I guess that I started to collect chips years ago without even knowing it:>)
Rejeanne and I met in the Bahamas 30 years ago and I was a tables player back in the day and my game was roulette. After some wins I casually picked up a few chips from the Playboy Club including some $1.00 chips which I thought were pretty cool. I through them in a box and forgot about them UNTIL:

Rejeanne and I went to Vegas about five years ago for a month's vacation just because we wanted to go somewhere different for a change and I wanted to try my luck at live Hold 'Em instead of online.
We did the usual tourist things like concerts,restaurants and hikes and walks etc. and we wound up going to the Hard Rock just to see some Rock and Roll items which were on display. As I walked by the cage I saw a display of casino chips and they were all different and very colorful.
I asked at the cage if these were for sale and she said that many were. There were so many to choose from and then I happened to see some Halloween chips that were kinda cool. I asked if she had any of those and she looked through a drawer and picked out 3 different ones and I asked her if all casinos had different chips. She said yes and that was it: WE SPENT THE NEXT 5 DAYS GOING TO EVERY CASINO IN THE CITY! I mean....we hit everything. Originally we started to look for Halloween chips,and then we found Chinese New Year ones,and St. Pats ones and......well that kinda did it for me.
Several; days later we were at the big Antique Mall by the South Point and there was a man there selling chips for what I thought was a reasonable price. No idea what his name was but he was a very nice guy,and I bought what I thought were some pretty neat chips. He told me about a chip club in town that I should look up on the internet when I got home. So that is what I did BUT....before I looked for the club,I thought that I would try and find those old Playboy chips from years ago to add them to my new collection. It took some time but I found them. Now... the $1.00 Playboys were coin centers, and I had also picked up some coin centers in Vegas and thought:"Wow...this would be a cool hobby to get into.....and look....I already have the start of a collection! " Well...that's how it all started. It had been 25 years and I didn't even realize that I was a chip collector until I had hit the Hard Rock,and now another 5 years have gone by and....HOLY CRAP!!!!!....I got me some cool chips!