So what is there to report about from Tunica this time? As usual - not much is new. I didn't find any new chips but did get a few nice old ones from my sources. One chip I had to pass on was a $100 Holiday Casino. I didn't have a loupe with me and couldn't tell if the chip was one of the cancelled ones or not. I think it was because the area around the inlay was shiny and had flecks of what looked like HS gold. Too bad since uncancelled this was a "V" rated chip.

My reason for going was only because I got an offer too good to pass up. I got a letter from Fitzgeralds good for 2 free nites plus coupons for $20. I arranged it so that I could cash 2 of the $20 coupons during my stay. The next day I got a letter with a check in it from Fitzgeralds good for $10 as my remaining cash from play. They are apparetnly changing their comp program and sent out checks that had to be used by the end of the year. My most expensive meal this trip was a $10 buffet at Sams Town. The only reason I went there is I was dying of thirst and they offer free beer with the buffet. I don't think I spent $25 on meals total since I got several comps at Fitzgeralds. I have never been to a place where they will give you a $13 buffet comp for playing $3 Blackjack for 10 minutes.

Back to the important stuff. Fitzgeralds is converting over to TITO and was running trials when I was there. I got TITO #9 from one machine. They, along with almost all of the other casinos are doing upgrades to the buffets and other areas during this slow time. I did discover one new chip at Sams Town but wasn't able to get any. It is the same as the NCV CG 3571 except the printing of "Sams Town" is larger. They had them set up on the tournament BJ tables.

Harrahs is almost completely token free now. I also discovered that their new name under Colony Capital will be Resorts Tunica. This brings up an interesting topic. If Harrahs will have too many casinos in Tunica after buying Caesars (they will own five) why would they sell the nice new Harrahs property (along with Ballys) and keep the old, small Sheraton? The only thing Sheraton has going for it is that it is next to the premier properties in the area - Gold Strike and Horseshoe. Maybe they plan on expanding it an bringing in a new barge??? The only other reason to sell the Harrahs is if they were approached by Colony. If that happened I would imagine that they forced Colony to take Ballys as part of the deal. Does anyone have the details of that deal?

The only place that I noticed that seems to be completely tokenless is Horseshoe. All of the rest of the casinos have at least some machines with tokens but they are disappearing fast. I am very surprised at how well accepted the TITO campaign has been.

One last item is the new Solid Gold casino at the old Splash location. Last time I was there a construction crew was working on the property and there were even Craps tables stored there. I think the construction people left when I did. Since my source for Tunica gossip was unavailable I went back to the site to check on the progress. I was intercepted at the entrance by a guy who claimed that they were doing some law enforcement training on the property. I thought that it was susipicious that there were no marked police cars in the area but I wasn't going to argue with the guy. For all I know they were stealing the Craps tables. This project is almost 5 years old now.

As far as getting roulettes it was very hard since many of the tables were closed. I did get the 3 shown and have a few available as traders. For the first time I was actually playing and decided at the last minute not to absocnd with the chips. Just as I was getting ready to put them in my pocket, one dealer tells the other to be careful because there was a note at the table that some chips were missing. I didn't have the heart (or nerve) to tell him not to worry but that those chips were not coming back on the table. You see I had been there about three hours earlier.

Until next time which should be in a few weeks when we go to St. Louis to take advantage of 3 free nites from Harrahs