Growing up in Dallas among a family of folks who were known to peek at a hole card, wager on a horse race or play golf for more than just the exercise, I was told my first stop on my first trip to Vegas in 1979 had to be the Horseshoe. Stop in, look up Mr. Benny Binion and tell him the folks back home said hello. That whole trip seemed surreal and started my fascination with Vegas, its history and chips. The man who I had heard so much about in Dallas, had actually met and owned this casino, had his picture on most of the chips in the place. I took several home with me and began to pick up more chips on subsequent visits to Vegas.

At that time I began reading everything I could find about Vegas and in 1986 read “Las Vegas, Behind the Tables” by Barney Vinson. In one of the chapters he wrote about old chips and a guy named Bill Borland who had started World Wide Casino Exchange. I called directory assistance to find his phone number (no internet then), called and he mailed me his list of chips he had for sale. Also had a something he called “The Blue Book” that listed the casinos, old and new, address, opening dates, etc. How cool is this! Bought one of the books, he would send out updates to add to it and order forms for chips. Great prices way back then (early Flamingo roulettes for $6.00) and most of the chips I bought were legit, some come to find out years later, were not. But I digress.

In one of the mailings in early 1993, there was an insert about an upcoming chip and token collectors show in Vegas at the Aladdin Hotel the first weekend in May. Hmm, Kentucky Derby Saturday and a few chips, seemed worth a trip. Found out some club was putting on the show and you could join and admission to this thing was free. So in March I sent my $15.00 in and became a member of the Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club. But I was not prepared for what I saw at the very first Convention!

Even though the number of tables then was half or a third what it is now, the amount of “stuff” in one place was unbelievable! As the saying goes, “I am among my people” and that’s how it felt then, even though I didn’t know a soul when I first walked through the door and almost 20 years later, it still feels that way today.

All the money, time and effort that I’ve put into the hobby and the Club during the last 30 years has been repaid a thousand times over with the friendships that came about because of those little pieces of clay.