Terry-

Don't blame the Hard Rock casino for the Hard Rock Cafe's chips. Peter Morton sold his remaining interest in the Hard ROck Cafe chain right around the same time that he opened the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas. AS far as I'm concerned, Hard Rock Cafe chips aren't even casino memoribilia. They're memoribilia from a hamburger chain. Now there's a huge market for Hard Rock Cafe memoribilia, and that double-collectibility (chip collectors and Hard Rock collectors) is part of the reason that Hard ROck Casino chips are so valued. It seems to me the Cafe is now trying to cash in on the chip market. They already own a huge share of the pin-collecting market and the tourist t-shirt market, and they want a pice of this.

If people like them, great -- but it's no more a piece of casino memoribilia than a Hard Rock t-shirt.