Midwest Illegal Gambling
Before there was Vegas there was the Midwest
Chip Collecting
To the gamblers they are a way of tracking wins and losses. To the casinos they are cash. To the collectors they are pieces of history and art to be archived and displayed.
Most casino chip collectors began in the same fashion simply by taking home a chip or two from a vacation or business trip. The chips are tucked away in a desk or dresser drawer to be forgotten about until the next opportunity to visit the casino. As the stack of souvenirs grows, the collector may become curious to the number of chips available and the number of casinos that had chips that can be obtained. Once the curiosity starts, the collector is now fully hooked and is on his or her way to a fascinating journey into gaming history.
There have been gaming counters of some sort as long as there has been gambling. Poker chips made of bone, mother-of-pearl, and ivory are highly collectible. These chips date back to the mid to late 1800’s. Actual casino chips, or cheques, can be attributed to a specific establishment or in the case of a few, establishments.
Casinos enjoyed steady growth with the legalization of gambling in 1931. The early casinos were tiny compared to the mega-resorts today. One or two table games, sometimes located in the back of a restaurant, were common. This also meant the number of available chips was limited. A dollar was worth more then than now and the chances of someone not cashing in their chips were pretty remote, unless he or she happened to be wealthy. The low denomination chips were used heavily and are typically quite worn when found. On the other hand, high denomination chips were not used as frequently and they can be found in much better condition, if they can be found! As casinos closed or changed owners, the chips on hand were typically destroyed or cancelled by various means. This makes finding older chips more difficult and the prices they command can be quite high. A $5 Hacienda that was found at a yard sale was sold at auction for $15,100. In early 2004, a Sands Hotel $5 Casino Chip was sold at auction for over $33,000. This chip was previously unknown and the transaction currently holds the record for a documented amount paid for a chip.
http://www.vegaspokerchips.com/casino_chip_collecting.htm
Jeff “Mr. Chipper” Buckner
A Short History Of Poker Chips
The game of poker began in the middle 1800’s in bars, saloons and on riverboats in the mid-west and western United States. The word “poker” was derived from the French game, “Poque” and the British game, “Brag.”
Coins, gold dust and gold nuggets were used as the monetary units in early poker games. Soon thereafter, chips replaced coins and gold particles, as they were easier to manage. Chips were made from ivory, bone, wood, paper and a composition made from clay and shellac.
The problem with these plain surface chips, is that shady characters could sneak their own chips into the game. Often, the establishment would end the game with many more chips than they began.
To counteract the “ringing in” of chips, manufacturers began to include a design to differentiate them from others. The design could be engraved, embossed, inlaid or a paste-on sticker. Ivory chips were hand scrimshawed with numerals, initials, flowers, animals and just about any type of design. The ivory chips were made to order so that each customer would have a set unlike any other set. Sometimes, there were only minor differences between sets, but they would not be the same.
Clay composition poker chips were made by several companies between the 1880’s and the late 1930’s. There were over 1000 designs from which to choose. Most chips were white, red, blue and yellow but they could be made in most any color desired.
The most expensive clay composition poker chips were made by the U.S. Playing Card co. in Cincinnati, OH, 1907-1939. These were “Crest & Seal” chips, which were composed of a circular lithograph, embedded into the clay, with a “Seal” of a polyurethane type liquid, over the entire surface. The Burt Co., in Portland, ME began making these Crest & Seal chips circa 1940 and continued until they closed about 1985.
Plastics became the material of choice for less expensive home poker sets in the 1940’s, and continue to be popular today. They are injection molded, long lasting, come in many designs and are easily obtained. However, they do not have the “feel” or the quality of the pre-1940’s chips.
Information for this article came from “Antique Gambling Chips, Revised Edition” by Dale Seymour
http://www.vegaspokerchips.com/casino_chip_collecting.htm
Dice Collecting
Casinos don't take any chances when it comes to profit so they don't use just any dice when thousands of dollars are riding on a roll.
Casino dice are called perfect or precision dice because of the way they are made. They are as close to being perfect true cubes as possible, measured to within a fraction of a millimetre, manufactured so each die has an absolutely equal chance of landing on any one of its six faces.
Casino dice are specially hand made to within a tolerance of 0.0005 of an inch. The spots are drilled and filled with material that is equal in weight to the material removed. Usually sides are flush and edges sharp. They are predominantly transparent red but can come in other colors like green, purple or blue. Spots are usually solid but a number of different designs can be found.
It is believed all casino dice should have the same conventional arrangement of faces and spots. They're right handed so that if the 1-spot is face up and the 2-spot is turned to face the left then the 3-spot is to the right of it with all opposing sides adding up to 7. If the 1-spot is face up then the 3-spot runs diagonally up from the left and the 2-spot runs diagonally down from the left. A different orientation of the spots is sometimes used on crooked dice (made to look like casino dice) so a cheat can differentiate them from a set of straight dice. 
Since the 1970s, and the move to corporate owned casinos, it has become more and more common for casino dice to have serial numbers printed on them. The number is 3 or 4 numeric digits, possibly with letters and dashes, usually printed on the 6-spot but can be found on any face except the 1-spot. This number denotes the issue and is used to prevent them being switched for crooked dice. Another security check sometimes used is having key letters printed on the underneath of spots which can only be viewed by looking through the transparent die. The casino's name, sometimes location, and/or logo will often be printed on the dice too using a metallic foil. The 1-spot usually bares the casino's name while the 2-spot may have the logo.
The most common size today is 3/4 inch but the size can vary with 5/8 inch and 11/16 inch the next most common sizes.
Casino dice were made of cellulose nitrate, starting around the 1920s, but sometime around the 1950s the manufacturers switched to cellulose acetate which is more durable. Very old casino dice have often started to crystallise and will have turned yellowish around the edges. This crystallisation is caused by age and exposure to moisture and ultra-violet light. A completely crystallised die will disintegrate if pressure is applied.
Casino dice can be readily bought. However, many cheap casino dice are in fact rejects that haven't met the manufacturers standards or used dice that have been cancelled by their casino. Both rejects and used dice will have been defaced in some way.
Manufacturers call rejects culls. These are factory marked with a hot pin in the centre of the 4-spot or hot stamped with a number of 'X' or star symbols or just simply stamped with the word "VOID". Some manufacturers stamp a gold "O" onto the four spot.
Used dice may be bought as souvenirs from many casinos although some refuse to let them go. When a die is taken out of play it will be cancelled. It could be that a hole is drilled through it or a crescent or circle is pressed into one side with a vice. Sometimes a gold bar is hot stamped on the six-spot. A sharp pointed metal scribe is often used to press a small shallow mark into a face. Some older dice were scratched or had a date or initials marked on them.
If you want true perfect dice then pay the extra for a stick. A stick is a number of dice that are still in their sealed pack as delivered by the manufacturer.