50 cent chips on a blackjack table.

After the Eldorado, Henderson was sold to the Rail Road Pass Casino group, it was remodeled and branded as The Pass Casino. I was there the second day of being opened and tried to get some fifty cent chips that they were using on the blackjack tables. Unfortunately for me, and other collectors as well, they maintained a death-grip on the 50 cent chips.

I pleaded with the very polite Shift Manager, but she would not budge, not even to get just 1 of their fifty cent chips. I understand that other collectors did better on day one, but they quickly learned that they needed to keep a leash on those fractional chips, and I left with 1's and 5's only.

Later, at CASINORAMA, I was able to buy one, which I think I paid $5! But hey, when you gotta have it, you gotta have it! It was during CASINORAMA that this harvest story began to unfold. In addition to this Message Board, CASINORAMA was also promoted in several Facebook Groups I belong to, that are chip collector focused. There are many collectors there, some are in the CCA and some are not, and nearly all enjoy sharing information.

One such member is Barry Sherwood who came down from Reno to attend CASINORAMA and do some chip runs. One of his runs he announced in the Facebook Group and it involved a visit to The Pass Casino, amongst others in that area.

I contacted him and said that I was interested in any number of 50 cent chips from The Pass Casino, and also explained the extreme difficulty in getting any 50 cent chips, without playing the game, and to be able to get a 50 cent chip meant getting a blackjack on a $5 bet.

He said he would see what he could do, and in his own words, here is the rest of the story...

Oh, man! I have been scouring all the fb pages and fb messenger, trying to figure out who asked for the $0.50 chips. Finally (duh) thought to check text messages and here you are!

Ready for a story? Here you go. They still are using the 50c chips. They wouldn't sell them, though. Not at the tables and not at the cage. Strictly forbidden and a fireable offense. No rule against taking them from the table if you win one though. I tried to enlist my table mates to bet $5, $15, and $25 amounts and offered to buy their 50c chips on each blackjack. At first, they were reluctant.

We played for a bit, chit chatting, and I casually mentioned that I like to split 10s when the dealer has a 6 up. "Judy", the older, chain smoking leader of the pack, said "If we agree to give you our GD 50c chips, will you promise to drop that stupid crap?" I immediately fell in love with her and said "absolutely"!

So, everyone changes their bets (there's 5 of us at the table). Most were grandfathered in at $5 but many were playing $10 and $20 a hand. Some stuck with $5 and some stuck to $15. I had to bet $15/$25/$35 because the table minimum had gone up to $10 before I arrived. Fast forward an hour, and me being down $50, but having collected TEN 50c chips. I gave each of the 4 players $5 for their help.

Since another member asked me to harvest $1 chips, my pockets looked like chipmunk cheeks by the time I got back to my hotel. I also got pulled aside by TSA on the way home but they were cool about the chips. Anyway, that's the end of story time.

I thank and applaud Barry for his ingenuity in creating a "team" harvesting concept of strangers.

Certainly new to me!!

Jim