Floor sweeping???? I guess all you illegal chip collectors know what a floor sweeping is? But just in case some don’t, here is a quickie explanation.

When hot stamped chips are run there are always some extra ones run off. They box up the order and leave the spares lying around. Some wind up on the floor. After they set up the next hot stamp die to be run, they grab any extra floor sweepings laying around and run a few over the top of the previous hot stamp, to make sure the new die is seated, etc. All ok, then they run the new order. I have seen floor sweepings with 3 or 4 different initials one on top of the other.

I got this one from a $1 each junk box at the Arizona Charlie’s chip show back in February. The Riverview Club stamp intrigued me. I knew there would be a good story behind it. Had no clue on the TJM but thought the 2 joints on one chip would tell a cross state story. It did not disappoint me.

The TJM story hit real close to home. The TJM could be the biggest surprise I ever had in researching old chips.

There is no connection between the 2 hot stamps except they are on one chip.

I have the rect/heart mold $1.00 chip from the Riverview Club but do not have the hub, if anyone has a trader.

Enough of that:

Riverview Club

Louisiana:

Floor sweeping. TJM over Riverview Club

Riverview Club
Charles A Meraux Arabi La
1/25/35
200 red –lav- pink – green –blue – yel –white - no black
8/15/39
205 gray,verm -blk 25 – pink –yel –blue –red –lav - 45 green

Riverview Club

Charles Antoine Meraux was a native of Meraux, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana and died there in 1956 age 73 (Meraux, a few miles SE of Arabi, was named for Charles’ father Jules Meraux, a native of France).

At the time of the first chip order in 1935, Meraux’s brother Louis was the sheriff of St. Bernard Parish and his brother Claude was the district judge (both were Tulane graduates, Louis an MD and Claude a JD). Elected to office in 1924, the “Meraux Faction” was a powerful political force in St. Bernard Parish.

The structure which housed the Riverview Club was located on the east bank of the Mississippi River on the corner of North Peters and Friscoville. Originally constructed around 1909 as a grocery store, the structure was converted into a night club in the mid-20’s and was destroyed by a fire in 1958 (the club had closed around 1953).

Here’s a very cool pic of Arabi’s “Friscoville Coast” from 1940 showing the Riverview and other gambling clubs (the photographer looks like he was standing on the levee):

My note: I have a Turf Club chip from O'Pelousos, LA, but none from this one. Probably one of the many Turf Club UFC’s we all have plenty of. I have a couple of chips from the Jai Alai Club.

Times-Picayune—10dec1931
A lot going on at the Riverview; Louisiana AG doesn’t like it:

Times-Picayune--31may1935
A few months after Meraux’s first chip order, the lights of Arabi’s gambling clubs were “beckoning far into the night”; political bosses of Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes threaten Sen. Huey Long to lay off gambling clubs:

My note: If you don’t know Huey Longs story, it will be well worth a google search. He was quite a guy.

Times-Picayune—12jan1940
Excerpts from an election time hearing on gambling in St. Bernard Parish:

The Rowley mentioned above is C. F. “Dutch” Rowley. Rowley became sheriff of St. Bernard Parish in 1938 when Louis Meraux died (Rowley had been Meraux’s chief deputy since 1924). Sheriff Rowley was quoted in the Times-Picayune in 1947 saying “I want it known everywhere that St. Bernard Parish is wide open.” He testified before Kefauver in 1951:

As we have seen in other “Illegal Of The Day” posts anybody that was somebody was called before the Kefauver Commission hearings on organized crime.

Rowley was sheriff until his death in 1953. Here’s a Jones Bros. chip die:

Rowley did not know anything about gambling? Wonder what he did with his personal chips. I would love to find one of these.

Jones Bros. chip die for the Riverview Club:

I would trade for one of these.

The Riverview Club was a customer of Jones Bros. and Mason & Co., and they were also a customer of E. M. O’Neil (Kefauver testimony):

My note: First time I knew EM O’Neil was called before Kefauver but no surprise.

OK, here comes my big shock and surprise, I mentioned above.

Colorado:
TJM
TJ Malouff
207 N. Commercial
Trinidad Co.
7/31/39 500 mixed
8/22/39 500 mixed
9/16/39 100wh
6/27/40 400Lav - 50Rd - 50Bl no black

My note: The spelling of the name never once rang a bell to me before the research. Hard to believe but true story.

Thomas Joseph Malouff, a Colorado native whose parents moved to Trinidad shortly after his birth in 1893. His father, an immigrant, was a merchant who had a successful corner store on Main St. Thomas opened a pool hall next to his father’s store in the late 1910’s. By 1923 Thomas had opened a pool hall at 207 N. Commercial which he was still operating into the early 30’s (his brother William took over the pool hall at 506 W. Main, next to his fathers store). I’m not sure if he was still operating a pool hall or something else at 207 N. Commercial when the chips were delivered in 1939-40--I sent an email inquiry to a library; when they respond we should know what was there.

My note: I will update if and when the library comes back to us.

Because of your association with the Palms you might be interested to know that by all appearances the Malouff’s of Trinidad are related to the Palms Maloof’s—although I’m not sure exactly how.

About 130 miles south of Trinidad on I-25 is Las Vegas, New Mexico which is where the Palms Maloof’s immigrated to. In 1953 a woman named Badre Malouff died in Las Vegas, NM. She was an immigrant from eastern Lebanon who settled in Trinidad, CO in the early 1900’s but moved to Las Vegas, NM around 1914.

Her obit says that her funeral was attended by several out of town relatives including the Palms Maloof’s grandfather Joe G. Maloof of Albuquerque, his brother John of Roswell, NM, as well as several of Thomas Malouff’s siblings from Trinidad, CO and Sante Fe, New Mexico. (Thomas Malouff was deceased by then).

My note: Joe G. Maloof also immigrated from Lebanon and started the Maloof fortune with a road side stand in New Mexico. I have sent this research to George Maloof. He was pleased to see it and promised me he would look into the connection between the two families.

Badre is Arabic for “full moon” and Badre Malouff sometimes is referred to as Moon, as in this Las Vegas, NM article

The article has Moon Malouff’s name spelled Moon Maloof. She also had a pool hall in Las Vegas, NM and tried to beat the Federal Prohibition laws but looks like the federal liquor agents caught her.

from 1928:

As we have seen in the past old illegal chips can tell us a heck of a story. IMO, this one is as good as it gets.
Without the history, they are only little pieces of clay.