This is number 200 in the series of "Illegal Of The Day" post's. Let's call it a milestone on the way to many more. Number 200 came down to a choice between Illinois and a good story from Dayton, Ohio. I played poker in Dayton many a day but this one was before my time.

All of the contributors (there were many) and I thoroughly enjoyed putting them together. We all hope others will join us in the search for the history of our chips. I save every tid-bit of info and every scan collectors send me. You would be surprised how often one little mention in an article or match book cover spawns an "Illegal Of The Day."

You have to have a starting point as you will read in this post. We had a definite UFC in this beautiful cord mold chip Weston sent me. No way to track it until Weston sent the White Horse Casino matchbook weeks later. The match book wound up having nothing to do with the cord but it was the "starting point."

In "Illegal Of The Day." Illinois 32 posted on 5/17/13 I told the story of the White Horse Casino that came out of the search for the UFC cord chip that we thought we found a matchbook for. As it turned out the chip did not match but we turned up the story of the White Horse casino CHR chain mold and a new casino for TGT,

The Cord chip is the chip that spawned the info in Illinois 32. Link to Illinois 32,
http://www.thechipboard.com/index.cgi/page/1/md/read/id/1253197/sbj/illegal-of-the-day-illinois-32/

The following ID and story fell into our laps while looking for the story in Illinois 32. In my opinion the cord chip is no longer a UFC.

Cord chips distributed by E. M. O'Neil Chicago pre 1953 then moved to Las Vegas,1st telephone book listing in 1953 at 500 College Ave, LV. We have a small amount of the O'Neil records on Preserving Gaming History. The rest of the records exist. They have not been made available to us. From conversations I don't think the O'Neil Chicago records are among them. I'm not sure how many Cords were issued after the LV move. I am told O'Neil sold a large amount of their orders through TR King and a couple other distributors. Cord molds are a little smaller than other molds and not as desireable.
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One UFC led to two stories and entries to your TGT.

The Casino
At the six-corner of 4715 Irving Park and 3971 Milwaukee Ave in Chicago. Close up scan of the six-corner intersection is several scans down.

I will add more info about Skidmore and Johnson I've put together over the years at the end of this story. They have appeared in other "Illegal Of The Day" posts

Enter our "Friend of the hobby."

I think the chip above probably has a better chance of having been used at a place called “The Casino” or “Casino Club” which was located at 4715 Irving Park in a building which straddles the corner of Irving Park and Milwaukee—one of the corners of a multi-cornered intersection known as “Six Corners.”

The building still exists, but has had a major face lift. Irving Park to the left, Milwaukee to the right:

Same view from 1934; 4715 Irving Park entrance would have been on the far left side of the photo:

map:

matchbook:4715 Irving Park Drive.

Here’s another Casino matchbook to add to the file; it’s the same as the one I sent with the Casino info except the address is different. The one I sent earlier had the address 4715 Irving Park; the one below is 3971 Milwaukee. Both addresses lead to the same club but are on opposite sides of the triangle shaped building.

Matchbook: 3971 Milwaukee

The Casino was one of the many gambling rooms run by the Johnson-Skidmore syndicate. The Irving Park address was also the “nerve center” and “main clearing house” for the syndicate. From the building the syndicate communicated info to its many gaming rooms.

Here’s a partial list of the syndicate gaming operations from 1940--several have known chips:

Here’s a more complete list, also from 1940:

I hope TGT guys are recording all of these.

My note: The Horseshoe and the Southland both have chips that have appeared in "Illegal Of The Day" posts along with several other Skidmore-Johnson chips from joints not on the lists.

map showing Skidmore-Johnson gambling houses, represented by the black dots:

My note: Other info on the Skidmore-Johnson gambling empire.

William Johnson and Billy Skidmore-Skidmore once was associated with the "Bugs" Moran gang.

The Horseshoe at 4721 Kedzie Ave. had cord mold chips with 4721 on them.

Johnson began life as an express truck driver and later became an expert dice shooter. Ultimately he controlled a string of gambling houses in and around Chicago, some of them, reportedly, in partnership with the late William R. Skidmore, reputed fixer who served as a link between the independent gamblers and the syndicate. Skidmore died in 1944 while serving a prison term for income tax evasion.

Pardoned by Truman

Johnson himself was sentenced to five years in prison in 1940 for evasion of nearly 2 million dollars in income taxes. The case went to the United States Supreme court three time before Johnson began serving his term in March of 1946.

He was released on parole in November of 1948, after serving 32 months of his term, and was granted a complete pardon, restoring his citizenship, by President Truman on Dec. 24, 1952.

IMO we have a 95% certain ID on the Cord Mold. To be fair David Spragg did not agree with my 95%.
Maybe because of the following.

Also, it should be mentioned that there is a private social club in Chicago using the name Casino or Casino Club. This Casino Club,(still open) which has been described as the “most socially prestigious club in Chicago,” has been located at 195 East Delaware Place since the 1920’s and obviously has nothing to do with the Skidmore-Johnson place.

My note: The Casino Club has a 5 star rating but I can't find any info they ever had gambling. There were other places in Chicago using the word "Casino" in their names and did not have gambling. Math Igler's Casino 1627 W Melrose is one that has been open for years. I'm told they have great food and the home of the 'singing waters.".

Note: Skidmore-Johnson had both Horseshoe and TK molds at their Horseshoe casino at 4721 Kedzie Ave. Both molds made at TK Specialty in Kansas City and later Reno, NV.

Another UFC we might place if we had access to the TKS records. If this chip was made pre the Reno move it could very well be Chicago. I know where the records are and will ask one more time. This time I will beg for them.