I’ve been reading “Positively Fifth Street” by James Mcmanus recently when I came across this excerpt explaining how Ted Binion had 5k chips made without any actual funds to back them up. Kind of interesting to read about a casino’s interaction with a chip manufacturer given that these transactions are usually kept under lock and key. My heart sank at “80¢ a chip” lol.
“A story I've heard around the Horseshoe this week also rings true-that back in '93 Ted ordered twenty thousand white $1 chips and twenty-five thousand dark brown $5,000 chips from a company in Arizona. The first part of the order was unremarkable, but the second part seemed off. Why would a casino suddenly need $125 million worth of extra-high-denomination chips? When the chip maker called the Horseshoe to double-check the order, Ted confirmed the numbers, so the company put the chips into production. (In a run of this size, chips cost the client only eighty cents apiece, though each one is fully redeemable for $1-or $5,000—in cash.) In the middle of the run, a different Horseshoe executive called and told them to stop production of the chocolate-colored $5,000 chips. Fifteen thousand were already finished, however, so it was agreed that these would be shipped. And since none of them were ever logged in to the casino's vault, it seems reasonable to assume that Ted, in effect, had minted himself $75 million in legal tender.”
“A story I've heard around the Horseshoe this week also rings true-that back in '93 Ted ordered twenty thousand white $1 chips and twenty-five thousand dark brown $5,000 chips from a company in Arizona. The first part of the order was unremarkable, but the second part seemed off. Why would a casino suddenly need $125 million worth of extra-high-denomination chips? When the chip maker called the Horseshoe to double-check the order, Ted confirmed the numbers, so the company put the chips into production. (In a run of this size, chips cost the client only eighty cents apiece, though each one is fully redeemable for $1-or $5,000—in cash.) In the middle of the run, a different Horseshoe executive called and told them to stop production of the chocolate-colored $5,000 chips. Fifteen thousand were already finished, however, so it was agreed that these would be shipped. And since none of them were ever logged in to the casino's vault, it seems reasonable to assume that Ted, in effect, had minted himself $75 million in legal tender.”
