Big Jilm
4 of a Kind
EMPRESS CASINO - Joliet, IL
Status: Closed
Open: 06/16/1992, Close: 03/20/2009
Interesting Chicago Tribune Article:
Joliet's Empress Casino: Fire damages entrance
Firefighters stopped blaze from reaching casino barge
March 22, 2009 | By Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Tribune
A massive fire Friday destroyed much of the Egyptian-themed entrance building at the Empress Casino in Joliet, sending dark smoke that was visible for miles rising above the two towering pharaohs alongside the front door. The blaze, which officials said may have been sparked by welders working on a kitchen duct system, started small about 10 a.m. But within hours more than half the city's Fire Department was working to prevent its spread to the casino barge, Fire Chief Joe Formhals said. No one was injured, and the casino had been evacuated before firefighters arrived, Formhals said. A Joliet paramedic moonlighting at the casino radioed in the fire shortly after it started. The casino itself seemed to have only minor damage, and Mayor Arthur Schultz said he hoped it would be up and running soon. Casino officials were waiting for a complete damage estimate from fire officials and did not know when the business would reopen, said Eric Schippers, a spokesman for Penn National Gaming, which runs the Empress and two other Illinois casinos. Formhals said the building's unusual construction, which includes "void spaces" inside walls and second and third ceilings, may have allowed the blaze to quickly spread past a firewall and kept crews from accurately targeting the fire. He said the city's Building Department will re-examine those aspects of the pavilion's construction in a planned review of the fire. Ceilings in the ballroom and kitchen collapsed, and the fire destroyed a pyramid-like structure atop the building. The fire also destroyed a hospitality area with shops and restaurants in the building, which was undergoing a $50 million renovation, officials said. A two-story office structure that is part of the pavilion appeared to be safe. Nearly 30 water tankers from various departments rushed 3,000-gallon loads to battle the fire throughout the afternoon. Ken Mihelich, Joliet's director of management and budget, said the casino brings in about $12 million a year for the city. "We'll have to see how they bounce back," Mihelich said. "If anyone can, they can." Schultz said the fallout from the fire likely will have little impact on the city's finances.
Info on this set:
Casino THC mold Paulsons, leaded, with shaped textured inlays......absolutely beautiful! These chips are in the best shape per denomination I was able to find while collecting them and still appear to be one of the best Empress sets out there as I embarrassingly got them into play twice. It took me several years to piece it together. I started collecting the secondary $25's until I realized that there were NrMt primaries out there. I was very lucky on the $100 chips. I sent a message to Jim after the sales when stock was running thin and basically got hooked up with a bunch of minty hundos at the bottom of chip bags. The rest I bought well after the sales at much higher prices. The $500's were really hard to obtain. I started by collecting the primary $500's. After obtaining some of the secondary $500's later down the line, I noticed that they were in better condition than the primary $500 chips in general. After obtaining hundreds of secondaries, I then noticed that the LCV secondary chips were slightly better than the SCV secondary chips, thus; all of my effort went to collecting the LCV chips only. ALL of the $500's are secondary LCV! I sold all of the nicked chips and kept the cream of the crop (you MIGHT find a flea bite here or there -- I am talking like one or two between all 140 chips). The $1000 chips used to be mixed LCV and SCV. I think the SCV chips are a brighter orange than the LCV, so all of the $1000's in this set are SCV. Thanks to Gear, the relabeled $5k chips are BOMB as well. Anyway, a little history of this set for ya. Please use the pictures provided to judge their condition for yourself. If you have questions please send me a PM and thanks in advance for adhering to the PCF classifieds guidelines.
Thanks for looking!
PRICING
$1900 per set SHIPPED
$3600 for all of them SHIPPED if one chipper buys both sets (Which is a $200 discount, plus I will give you my spares/shufflers: #8 $25 secondary used, #5 SCV $100 primary used, and #3 LCV $100 primary used, and #1 LCV $100 primary Ex+ (only one at this condition out of #340 others).- DEAL PENDING - Frank (must pay by July 7th or they are up for grabs again)
The same pricing will be available if one chipper purchases all of the chips for a group buy.
***If someone wants to organize a group buy, go right ahead. Just do it in the Group buy section, not here. I will only be shipping to one person and I will have nothing to do with the group buy***
PAYMENT
Payment via PayPal "Friends and Family" or please pay the fees. No mentioning PCF through PayPal.
SHIPPING
CONUS PREFERRED for these 2 sets (or one set if you buy all of them!) If you are non-conus send me a PM and we can see what is possible.
Free Shipping for you (my cost is ~$45 per box. Each set will be packed with care in a nuc-proof double boxed insured MFRB with adult signature confirmation)
#2 10 PLAYER SETS AVAILABLE!! Each set contains all the items below:
Each set is great for 10 Players with 12/12/7/5/1 starting stacks with plenty of $5k chips to buy back lower denoms. Or great for 20 players if you take the whole set!
120 x $25 Primary - NrMt+
120 x $100 Primary SCV - NrMt+ to MOSTLY Mint (ALL SCV)
70 x $500 Secondary LCV - Ex (all of them are LCV, nicked/damaged chips were sold long ago. All of the $500 chips will stand on edge! As GOOD as it gets for these!)
50 x $1000 Primary SCV - Mt (I say Mint, picky guys might say NrMt+)
20 x $5000 Casa Blanca Gray Hundos relabeled by Gear (hard to call them mint with labels on them, but yeah, minty)
20 x $5 Secondary - Mt (I used these as bounty chips)
1 x Blue Empress Dealer Button
1 x Gold Empress Dealer Button
1 x $1 Ex condition gaming token in airtite
Recent pics
yummy 5k chips
$1 Gaming Token
Status: Closed
Open: 06/16/1992, Close: 03/20/2009
Interesting Chicago Tribune Article:
Joliet's Empress Casino: Fire damages entrance
Firefighters stopped blaze from reaching casino barge
March 22, 2009 | By Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Tribune
A massive fire Friday destroyed much of the Egyptian-themed entrance building at the Empress Casino in Joliet, sending dark smoke that was visible for miles rising above the two towering pharaohs alongside the front door. The blaze, which officials said may have been sparked by welders working on a kitchen duct system, started small about 10 a.m. But within hours more than half the city's Fire Department was working to prevent its spread to the casino barge, Fire Chief Joe Formhals said. No one was injured, and the casino had been evacuated before firefighters arrived, Formhals said. A Joliet paramedic moonlighting at the casino radioed in the fire shortly after it started. The casino itself seemed to have only minor damage, and Mayor Arthur Schultz said he hoped it would be up and running soon. Casino officials were waiting for a complete damage estimate from fire officials and did not know when the business would reopen, said Eric Schippers, a spokesman for Penn National Gaming, which runs the Empress and two other Illinois casinos. Formhals said the building's unusual construction, which includes "void spaces" inside walls and second and third ceilings, may have allowed the blaze to quickly spread past a firewall and kept crews from accurately targeting the fire. He said the city's Building Department will re-examine those aspects of the pavilion's construction in a planned review of the fire. Ceilings in the ballroom and kitchen collapsed, and the fire destroyed a pyramid-like structure atop the building. The fire also destroyed a hospitality area with shops and restaurants in the building, which was undergoing a $50 million renovation, officials said. A two-story office structure that is part of the pavilion appeared to be safe. Nearly 30 water tankers from various departments rushed 3,000-gallon loads to battle the fire throughout the afternoon. Ken Mihelich, Joliet's director of management and budget, said the casino brings in about $12 million a year for the city. "We'll have to see how they bounce back," Mihelich said. "If anyone can, they can." Schultz said the fallout from the fire likely will have little impact on the city's finances.
Info on this set:
Casino THC mold Paulsons, leaded, with shaped textured inlays......absolutely beautiful! These chips are in the best shape per denomination I was able to find while collecting them and still appear to be one of the best Empress sets out there as I embarrassingly got them into play twice. It took me several years to piece it together. I started collecting the secondary $25's until I realized that there were NrMt primaries out there. I was very lucky on the $100 chips. I sent a message to Jim after the sales when stock was running thin and basically got hooked up with a bunch of minty hundos at the bottom of chip bags. The rest I bought well after the sales at much higher prices. The $500's were really hard to obtain. I started by collecting the primary $500's. After obtaining some of the secondary $500's later down the line, I noticed that they were in better condition than the primary $500 chips in general. After obtaining hundreds of secondaries, I then noticed that the LCV secondary chips were slightly better than the SCV secondary chips, thus; all of my effort went to collecting the LCV chips only. ALL of the $500's are secondary LCV! I sold all of the nicked chips and kept the cream of the crop (you MIGHT find a flea bite here or there -- I am talking like one or two between all 140 chips). The $1000 chips used to be mixed LCV and SCV. I think the SCV chips are a brighter orange than the LCV, so all of the $1000's in this set are SCV. Thanks to Gear, the relabeled $5k chips are BOMB as well. Anyway, a little history of this set for ya. Please use the pictures provided to judge their condition for yourself. If you have questions please send me a PM and thanks in advance for adhering to the PCF classifieds guidelines.
Thanks for looking!
PRICING
$1900 per set SHIPPED
$3600 for all of them SHIPPED if one chipper buys both sets (Which is a $200 discount, plus I will give you my spares/shufflers: #8 $25 secondary used, #5 SCV $100 primary used, and #3 LCV $100 primary used, and #1 LCV $100 primary Ex+ (only one at this condition out of #340 others).- DEAL PENDING - Frank (must pay by July 7th or they are up for grabs again)
The same pricing will be available if one chipper purchases all of the chips for a group buy.
***If someone wants to organize a group buy, go right ahead. Just do it in the Group buy section, not here. I will only be shipping to one person and I will have nothing to do with the group buy***
PAYMENT
Payment via PayPal "Friends and Family" or please pay the fees. No mentioning PCF through PayPal.
SHIPPING
CONUS PREFERRED for these 2 sets (or one set if you buy all of them!) If you are non-conus send me a PM and we can see what is possible.
Free Shipping for you (my cost is ~$45 per box. Each set will be packed with care in a nuc-proof double boxed insured MFRB with adult signature confirmation)
#2 10 PLAYER SETS AVAILABLE!! Each set contains all the items below:
Each set is great for 10 Players with 12/12/7/5/1 starting stacks with plenty of $5k chips to buy back lower denoms. Or great for 20 players if you take the whole set!
120 x $25 Primary - NrMt+
120 x $100 Primary SCV - NrMt+ to MOSTLY Mint (ALL SCV)
70 x $500 Secondary LCV - Ex (all of them are LCV, nicked/damaged chips were sold long ago. All of the $500 chips will stand on edge! As GOOD as it gets for these!)
50 x $1000 Primary SCV - Mt (I say Mint, picky guys might say NrMt+)
20 x $5000 Casa Blanca Gray Hundos relabeled by Gear (hard to call them mint with labels on them, but yeah, minty)
20 x $5 Secondary - Mt (I used these as bounty chips)
1 x Blue Empress Dealer Button
1 x Gold Empress Dealer Button
1 x $1 Ex condition gaming token in airtite
Recent pics
yummy 5k chips
$1 Gaming Token
Attachments
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