The 2012 CCGTCC convention was very good to me as far as new illegal chips go. I got so many new ones, I still don't have all of them in Collectors Assistant. I have been using this database since 1996, now has well over 30,000 chips in it. If you are not using a database for your chips I highly recommend Terry Shaffers newer version of Collectors Assistant. http://happychipper.com/

On the last day of the convention, one of the dealers found me wondering the floor and said he had a chip and needed help with an ID. The ID came back with no "Club" name once again. The Mason Co had a habit of making it tough on future chip collectors.

If the chipper that gave me the TAC chips wants to jump in with a sales post, feel free.

Enough of that:

Nebraska:

TAC
Alex Pester
901 9th Ave
Scottsbluff, Nebraska
3/11/48
Blue $1-Red 50¢-Yellow 25¢-White 10c
10/19/48
Green $5-Blue $1

Enter our "Friend of the hobby:"

I did a quick search and the guy who ordered the TAC chips, Alex Pester, is still alive and residing in the Scottsbluff area (or at least he was in February of this year when his wife passed away). He’s 91, born 1921 near Scottsbluff.

My note: TAC chips came in a chip case with "23 Club" name plaque on it per the chipper I got the chips from.

The only thing I found on a 23 Club is that there was and is a non-profit organization using that name in Scottsbluff—whether that’s what the chip case plaque was referring to or not I don’t know (the club, which supports little league baseball, has been there at least 55 years). The TAC on the chip makes me think that it was originally for something else.

Here’s Pester’s contact info. He appears to still own the property of the listed address, but whether he still resides there I don’t know.

My note: Yes still lives there and is over 90 years old and a little hard of hearing. I spoke to Alex Pester, He gave me what the TAC initials stood for and the address. He had no knowledge of the 23 Club. IMO the chips were put in the case after they were found at a flea market somewhere along the years.

Used at and made for:

TAC
Twin City Agriculture Club
Scots Bluff Highway
Gering, Nebraska
Games at TAC were BJ, craps, and poker.

As you will read below Alex was involved in other gambling after he came home from WW II. I did not question Alex about his service in WW II. Some of the "Hero's" that saved the world in that terrible war do not want to talk about or remember it. I had 2 uncles that served. One of them was haunted by what he saw and did for the rest of his life.

The delivery address is today a residential home, but I think it might have been different when the chips were delivered. Appears to have been a grocery in the mid 1930’s, with some pool halls across the street.

Pester got in trouble in Dec.1963 when he and a couple other guys from the Scottsbluff area were busted at a Holiday Inn located in Des Moines, Iowa. Apparently they were running a dice game in a room there.

My note: Sounds like some other stories we have seen in many "Illegal Of The Day" posts. If there is a way to make money gambling our subjects always find a time and place to accommodate the gamblers.