I first started collecting chips when in Las Vegas, playing a table game for the first time. I was pleased with my play (didn’t act like a jerk, didn’t spill my drink, and actually won a couple of bucks), so I carted off a dirty $1 Binion’s Horseshoe chip as a souvenir. At this time our organization had a conference in Vegas once a year, and so each year I’d take back a few chips as a way to remember the trip and the places I’d played. Friends couldn’t understand why I didn’t cash in my chips - I explained that to me they were worth more than the dollar I could have had from the casino (and during those days I could have used every dollar). Best/cheapest souvenir I could think of (and I ONLY kept one-dollar chips - I DID cash all the others, though there weren’t that many to be cashed).

One year my wife and I took a side trip to the old gambling museum in the Tropicana, and I was fascinated by the old chips from the old casinos no longer standing. I couldn’t believe someone hung on to all that cool old stuff, and one of the museum clerks said, “Hey, there’s a whole organization that collects old chips.” Still, it wasn’t for another dozen years or so before I finally took some initiative and found the club’s website and got some info, and another couple of years before I finally decided to get serious. And send in the membership fee. Haven’t looked back since (OK, it’s only been a year, and sorry it took so long).