All right! I've always wanted to list a brand-new chip on the esteemed Chipboard. My wish has come true! This chip was just issued today by Bally's Tunica Casino in Robinsonville (Tunica County), Mississippi. It comemmorates the $50,000 Blackjack tournament currently being held this weekend at Bally's. According to "The GoodTimes Radio Show", broadcast on Saturday morning AM radio dedicated to the gaming market, Bally's only issued 500 of these chips. Each participant in the tournament was given ONE of these chips as a souveneir.

I spoke with the tournament director earlier this evening and he said there were 233 contestants, and the rest of the chips were put on the tables. That means 267 were actually made public! I saw some of the chips as they were being given to the tourney players, and they were each in a round protective plastic case. It was very busy at Bally's this evening because in addition to the BJ tourney they're giving away a truck, but I went to each table and the chip cage and bought EVERY ONE I saw (37 total). Boy, talk about being given the "fishy-eye" by the pit critters! And, some of the dealers seem to think it's the craziest thing in the world for someone to buy chips just to collect! Surely out there in Vegas they're more used to it.

I think Bally's has gotten into the spirit of producing LE chips! They've put out quite a few chips in the last year, more than the other Tunica casinos combined. Bally's is making it fun to collect chips in the Tunica area. I'll try to put some of them on the website; right now I'm late for karaoke!