other items:
1. I've heard some casinos will actually let you request new(er) chips over the olders ones especially in poker rooms if you are a "regular".
2. Use $1 chips from Canadian casinos if you can get them easily. Saves you about 20% on the cost. I live in SE Michigan so its not a problem to head over to Casino Windsor in Ontario.
3. Be careful about using them in tournaments where a $20 buyin might get you $100 or more dollars in chips. If you do do this, let me know when and where the game is, lol.
4. Other advantage is that if you get tired of them, you can always sell them at face value. I'm not sure if casinos ever retire chips and then refuse to accept them later; other folks might know the answer to this.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:56 pm GMT by User
| hachkc wrote: | | 2. Use $1 chips from Canadian casinos if you can get them easily. Saves you about 20% on the cost. |
Unless your Canadian eh?
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:36 pm GMT by MeridianFC
| hachkc wrote: |
4. Other advantage is that if you get tired of them, you can always sell them at face value. I'm not sure if casinos ever retire chips and then refuse to accept them later; other folks might know the answer to this. |
Casinos do retire chips and will not honor them.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 8:30 pm GMT by PocketRocket
See within your text
Add to the list if you want ---
Pro- real casino chips
Pro- no shipping charges
There are a few companies that have reasonable shipping charges. Pokernstuff and TR King are two that happen to come into mind, I'm sure there's probably at least a couple more.
Pro- excellent chip for only $1
There are others of the same quality available for less
Con- have to travel to Vegas to buy them
Probably not, you have plenty of casinos in New York State, and there's always Atlantic City, or Foxwoods
Pro- have to travel to Vegas to buy them
Con- wouldn't match the rest of your chip set
$1 chips often don't match the rest of the casino's house chips either. So what's the problem?
Con- getting 200 chips out of the casino without being noticed might be a problem
Unless you stole them from someone else's stack or from the cage, why do you think they would care if you left their casino with their .55-.65 chips that you paid them a dollar each for? 
One added Pro - if you grow tired of them and the casino hasn't retired the chip, you can always cash them back in for what you paid for them.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:13 pm GMT by ArtFern
| MeridianFC wrote: |
Casinos do retire chips and will not honor them. |
Yep, you have to watch out for this. Although in some states, the casinos are required to publish a notification that they are de-monetizing certain chips, and must grant a window of time where the chips can be cashed in before the casino can refuse to redeem them. Nevada Gaming Commission regulations require at least a 120 day window to redeem the chips.
I think in Atlantic City the casinos are never allowed to de-monetize chips and must redeem any chip ever used at that establishment. Some of the Las Vegas casinos also have a policy of never de-monetizing their chips.
Often de-monetized chips increase in value (as a collectible) after they've been obsoleted, but that depends greatly on the chip's condition.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:37 pm GMT by Deakon
I am glad someone brought this up because I was thinking of the same thing. I have seen some pretty nice $1 chips and wanted to know myself. The Harrahs and the Mandalay Bay currently come to mind, especially since they are blue and not white, still probably somewhat dirty, but not as noticeble as those white ones. Now, I just gotta to find a way to get some.
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:41 pm GMT by TenPercenter
| PocketRocket wrote: |
Con- have to travel to Vegas to buy them
Pro- have to travel to Vegas to buy them
|
EXACTLY what I was thinking before I got to that part.
Ten
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:29 pm GMT by ledavatar
When I went to Vegas I literally went to every single casino on the strip (and downtown), only missing a few off the strip like Terribles, Palm's, Hardrock, Palace Station, etc. Most of the casinos were pretty nice about selling the chips, but if you tell the cashier you want to buy some chips as souvenirs, they may offer to "go to the back" and get you fresh new chips. I realized this too late as I had covered most of the casinos already, but I did get some mint $1 chips from a few casinos - stratosphere, boardwalk, circus circus, westward ho, MGM, binion's, etc. If you want new chips from a specific you really have to be persistent about it and go to different cashiers at various times of the day. When they have new ones and ask how many you want, just get a rack. :D
Posted Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:35 pm GMT by Jay34689
Did they actually let you buy a rack as souveniers?
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:02 am GMT by ledavatar
I had so many casinos to cover i wasn't about to buy 100 from any particular casino. However, most of them just plainly asked me how many I wanted before going to the back to get those mint ones. I didn't see any problems in asking for a rack. I usually get 10 $1 chips if mint ones are available.
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:11 am GMT by PaulsonChips
Casinos like it when you buy chips to keep.
This is why so many commemorative chips are made, so collectors will keep them, the chips cost the casino about .60 to buy and you are buying them at $1.
This is also why the lower end chips are more plain and has to cost the casino less than face value. (.50 chips)
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:48 am GMT by TGuns
Well, I'm glad to hear that this is possible. Everyone's replies have been good points to consider.
I am going on a LV trip anyways, probably around the same time I finish building my poker table and updating the poker room. In Vegas, there would be a much better (and cooler) selection of $1 chips than going to Niagara or Turning Stone up here. Does anyone have pics of the $1's from Mirage, Bellagio, Palms, etc?
Condition --- Although the chips are usually a little beat-up, I figure myself and a few others will just make several trips to the cashier and kindly request mint ones like ledavatar suggested. If we end up getting a pool of a few hundred chips, we can play the bad condition ones and keep the good ones.
Value --- Not bad being able to take the chips back to the casino and cash them in later; although even if they retire the chips they would still be nice collectibles. As for the value and theft - I can't accomodate any tournament play or huge games, so it ends up always being a close group of my college buddies that play at my house. I wouldn't bring the chips to any other games through the week, so they are not gonna start disappearing.
I'll probably get in on a group buy to complete the rest of my updated chip set, maybe TR Kings, Blue Chips, or new Paulsons.
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 10:05 am GMT by trogdoraoeu
If you get chips from various casinos on the strip, will the sizes match (assuming you only get clays)?
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 10:13 am GMT by TGuns
trogdoraoeu, as far as I know they should match up almost exact. I am planning on completing the set wth standard 39mm as-close-to-10.5g clay casino chips like the TR Kings, PC.com, blue chip, etc. I've got some Blue Chip samples, and a $1 NY NY real Paulson chip, and they are the same except for the fact that the Paulson is slightly heavier, and obviously the mold is different.
If I can, I will buy my chip set of $5, $25, $100 chips via internet before I go to Vegas - this way I can bring my chips and see which casinos have ones that might be the most similar, at least in size/weight/feel.
Posted Fri Feb 11, 2005 8:51 pm GMT by PocketRocket
You should be aware that even the casinos don't have matching sized chips. They may have chips from several manufacturers in circulation in any particular denomination, but for the sake of security and recognition, the edgemarks will usually be pretty close if not the same. It's not unusual to see Paulson $1 chips and then Bud Jones coin chips for the rest of the denominations, or a combination of different Bud Jones designs in their house rack and commeoratives from Paulson or Blue Chip. Additionally, there are some Vegas Casinos that are now using Blue Chip $1 chips along with Paulson for their other denominations. It might hellp to do some research on some of the casino chip collecting sites before you make your trip so that you can get a better grasp of the chips that you may encounter in various casinos (even if you decide to go to Atlantic City, or Tunica, rather than Vegas.
| TGuns wrote: | trogdoraoeu, as far as I know they should match up almost exact. I am planning on completing the set wth standard 39mm as-close-to-10.5g clay casino chips like the TR Kings, PC.com, blue chip, etc. I've got some Blue Chip samples, and a $1 NY NY real Paulson chip, and they are the same except for the fact that the Paulson is slightly heavier, and obviously the mold is different.
If I can, I will buy my chip set of $5, $25, $100 chips via internet before I go to Vegas - this way I can bring my chips and see which casinos have ones that might be the most similar, at least in size/weight/feel. |
Posted Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:44 pm GMT by trogdoraoeu
| PocketRocket wrote: | It might hellp to do some research on some of the casino chip collecting sites before you make your trip so that you can get a better grasp of the chips that you may encounter in various casinos
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Have any sites in mind?
If I went this rout, I'd probably lean toward $1 chips from these:
Rio
Venetian
Sahara
Treasure Island
Mirage
Belagio
Caesar's Palace
Excalibur
Barbary Coast
I'd like to get paulsons only. The first three have hats and canes, but the rest don't so I don't know who makes them. That is, assuming the pics I looked at were up to date (mostly at http://www.oldvegaschips.com/chipsaleindex.htm). Oh wait, it looks like there's a paulson and a bluechip ("sunburst mold") version of the sahara $1. I wonder if they don't have the paulson sahara $1's any more.
http://www.oldvegaschips.com/sahara1.JPG
http://www.oldvegaschips.com/1saharanew1.htm
Posted Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:56 pm GMT by PocketRocket
Chipguide, Silver State Treasures, Oldvegaschips, and buypokerchips all have pictures, and of course, you can always go to Google Images and search as well.
Paulson also has a mold called the House Mold. It's the name of the casino on the edge of the chip (just like the Paulson Chips on the upcoming Paulson home chip that is discussed here in various threads). So some of the other ones that you're looking at are probably Paulsons as well. While the H&C and RH&C are the most commonly recognized symbol for Paulson, it's not the only one. Of the hotels that you have listed, I think they all use Paulsons for their $1 house racks, though you may also find tokens (house minted silver dollar sized coins) in use. Do be aware that it only applies to their regular house racks, as their commemoratives may be Chipcos (and they're probably at least $5)
| trogdoraoeu wrote: | Have any sites in mind?
If I went this rout, I'd probably lean toward $1 chips from these:
Monte Carlo
Venetian
Sahara
Treasure Island
Mirage
Belagio
Caesar's Palace
Excalibur
Barbary Coast
I'd like to get paulsons only. The first three have hats and canes, but the rest don't so I don't know who makes them. |
Posted Fri Feb 18, 2005 10:15 am GMT by Mr. Meaner
Most get all there chips from paulson so they are almost alwasy the same size. Sorry for the shitty pics but here are a couple chips from the Mirage and Bellagio, these are paulson chips.
Posted Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:14 am GMT by TGuns
Real casino chips seem unbeatable to me. I love the looks of those chips you posted, Mr. Meaner. I think adding Bellagio $1's or Mirage $1's to an existing set of Paulsons (possibly home version) would be awesome.
Posted Sat Feb 19, 2005 2:18 pm GMT by trogdoraoeu
| TGuns wrote: | | Real casino chips seem unbeatable to me. |
My rant in another thread:
| Quote: |
As for buying $1 chips from casinos, I'm seriously considering doing this. There are these setbacks though. You'll probably end up with a set of whites, blues, and maybe browns. You'll be haunted by questions like "how much are the $1 whites with red spots and the $1 whites with blue spots worth again?" during games. Having a colorful set with denominations still has an attraction for me. It's possible casino chips may still be going for $2 per chip (adjusted for inflation) in 5 years on eBay, but note that the old Paulson home chips are going for a lot of money too; in many cases more than casino chips. Try to buy a set of the old Paulson Bonds and see how much it will cost you.
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Posted Sat Feb 19, 2005 2:32 pm GMT by mindgame
I use real, current casino chips in my home game. Why not just "rent" them for nothing? And I've walked out of casinos with a rack of chips and they didn't bat an eyelash. They won't let you do that with roulette chips, typically, but the others? Why not?
I was a little surprised they let me take the rack. 
The trick is that it should be a casino near your home, or you can't easily cash them back in...or you can end up eating them if they change out the rack or get sold or the boat moves.
The guy that said a "regular" can ask for clean ones? Well I do that if I want to pick out some that were just introduced and are only a few weeks old so that I can use them as traders. But why would you take a rack of clean chips into a casino poker game???? Makes no sense...in a matter of an hour or so, they'd be all mixed in with the rest at the table.
You will spend about two hours cleaning each 100 chips. I am amazed that a chip only a few weeks old can be covered with filth. It's so bad that I always wash my hands BEFORE I go to the bathroom in a casino.
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