This is the 30th "Illegal Of The Day for Illinois. By far the most of any other state in the US. 2nd and 3rd place goes to Texas with 18 and Kentucky with 15. We have only scratched the surface of the "Era Of The Illegals" in all 3 states. IMO, when it's all said and done with, Illinois will be the state most prolific in illegal operations, by far. The entire state was wide open for illegal gambling for many years. This is "Illegal Of The Day" #191 and the countdown to 200 has started. Nine more to go.

David Spragg purchased 2 sets of EG chips on ebay. One more time the Mason records gave us a delivery address but no "Club" name. IMO there should have been a law against that back in those days! IMO, a delivery address with no "Club" name is not much better than a UFC.

Enough of that:

Illinois:

Enter our "Friend Of The Hobby."
EG
Delivery address:
Eddy Glad and John Sabados
42 N. Bluff
Joliet, IL
2000 red $1-200 blue $5-100 black $50
1959

Used at:
Eddie Glad’s Place
1402 N. Broadway
Joliet, IL

The chip delivery address, 42 N. Bluff, was the address of the National Hotel. The hotel burned down the first week of December 1958 and the location doesn’t appear to have had anything rebuilt on it for several years, so I’m not sure how to reconcile this with the order card which says the chips were delivered to that address in 1959.

My guess: Joliet today has a population of 147,000. It had to be less 54 years ago. As you will read Eddie Glad would have been well known in Joliet. IMO anything mailed to him would have gotten to him. Especially since the National Hotel had to have been burned before the chip order. I think he knew what he was doing.

The EG on the chips are the initials of Edward George “Eddie” Glad, an Illinois native who spent most of his life in Joliet, dying there in 1971 at the age of 59. In the mid-1940’s Glad opened a tavern at 1402 N. Broadway in Joliet named “Eddie’s Place.” The tavern did business for a few years but by 1947 it had been replaced by a tavern named “Johnnie & Louis Place” run by John Gerl & Louis Fritz.

After Eddie’s Place closed Glad worked for several years as a bartender at “Grohar’s Tavern” owned by Anton Grohar and located at 1016 Woodruff (Glad also lived at the address). Grohar was a long time tavern owner who was also involved in local politics, running for Will County Sheriff in 1950 (he lost).

Around 1951 Glad returned to 1402 N. Broadway and became partners with Louis Fritz in a tavern called “Eddie & Lou’s Place.” Shortly after opening his new tavern Glad became the Democrat Party candidate for Will County Sheriff. Like his former boss Anton Grohar, he lost (at the time, and for most of the 1950’s, Grohar was the Democrat Party Central Committeeman for the 15th district of Illinois which included Will, Boone, De Kalb, Grundy, Kendall and La Salle counties). Glad also ran for Joliet city council several times.

My note: In the 1950's Eddie was associated with the Democrat Party Central Committee, ran for county sheriff, and ran for Joliet city council. I think this proves my point that any mail would have gotten to him.

In the mid-1950’s Eddie & Lou’s Place became “Eddie Glad’s Place” and that’s what was operating at 1402 N. Broadway at the time of the EG chip order in 1959. The location housed a bar named “Daddy’s Place” in 2001 when the City of Joliet purchased the building and the property around it. Sometime afterwards the structures on the property were torn down.

In his eBay item description, the seller of the EG chips claimed that the chips “were found in Joliet, IL on Route 53. "While digging for old bottles I came across the entire contents of an old garage that had fallen down the embankment and was covered over the years.”

My note: Buried chips is buried treasure to collectors of illegal club chips.

Here’s a current aerial photo of the location where Eddie’s Place stood at 1402 N. Broadway. Route 53 and N. Broadway are two different names for the same street. It looks like there is a ravine or an embankment at the back end of the property:

Here’s a current aerial with a 1950’s aerial view of Eddie’s superimposed:

My Note: I sent a very worn illegal chip to a fairly new collector. All I've seen are well worn, In fact, we had problems figuring out the initials, since they were so worn with phantom die lines, like some other Mason chips.

I received a very nice thank you:

Gene, received the Beautiful (dirty - used) chip. What a classy simple chip.
She has now found a home, if she could only talk.

My reply:
All we found were well worn.
The chips did their talking in the IOTD. Happy collecting.

The contributors to the "Illegal Of The Day" posts are a group of illegal Club collectors that have come together to give our chips a "voice" and put their history into words. Many have contributed. Many chips have "spoken" to us, and gave up their history.

IMO, it's been quite a ride and more chips that actually "talk" are coming.

There is a new California "Illegal Of The Day" (2 different chips) coming. Watch for it. It features a large orange cat and two new contributors to the IOTD posts. It not only "talks," it "Meow's."