This is the 50th state on our tour of the “Illegal Clubs of The USA.” This will complete the tour. I will be posting an update in the next few days to fix the North Dakota boondoggle. That update will make the total 4 out of the 50 states I do not have a chip from. That does not mean they did not have illegal clubs. That means there are more chips and history to find.

No chips:
North Dakota, Maine, Vermont, Delaware. Got any? I want em.

If for no other reason I hope the tour brought a couple new collectors from the “Dark Side” over to the “Force” and the history of their chips, no matter what they collect. There is always history out there.

The “Era Of The Illegals” is no less important in our history than other “Eras” our country has experienced. It is part of our country’s journey and legacy on the way to “Today.”

The credit for the tour goes to many people.
List here: But not limited to:
http://www.preservinggaminghistory.com/

Credits
Gene Trimble, joint author of The Records of The HC Edwards Company
Mark Lighterman, joint author of The Records of The HC Edwards Company
Allan Myers, joint author of The Chip Rack and The Gaming Table
Michael Knapp, joint author of The Chip Rack and The Gaming Table
Ernie Wheelden, joint author of The Chip Rack and The Gaming Table
Steve Goodrich, author of The Casino Chips of Montana & The Casino Chips of Washington State
Ed Hertel, author of Price Guide for Illegal Casino Chips
Rick Olsen, author of The Collectors Guide to Casino Dice
Jim Linduff, Roy Klein & Larry Trapp, Northern KY chip collectors and historians
Dave Brown, Illegal chip collector and historian
Pete Lowell, Black Clay Industries
Paul Bender, Indiana chip collector
Dennis O’Neal, TR King
Jerry & Janice O'Neal
Matthew DeMichele & Gary Potter, Eastern KY University
David Spragg, Webmaster

The people on the list brought history to our hobby and helped write the history of the Illegals. They paid for and shared the old manufactures records, at their own expense, with all of us. They wrote our reference books. They paid the expense for and donated their time to create the site that bears their names. They allow us the facts needed to search for the history. I am proud to call them friends. I am proud to be a small part of the group.

There are others that need to be added to that list.

One in particular. Researcher extraordinaire. He came to me with an offer to help. I accepted. There is no way to make you understand how important his help has been. He had access way beyond my resources and my wildest dreams. For me it was a labor of love. I have to think he has the same love for our hobby.

Enough of that:

New Hampshire

I traded for this one in 2005. It just sat there until I started these posts. Not much to go on.

Understand that we have found many record cards with alias’s, phoney names, bad addresses, no addresses, mail drops in different states, mis-spellings, etc.
Some were done by accident, many were done on purpose to hide the end users names and address. Many of the old distributors were owned at least in part by the illegal operators/famlies/gangs that they furnished chips, bad dice, marked cards, rigged crap and roulette tables, etc to.

Normally the research comes back in a few days.

3 weeks later:

HYC

This chip took me longer than normal because I've been trying to find evidence that would nail down the attribution solid--haven't found it yet. I wanted to find conclusive info because I don't want to mislead anyone or be wrong on this particular attribution. Nevertheless, I think the info below makes a pretty good case for the chip.

Looked for Phil Vitsky in Littleton, NH--couldn't find a trace of him. Looked for any Vitsky's in NH--nothing.

So I thought I'd simply look for any Phil Vitsky anywhere, trying all sorts of spelling variations of the name.

I found evidence of only one Phil Vitsky ever and that Phil Vitsky, when the chips were ordered in 1936, had a primary address at: Censored.

“only one Phil Vitsky ever” Any of you internet pros are welcome to try.

The rest of the info describes “BIG” names in the “Era” of the illegals. Names, places including NY/Chicago/Florida, dates, Washington Post newspaper article, Kefauver Commission excerpts, and ads for a Club.

I have sent this info to our resident expert in that part of the country. Hopefully we can post an update with enough facts to prove or disprove the providence of the HYC chips.

Doing it now without such proof will allow sellers to quote me on the ID. I learned from experience to not suggest ID’s but wait till I had all the facts. One of my pet peeves is collectors suggesting ID’s without any proof. IMO, “attributed to” sucks!

The only 99% proof I have today is Littleton, NH.