Okku's Historical Casino Videos & Random Fun Stuff (1 Viewer)

Okay, read through it again. Completely missed out on that information. Now I fully understand that story behind all these BTP, Empress Star, Sunset Beach and the Royal Princess sets.

I don't take things personally. I want to learn the history behind this stuff and I guess I haven't fully taken a deep dive into this stuff. Now, I understand how those chips got created and so on. You learn something new everyday and that's what I did today, so no problem.

Have to admit that there was a bit of presumption on my part.

For someone who’s into chip history as much as you are and all the research you do, I didn’t think of the possibility that you wouldn’t know much of the history of NAGB chips.

Even though a lot of the deep info isn’t posted, there’s so much talk of these chips that I figured you for knowing more.

My bad
 
Have to admit that there was a bit of presumption on my part.

For someone who’s into chip history as much as you are and all the research you do, I didn’t think of the possibility that you wouldn’t know much of the history of NAGB chips.

Even though a lot of the deep info isn’t posted, there’s so much talk of these chips that I figured you for knowing more.

My bad
No worries at all man! It's all good. I understand that most of the stuff and info behind NAGB chips is behind the scenes. That's no problem and I'm sure that is where it should be kept. I've just always wondered how these chips were created and obviously the colors that they have are incredible. Something that we wouldn't see on any standard casino chip.
 
Videos like that won't make it easier to get more made in the future, though... :cautious:
 
No worries at all man! It's all good. I understand that most of the stuff and info behind NAGB chips is behind the scenes. That's no problem and I'm sure that is where it should be kept. I've just always wondered how these chips were created and obviously the colors that they have are incredible. Something that we wouldn't see on any standard casino chip.
Oscar this is an open forum brother, I applaud your efforts on trully becoming the next generation chipper! You go to great lengths to reserch and learn everything there is to know about the older closed down casinos. Your intrest in the hobby is obvious, you show compassion even for chips you dream of and can't afford to own!

Maybe before making this one a bit more knowledge on the subject would have been a better step, but it's all good man!

Keep up the awesome work, as always looking forward to the next one buddy!
 
Videos like that won't make it easier to get more made in the future, though... :cautious:
I understand this 100%. Although, maybe it can show GPI/Paulson that there are tons of people out there that wish that they could still order customs like they used to be able to back in the day. I'm sure everyone on this forum would love to have a custom personal set of Paulsons. GPI would make so much money if they were doing this. Possibly create a whole different department inside of the company to specifically just work on custom orders aside from casino, card room, charity event and such orders.
 
Oscar this is an open forum brother, I applaud your efforts on trully becoming the next generation chipper! You go to great lengths to reserch and learn everything there is to know about the older closed down casinos. Your intrest in the hobby is obvious, you show compassion even for chips you dream of and can't afford to own!

Maybe before making this one a bit more knowledge on the subject would have been a better step, but it's all good man!

Keep up the awesome work, as always looking forward to the next one buddy!
Thanks @Ben8257! I can agree 100% that I could have looked into it deeper, I guess I got too excited as soon as I looked at them and wanted to get it done and over with.
 
Thanks @Ben8257! I can agree 100% that I could have looked into it deeper, I guess I got too excited as soon as I looked at them and wanted to get it done and over with.
yes Done and over with! lol I thought your vids were historical! Theres NO HISTORY HERE!

PS LOVE YOUR VIDS!!!!!
 
I understand this 100%. Although, maybe it can show GPI/Paulson that there are tons of people out there that wish that they could still order customs like they used to be able to back in the day. I'm sure everyone on this forum would love to have a custom personal set of Paulsons. GPI would make so much money if they were doing this. Possibly create a whole different department inside of the company to specifically just work on custom orders aside from casino, card room, charity event and such orders.

Probably never happen. GPI prides itself on security and that its chips can not be duplicated. I don't think they are going to let a bunch of yahoos like us design chips that may be close to real live casino chips that then could be slightly altered enough to pass as the real thing. Not worth it to them. Sure, initially we'd all buy a set or 2 and GPI would make some extra money. But that's year one. How many of us are going back year 2 and beyond to buy more and more. Not many. It's most likely a one time purchase and done for the vast majority of people here. So they would have a short term win fall, but open themselves up to security concerns. I don't ever see it happening.
 
Today we talk about the recent find of 97 Stardust $25 No Cash Value chips that were found and posted onto Facebook into the Casino Chip Collectors group by Craig Bryant. This is another one of these hoards that has surfaced similar to the Royal Nevada $25s I talked about in a recent video, the Binion's stuff last year, the Black Gold $25s from about a year ago and a few others. These NCV chips aren't too common though so it is amazing to see almost a full rack of them. I personally hadn't seen this chip before listed or in person before it was posted onto Facebook. Many people will be adding this chip to their collection here in the next few days and that's awesome! Something many people hadn't had in the past, but now have the chance of owning. Along with the other NCV like the $5 & $2000 that are pretty rare. I've only seen pictures of those chips, they've got to be hard to find/get. I would also love to see a full set of the NCV chips all together, I think that would be just AWESOME! Anyways, Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about the history of the Golden Nugget casino that is still located in downtown Las Vegas. It has to be one of the oldest casinos still open in Las Vegas and downtown. Originally opening up in 1946 by Guy McAfee. McAfee who came to Vegas from LA after being a firefighter and being the head of the vice squad of the LAPD. Had the Clover Club on Sunset Blvd in the 1930s and would leave the LAPD to join the ranks of LA's top crime syndicate. After arriving in Vegas, he would buy the Pair-O-Dice club which would turn into the 91 Club and would later become part of the Last Frontier. The Golden Nugget would open in 1946 and would be said to be the world's largest casino. Big games started early on with no-limit games up until the 50s. Into the 50s-60s nothing to crazy happened until the 70s when Steve Wynn would take over. Into the 2000s, we would see some renovations as well as Poker After Dark being filmed there with some of the worlds greatest poker pros. It is still open today, having insane poker games with pots of over $16,000. You can visit the Tank with over 300 animals and enjoy all of the amenities that are available. Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about how T.R. King & Co. made cardboard chips back in the day... I didn't know this until a few days ago when I saw these posted on eBay. They made large crown cardboard chips, although I'm unsure if they made small crown versions which would be very interesting. I reached out to a few people that know quite a bit about TRK and I was informed that they were sold/advertised as "noiseless" chips. Of course for those that wanted to use chips, but didn't want any noise or a cheaper alternative to the standard chips. Then, there were a few of those cardboard chips that were actually hot stamped! Those that were for the N.C.O. El Toro Club which was a military air station located in Irvine, California. I'd love to see the other hot stamp chips that they did if they are out there. Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:
 
I've got to start off by saying that 2021 was an incredible year! So many new people, so many new memories, chips, discoveries, knowledge and the list could go on and on. My collection has I don't even know.... tripled, quadrupled??! Something insane like that. I went from collecting singles from places that I had visited as a kid here in Vegas and then some chips that I thought looked nice. Some older Trop TRKS being some of the first chips I got, then I bought a few little lots on eBay. Thinking that they were cheap enough & they'd be a decent idea to get. Turns out I haven't even looked at those in months. OOPS... But, I have the TRK bug as many know. I was finally able to get some chips with original TRK boxes which is huge for me. All the TRKs so far, didn't come with a TRK box and I know they are pretty hard to get. What's in these boxes, to me is amazing!

Let's start off with the HLA large crown chips. I've acquired a rack of yellow and then a 50/50 split of green and blue. I got some information that they were ordered as most likely a home set for a woman in Arizona in the late 50s. Incredible find, I'm sure many you guys saw them on eBay as well. I thought they would have been to the later years, but it makes it so much better that they are 50s chips. All really really nice condition and a mini "heads up" set if you'd like to call it!

Then, I HAVE THE ABSOLUTE BRICKS! Little tricky and I'm still trying to understand where these are from because there's 3 different places that these chips could be from now.... ChipGuide says the Lyon Hotel in Yerington, then these might be linked to the El Rancho & El Cortez soooo I got to figure that out. BUT, behold the NS $5s, a rack of them that is. These weigh a little over 12 grams A CHIP! Heaviest things I've ever felt/seen and I'm a little obsessed ;)

Then a Lyon Hotel (DSN) $5 was included which is an awesome chip. Really enjoy the hot stamp on that one.

Nevada Club O Roulette chips were sent to me as a Christmas present from I believe David Sarles, little hard to read his handwriting, but it is David for sure!

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Then! One final Christmas/New Years gift from the one and only @leo822! A set of HB (Hank Boss) chips. From what I learned HB was THE TRK collector of his time! What an incredible personal set of chips. Tri-moon, awesome colors and the whole bit! So much thanks to E this year!

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Hope everyone has a Happy New Year! This year was so much fun, let's make next year even MORE FUN!
 
I've got to say this year has been an absolute blast! I've grown so much as an individual. This year was filled with meeting so many new people, so many new memories, chips, discoveries, knowledge and the list could go on and on. My collection has I don't even know.... tripled, quadrupled??! I uploaded, oh I don't even know how many videos this past year. A lot that's my answer and had so much fun creating each and every one of them. I hope 2022 is even better than 2021. In terms of growth, having fun, meeting new people, finding new things, expanding my chip collection, investments and all other things. Thank you guys so much for everything you've done, it's incredible! I've made a compilation of my best/favorite moments of the videos that I uploaded this year. Of course this isn't all of the videos, but these are my favorite moments of the videos that made a highlight this past year.

We've had so much fun on here talking chips, finding out new hoards, new discoveries and the action just continues. I don't think the chip collecting hobby is going anywhere anytime soon. As long as casinos keep using chips the hobby will be around. Same goes for any type of casino collectible. These things are history and they all have a story behind them. It's fun to find out what that story might be or how a chip from Vegas ends up across the world in Europe or let's say a RACK! These things have been passed from person to person over the years and some of them have probably been in the hands of some amazing people.

Here's the link:
 
Today we quickly react/look over a clip that I was able to find in a Pawn Stars episode (not too sure how old this episode is, but the Vegas club was still downtown at the time) where someone brought in a Las Vegas Club $5 One Armed Bandit casino chip into the famous gold and silver pawn store. There is only about 7 or 8 of these in the world and they are extremely rare. Going upwards of $3k in price. I know of one for sale right now at Spinettis for $5.5k, you can find it on their website. This was super fun to watch as I love casino chips and the history. The old man even talked about the history of the Vegas club also pointing out that they used to dump the chips into Lake Mead which is true. There's an interview that Mike Spinetti did talking about the foundation chips along with the Lake Mead chips where a skin diver contacted Mike that he had found chips at the bottom of the lake. Although they had turned white, they were real Las Vegas Club chips! Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:

Link to interview with Mike Spinetti. "Where do poker chips go to die? Look in Lake Mead and concrete casino foundations"
https://vegasinc.lasvegassun.com/bu...do-poker-chips-go-die-look-lake-mead-and-cas/
 
Today we talk about another interesting/slightly mysterious TR King chip that was manufactured back in the early 1950s. This chip was order from TR King by someone named W.D. Shoulders on February 15th of 1951. The order card that I got information with says that there were 2000 of these $5 chips ordered. They were "crown dash heavy weight NC" so they are leaded 100% and the first TRK that has sparkled when certain light hits it. That is just next level! But, are these chips from the Lyon Hotel in Yerington, the El Rancho or El Cortez in Vegas?? What kind of connection did W.D. Shoulders have with Vegas other than living here and what kind of connection did he have with the Lyon Hotel in Yerington. That's the information I'm after and I've been thinking about the last week/since I received the chip. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Here's the link:
 
Today we quickly talk about the FAW (Reno Card Room) TR King chips that many have probably seen or many have not. These are some of the earlier TRKs to come out into Reno and the Reno Card Room was only open in the year 1956. Most likely for a few months and then closed forever. I'm taking a guess that it was a relatively small place considering there were only 5000 chips ordered and many of the ones that I've seen are in great shape. They most likely had a few tables consisting of poker (if it was a card room) and that was about it. The owner Frank A. Weaver are what the FAW hotstamp on the front of the chips stands for and they have 5 cent, 25 cent, $1 & $5 chips. Awesome colors and really classy old school looking chips with a hint of California with the $5 being yellow. Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about how two different $100 casino chips were removed after the Holyfield VS Tyson II fight happened in 1997. The sequence of events that followed after the fight was something that most people probably wouldn't have thought would happen. This was the famous "Bite Fight" and many of the people in the arena were not happy with the call and how the fight went. So, they had tons of fury inside of them. At one point a security gate fell down which many thought was a gun shot so they started running as fast as possible. It was said that dealers were hiding underneath the tables with customers and people were flipping tables over, grabbing chips and doing whatever they could to possibly leave with some money. It was said that the tables were closed for a few hours afterwards, restaurants boarded their doors, the theme park was fully closed. The strip shut down for a while as well and it was chaos. The chips were taken out of circulation and new ones were ordered. Hope you enjoy!

I believe it was @SuckoutKing looking for these. @JWC was nice enough to give some background info and I decided to go deeper.

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about some incredibly rare sealed Golden Nugget decks that were recently on eBay. Now, casino decks aren't my go to thing as much as chips are but I'm still interested in them. Especially when something like this shows up in the world. Not everyday do you have the chance to see sealed casino decks like this from the Golden Nugget that go for over $1000 and even up to $2000 a deck! That's right.... for a single deck! These along with Jerry's Nugget, Dunes, Imperial Palace, Sahara Tahoe, Silver Slipper along with a few other casinos are some of the most sought after decks in the world! Super interesting and fascinating stuff!

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about the NEW California TRK set that I recently acquired and let me tell you THEY ARE AWESOME! I'm super happy with them and so glad to be the new owner of them. $5 yellows and blue $1s... what can get better! $5 TRK yellows are highly sought after (although most yellow chips are) and all these chips are from the same card room. They will need some cleaning and care, but nothing that some elbow grease can't do. This is a very nice set and who knows maybe someday I can find some of the 25 cent chips! This card room also did have PAN chocolate TRK chips that were ordered in 1973. The $1s and $5s were ordered in 1969! So late 60s to the mid 70s was when these card rooms were operating. Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:

And some pictures ;)
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Today we talk about a $5 chip from the original Mt. Charleston Lodge near Las Vegas sold for over $550! That is absolutely insane stuff and a $25 chip sold for over $250! The $25 I saw selling around $150 even as low as $50-70 in the last few years and I was not able to find any of the $5s. To see a $5 sell for that much is nice to see. So many other chips have recently gone in price tremendously. Overland Reno $100 chips are selling for well over $100 and Nevada Club TRK chips are getting pricey as well. Things are getting crazy and I love to see it. I'm sure many others in this hobby are interested to see the prices going up too. Will be interesting to see how these prices continue into later this year and beyond. Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about the Casinorama show that happened at the Gold Coast Casino this past weekend which is a casino collectibles show. You are able to find chips, decks, slot glass, dice and so much more from many different dealers. This was my very first time going to this show and I was thoroughly excited about going. So much fun and I got to talk with many while I was there for a few hours. Of course, I had to buy some goodies for myself which is what was shown in this video. TRKs were #1 on the list and then a few nice Paulsons which caught my eye. Overall, I'm going to give the show a 10/10. I'll keep going to this every year that I can to see what I can find, talk to people, share the hobby with others and much more. Hope you all enjoyed and the next big show will be the June CCA Convention that will be at South Point from June 16th-18th. Three days of amazing fun, finding goodies and meeting new people. Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about the Casinorama show that happened at the Gold Coast Casino this past weekend which is a casino collectibles show. You are able to find chips, decks, slot glass, dice and so much more from many different dealers. This was my very first time going to this show and I was thoroughly excited about going. So much fun and I got to talk with many while I was there for a few hours. Of course, I had to buy some goodies for myself which is what was shown in this video. TRKs were #1 on the list and then a few nice Paulsons which caught my eye. Overall, I'm going to give the show a 10/10. I'll keep going to this every year that I can to see what I can find, talk to people, share the hobby with others and much more. Hope you all enjoyed and the next big show will be the June CCA Convention that will be at South Point from June 16th-18th. Three days of amazing fun, finding goodies and meeting new people. Hope you enjoy!

Here's the link:
Hey! I recognize one of those chips.
 
Today we talk about one of my favorite chip sets that I have and some of my favorite chips in my whole collection. A majority of these chips are from the 4807 Club that was in Cicero, Illinois towards the end of the 40s and into the 50s. This club was owned by "John Varlas (or Varlos) and Joseph Vaccaro (aka Joseph Vacco or James Vaccaro). They were often arrested as the “keepers” (operators) of 4807 Club" says John Binder in his article "A Batch of Illegal Chips from Cicero". I was lucky enough to find these chips on eBay at the end of last summer in 2021. The person I got them from got them at an estate auction in Indiana if I remember correctly. Then, the Horseshoe $10 chips are from an illegal casino that was in Collinsville, Illinois towards the end of the 50s. These chips were ordered in 1959 as the Taylor & Co. chip card reads. These are some of my favorite chips and I don't think I'll be separating with them anytime soon. They are amazing, there is lots of unknown history to still figure out and it's an amazing piece of casino history and US history. The mob everyone knows for being notorious, near casinos or associated with casinos and gambling and so much more. Not only in Chicago, but New York, Las Vegas, Miami, Cuba, Arkansas and so much more. Hope you enjoy!!

Here's the link:
 
Today we talk about one of my favorite chip sets that I have and some of my favorite chips in my whole collection. A majority of these chips are from the 4807 Club that was in Cicero, Illinois towards the end of the 40s and into the 50s. This club was owned by "John Varlas (or Varlos) and Joseph Vaccaro (aka Joseph Vacco or James Vaccaro). They were often arrested as the “keepers” (operators) of 4807 Club" says John Binder in his article "A Batch of Illegal Chips from Cicero". I was lucky enough to find these chips on eBay at the end of last summer in 2021. The person I got them from got them at an estate auction in Indiana if I remember correctly. Then, the Horseshoe $10 chips are from an illegal casino that was in Collinsville, Illinois towards the end of the 50s. These chips were ordered in 1959 as the Taylor & Co. chip card reads. These are some of my favorite chips and I don't think I'll be separating with them anytime soon. They are amazing, there is lots of unknown history to still figure out and it's an amazing piece of casino history and US history. The mob everyone knows for being notorious, near casinos or associated with casinos and gambling and so much more. Not only in Chicago, but New York, Las Vegas, Miami, Cuba, Arkansas and so much more. Hope you enjoy!!

Here's the link:
and I've even played with this set before if some people haven't seen. Great breakdown just using the $1s, Reds and $10s for about 8 people.

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