7/22/98
Steven Roark
Gilpin H/C

Dear sir,

I am a chip collector and have been for 30 years. I write chip columns for four magazines, two of them national publications. I consider myself a chip historian. I have also designed over 200 Nevada chips.

I have over $4,000 in face value in Colorado chips. My fellow collectors and I have been collecting Colorado chips ever since gaming was legalized in Co. We feel some of the most beautiful chips in the world come from Co. I could not begin to guess what our total collective face value would be.

Your state is one of the few places in the world it is possible to have a complete collection. The issuance of the Grand Opening chip set at the Lodge will end many complete collections. I sincerely hope that no chipper has paid the $100 price for $31 in chips, but I am afraid some have and our hobby will be in trouble if this sale is a success.

The main draw to our hobby, is the fact that a new chipper can build a collection at face. If he wants out, he might sell it for a few dollars over face, if not he can cash it in, and not lose money. Without this feature, new chippers will not enter the hobby. Less new chippers translates to less Co. chips disappearing. The $100 sale will translate into many current chippers giving up on Co. chips, including myself. We have 2,500 members and we are growing but the hobby is fragile at this time.

We have many thousands of dollars in Co. chips. The casinos make a nice profit and we are happy as collectors. Co. casinos issue $25 chips that they never use and we still take them. This gouging of three times over face will cause un-repairable harm to the hobby if it spreads. There are several threads running on chipguide.com concerning The Lodge. I invite you to look at them.

The National CC&GTCC convention is August 13th at the Orleans in Las Vegas. There are those among us, including myself, that are moving to boycott The Lodge chips, all Black Hawk chips, or all Co. chips.

We feel that we have been good customers of Co. casinos. We make chips runs, take your chips, gamble, eat, rent hotel rooms, etc. We plan our vacations where the casinos are. This gouging is not fair to long time customers.

We have appealed to Tony Cook with no avail. We have appealed to the Co. GCB with no avail. Neither of them seem to understand the ramifications of this sale. It will cost all Co. casinos customers and revenue. If the local Co. collectors can not trade or sell their Co. chips, they will move their collections to other venues.

I appeal to your sense of fair play. If only half of these GO chips were put on the tables at face and the other half made available in frames at a decent price, we would have no complaint. They would all have disappeared. In my opinion this practice can not happen in Nevada, Atlantic City, or Mississippi so we have plenty of places to aim our collecting to, at face.

Thank you for your time and I ask you to help save the Co. chips for the hobby. We love them, but a good percentage of us will stop collecting them.

Sincerely,

Gene Trimble
1609 Bryn Mawr Ave.
Las Vegas, Nv. 89102
poker@skylink.net
CC&GTCC Member 2192

cc: Mr Jacobs

Gilpin Hotel Casino

George Turner

Colorado GCB

Tony Cook

THE Lodge