If chip collectors are obsessed and compulsive, Tom Stroh is at the top of the list! The third edition of his excellent book devoted exclusively to Playboy casino issues is now available, and it surpasses the previous two.

As chip collectors tend more and more to specialize rather than trying to collect every casino chip ever produced, Tom Stroh’s research and eye for detail sets the standard for the highly specialized collection. His book contains information that will be new to any collector interested in Playboy casino issues.

Few collectors realize how many Playboy casinos were actually in operation, and how many more were planned. Tom’s research, however, solves that problem for us.

No Playboy casino is in operation today, the last – the casino on the Greek island of Rhodes – closed in 2000. As Stroh reveals to us, even before the casinos closed, many were no longer owned by Playboy Enterprises, but were operating under license and only used the Playboy name.

In addition to a lengthy and detailed introduction, which Stroh has illustrated in color, and which contains much information collectors have not previously had, there’s a checklist grid of Atlantic City Playboy roulette issues and colors. Each Playboy casino merits its own section, and Tom has included color illustrations of all the chips he’s been able to locate in his collecting and research.

In addition to the descriptions of the casinos themselves and the color chip and token illustrations, Stroh includes both a rarity guide and a price guide for each known chip and token he lists.

Separate sections for the London clubs (do you know how many there were?); the Manchester and Portsmouth clubs; the club in Nassau, Bahamas; of course the Atlantic City Playboy Hotel Casino; Rhodes, Greece, and even two I’d never heard of: a Playboy cruise ship and a club in Des Moines, Iowa! (Ok, that wasn’t fair, was it? The Des Moines club was just that: a Playboy Club, not a casino. Stroh speculates that the chips attributed to Des Moines may also have been used in other clubs, and most likely for private games or fundraising events.

For collectors of Playboy memorabilia or of the casino issues of Playboy, Tom Stroh’s book is indispensable. It can be purchased by writing to Tom at KJ7AV@aol.com.