As usual, I'm calling on you for assistance. I have two totally separate Questions fo the Day that I'm working on for LasVegasAdvisor.com and am hoping you can help me to fill in some gaps...

1.) The first query involves the history of the Las Vegas Jockey Club, which is proving more elusive than I'd anticipated. What I have so far is that it was one of the first mixed-use condo/hotels, which opened on the Strip in 1973 (?), with the average price of an apartment being around the $35,000 mark (oh, my!). I understand buyers were given membership to the Jockey Club, but I'm not sure what that consisted of (the race track was long-since gone by '73). I also read that there were plans for a casino, which got as far as issuing chips, but no further.

Today, of course, it's surviving, nestled in between Bellagio and the Cosmopolitan, which is supposed to be protecting/upgrading the J.C., although who knows what will happen now, with Cosmo's own future looking a little shaky.

My final factoid is that the J.C. was v. popular with the late Ken Uston, of blackjack card-counting fame/infamy.

Does anyone out there know any more of the story? And/or have any pics. of the Jockey Club-issued chips? Or the J.C. itself back in the day... If so, as always, your help would be much appreciated.

2.) My second query is the annual quest for info. on commemorative chips for Chinese New Year. I've been calling around the cages of the usual suspects and have so far learned that Wynn will be issuing $8 chips and that the Rio has minted some, but special events got their hands on the bulk of them and the remainder have yet to find their way back to the main cage. Don't know what denoms they have. Hilton, MGM Grand, Paris, Bally's, Harrah's, and Palms don't yet know what, if anything, they're doing. Four Queens says they're not issuing Year of the Rat chips.

We'll keep calling around, but if anyone knows anything we don't, I'd be most grateful for the inside scoop.

Thanks and best wishes

Jessica Roe
Las Vegas Advisor