Going backwards through my day - ended up at Morongo Casino as I had heard that they issued new players' slot cards. And indeed they have! Hadda try one of their "thousands of new slot machines." To my surprise, the games seemed somewhat "loose." Played "Riches of Egypt" or some such - six Ruby Rings with numerical values on each eventually showed up. Ah-ha!! A variation of the Happy & Prosperous Buddha with its fireballs. You get three spins to capture another Ruby Ring and if so, another 3 to capture yet another one, etc., etc. Well. My luck was holding out, I ended up with 14 out of 15 Ruby Rings on the screen, a final one would have netted me the Big Wahzoo. But such was not to be. Cleopatra ended up in the final square and she's not worth anything in this game. Still, I ended up $150 wealthier and decided to call it a day with gambling.

Went to cash in my TITO, there was a sign on the kiosk saying players could only receive whole-dollar amounts due to the Coin Shortage. WTF? I earned those pennies and I WANT THEM! Bright Idea: went to the cashier and presented my TITO, plus a quarter and a nickel from my wallet which made it a whole integer. Presto! The cashier smiled and paid.

All of you going to visit casinos - bring a lot of change with you so you can "cash out" what you truly won. I don't trust getting a TITO for penny amounts and trying to cash it in at a later date. As I suspect the Coin Shortage will continue as long as the Covid Epidemic.

OK - started the day at the Santa Clarita Swap Meet - not a lot of gambling-related stuff showed up - a couple of generic "Las Vegas" chips - finally found the tables of a coin dealer who was playing poker with three comrades under a large umbrella. I took a close look at their chips. Tempting to offer to buy 'em all out of their gaming materials! But they were using unmarked dice-mold chips. However, in looking in the cases of coins - I spotted a wooden nickel from R & R Casino in Montana. . . and then a second one. All I know about Montana is that Frank Zappa raised dental floss there with his Pygmy Pony but I took a chance and bought them. Found that they were not yet listed in the ChipGuide. What are the odds?

Oh, those $2 Morongo chips? They were used as Poker Room Drop Chips but now appear on the gaming tables for Texas Hold'em and perhaps a few other games. One of the players at a table had briefly departed, leaving his chips - and one of those was a pink $2. So - if they play with them and hand 'em over to players . . . they gotta sell 'em, right? The dealer said to ask the Pit Boss. The Boss thought about it a moment and said they could only sell me one or two, not a whole bunch. I already had a five and a one dollar bill in my hand and asked, what about three? He said, okay. And that's what casino folks call a "push."