On March 1, 1998, the Radisson completely renovated the entire property. In 2000, the casino reopened as The Casino at the Radisson, or simply, "The Casino." In either case, possibly the worst casino name ever. The casino, however, was pretty fun. The table pit featured a dark blue ceiling with sparkling lights, symbolizing, I suppose, the clear Caribbean night. The also ran a nice poker room. One time I was there, they had a table full only of locals. I asked the brush what they were playing. He told me that before the resorts opened, there used to be a lot of illegal poker games in Aruba, but they played a game unique to Aruba. They had a three-ring binder with rules to the game, but they advised me not to play. Complicated rules, open to taking advantage of novices. I asked if they had a copy or if there was anywhere I could find the rules, but they just laughed.

First series chips:

Commemorative:

Second series:

And some all plastic cards:

Look carefully and you can see the photo on the card is different on this one:

I'm not sure if anyone else has one like it.

Borrowed scans/photos on next post.

Michael Siskin