I had never been in a casino until Resorts opened in Atlantic City during Memorial Day in 1978. My girlfriend and future wife had been to casinos in the Caribbean and convinced me to drive down to AC from Long Island during July 4 of 1978. We found a room in a Motel and walked over the next morning to Resorts. It opened at 10am if I remember correctly and you had to wait on line on the boardwalk to get in. The place was a madhouse as they worked out procedures over the next few months. There was never enough blackjack tables and people would wait for a seat behind you and sometimes asked if they could bet on your hand standing behind you. I remember one day waiting on line in the rain outside and then finding a door open on the side that we went in and through the kitchens and found our way to the casino.
Anyway we spent many weekends in AC after that at Resorts, Sands, Caesars and all of the other casinos. I used to take home some chips, mainly by accident and for tips and throw them into a bucket.
One day we were in the shopping mall on the boardwalk near Caesars and I walked into a long store that had gambling stuff. There was a round display on the counter with $1 chips from such exotic places like Las Vegas. I bought some that I believe were $7 each. But the collector in me (I had collected coins, stamps, records, comics, since I was a kid) somehow justified that a trip to far away Nevada had to cost a lot more.
Each time I was there, I spoke with Bob Meara who tried to get me to join the Club. After a while, I had been to Paradise Island and other locations and brought back extra chips that I traded with Bob. Finally he convinced me to join the club and I received my 20year pin a few years ago. Bob is long gone along with other great friends from the hobby and many that had started out with us and Greg on the Prodigy chip boards.
I made it to about 3 conventions many years ago and had a fabulous time hanging out with both Bob Ginsburgs, Neal Silverman, Ralph Pollack, Marty Kaplan, Charles Kaplan, Marc Shapiro and many others, but it has been a while. Every year I say I am going this year and something always comes up.
I really hope to make it there in 2016!