Sint / St. Maarten Isle Hotel: History & Set (1 Viewer)

Taghkanic

Taghkanic

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This is a multi-post thread about the Sint Maarten Isle Hotel and its casino chips.

Since acquiring about 800 of these in a trade, I’ve added to the set, and also been collecting various ephemera related to the casino, and researching a bit of its history.

First, an overview of the set:

IMG_3676.jpeg


And some ephemera:

IMG_3675.jpeg


I’ll be adding to the thread throughout the day and as more info comes in.
 
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First off, thanks to @AK Chip , @dobdob , @Gear and CPC (@David Spragg) for providing chips.

The island of St. Maarten — spelled Saint on the French side, Sint on the Dutch side—has been host to a number of casinos going back to the 1960s if not earlier. Several of these were evidently founded by well-known figures from Nevada and Cuban gambling establishments.

My understanding is that the Isle Hotel casino opened in 1968, succeeding the Bon-Bini, then closing relatively quickly in 1974. It was later succeeded by the Great Bay Casino. To my knowledge there is no longer a casino at that site.

Shortly after trading for the set, I realize that I had a pair of Bon-Bini dice squirreled away in my chip cabinet. I was also able to buy some SMIH dice off eBay:

IMG_3658.jpeg


FWIW, the Bon-Bini dice seem almost unused, very clear, and have a VOID stamp. The SMIH dice are more used and unvoided. I used a gold pastel stick to bring the lettering back out on the Isles, which had faded.

Bon Bini, per Pollack, means “welcome” in Papiemento, a creole dialect of Portuguese spoken on several Dutch Caribbean islands.
 
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The set I initially acquired included 700 original chips, and 100 “replica” chips created by @AK Chip:

IMG_3664.jpeg


So far, I have not been able to find the $100 chips in any quantity besides a single (undrilled) hundo on eBay, for which the seller wants an unrealistic $110. To make the set playable for my 2/5 game, I found via @Gear a rack+ of black HHRs with pink 312 spots, already murdered. These have brass flecks, so I assume they came orginally from CPC.

Using my Cricut cutter, some waterproof gloss sticker stock, and La Llama satin self-sealing laminate, I designed matching labels for these $100s. While @AK Chip called the matching $1 chips he produced “Replicas,” I called these new hundreds “Tributes” since the color does not replicate the original blue-purple hundo. For my game, I also murdered a barrel of Atlantic HHRs from CPC to serve as $500s. These have a different spot pattern, but I think it is good for the highest denoms to stand out.

Here are the Replica $1s, and Tribute $100s + $500s alongside the original $5 and $25:

IMG_3665.jpeg


For my learning process for creating the inlays on the $100s and $500s, see this Cricut thread started by @GreekRedEye
 
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Some barrels:

IMG_3666.jpeg


Note that among the original $1s, there seem to have been two slight variations. Most have a green spot, but some have more of a tan-green spot. There also were some entirely different green $25s produced at some point; more on that in a bit.
 
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Continuing the theme, found this book about the history of Dutch Caribbean casinos by Ralph Pollack, including a short chapter about the Isle Hotel:

1715011726790.png


Note that some of Pollack’s dates for the Isle chips do not seem to correspond quite exactly with the various order forms which have been posted at TheMogh and elsewhere. Will get to that in a bit.
 
As far as the ordering dates, I’ve found a variety of Burt Co. ordering cards online. Most of these are from TheMogh, but the same dates show up everywhere (with only Pollack indicating a later start date). This card appears to show the earliest order, containing only three denoms:

1715012518674.png


I was especially entertained by this date, as it is almost exactly nine months before my birth in late November 1968. In other words, I was conceived at the same time as these chips...
 
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The blue $100s were ordered from Burt Co. later in 1968:

1715012763006.png


They also had a cream-colored, unspotted $50 chip, ordered in December 1968:

1715012828546.png


Another order a couple years later in 1970, supplementing the original color scheme:

1715012895163.png

Then came a reorder card four years later in 1972, requesting a Green $25 instead of the cream-and-black original, and changing the spot colors on the $1s and $5s:

1715012658501.png
 
TheMogh and the Pollack book indicate that the 1972 St. Maarten Isle Hotel reorder was inexplicably printed on the NEVADA mold, using the updated color scheme. I’m not at all sure why they did that. Certainly seems confusing for a Caribbean casino.
 
Some wish list items which I have seen on other sites, but haven’t been able to find for purchase:

* More of the original blue-purple $100s, at a reasonable price;

* Any of the variant colors/spots, including the NEVADA mold versions;

* A luggage tag (depicted at TheMogh);

* A blackjack postcard guide, like the roulette one already in my possession (see above);

* Any room key for the Isle Hotel. TheMogh has pictures of two different keys, but I’ve not been able to find any on eBay or elsewhere, though I discovered that there are many vendors selling vintage hotel/motel keys. I guess people like to revisit certain vacation memories, or infidelities…
 
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Note that the chips in my collection have what is (for me) rather unconventional color choices, namely the yellow-green $1 paired with the cream-black $25.

Maybe this was more standard in Caribbean/Cuban casinos? No idea.

I plan to put these chips into play occasionally in my game, to mix it up with my Hoyle Harvest custom THC set. But I expect that there will be some initial confusion with players thinking the cream chip is the $1 and the yellow-green the $25.
 
Another wish list item, picked up from grainy pics in the Pollack history… The SMIH casino also apparently had high denom plaques marked 100, 500 and 1000.

However, the plaques shown have no markings on them besides the denom itself. So it might prove hard to verify that these were from the St. Masrten Isle Hotel rather than another venue. Seems like a security leak!
 
Here are the (very plain) plaques listed by Pollack for the St. Maarten Isle Hotel casino, along with info on the tokens:

IMG_3682.jpeg


I again wonder about these having no identifying markings to tie them to this location and avoid forgery. Perhaps there was something else on their backs.
 
Here’s a list of St. Maarten casinos from Pollack (writing c. 2000), plus a simple map of the Caribbean:

IMG_3683.jpeg

IMG_3687.jpeg


A closer look at the text indicates that none of these existed before 1962. That might be the result of gambling and other tourism interests leaving Cuba after the 1959 revolution. But presumably there was some action there beforehand.

(It’s kind of randomly amusing that Pollack put Dartmouth, Mass. on the map. Maybe he was from there?)
 
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I just did some deep digging and found out why this casino closed, from the records of a lawsuit from 1975:

https://m.openjurist.org/503/f2d/430/united-states-v-parness

Short version:

Business was slow to start, and the original investors turned to “junketeers” in the U.S. to bring gamblers down to St. Maarten.

The junketeers collected a deposit up front. If the gamblers used up their deposit, they were allowed to play on credit at the casino. (Note: Seems like a bad idea, right?)

The junketeers were responsible for turning over the deposits and collecting on any debts for the casino, taking a fee from both.

A junketeer from Jersey named Parness became the casino’s go-to guy, but failed to turn over the hundreds of thousands he was collecting.

A whole series of shenanigans ensued with the casino owners investors taking out loans to cover losses, Parness and his wife and their junket business moved money around in shady ways, and at one point got control of the hotel/casino, before the whole house of cards collapsed.

Parness got prosecuted for racketeering, and was defended by none other than the odious Roy Cohn (best known for his affiliations with Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover). He appears to have been convicted and sentenced to 10 years, but it was too late for the SM Isle Hotel.
 
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Found a pic on an expired eBay listing of the odd $50 chip:

IMG_3717.jpeg


Not sure what the purpose of this chip was; the “play” designation may be a hint.

A promotional chip to get hotel patrons to try the casino?

Something simple for the cage to hand out, with players getting change at the tables? Is “play” a standard concept for casino chips that I’ve missed?

Also kind of odd that they chose the same cream/off-white base as the $25, and a black inlay—the $25 has black spots. Seems like a problem if on the same table.

(Aaand now I’m of course thinking of looking for some HHR blanks to label as a replica…)
 
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