Terry,

Things must have changed since I lived on the island. The Willemstad used to be relatively safe but most people wouldnt cross the bridge to the Otrabanda side after nightfall. Unless of course you were looking for drugs or to pick up a prosititute. I actually stayed at the Otrabanda for about 2 weeks while I was looking for a house. Back then there was 2 blackjack tables and 2 roulettes. I had to laugh when you told the stories about how chip collecting works on the island as I remember experiencing many of the same things you talked about. And people think its hard to get away with roulette chips in this country. I ended up sneaking 4-5 chips a night into my pockets and ended up with about 20-30 each of 6 different color roulettes to take back with me. In fact most people who have these in thier collection now I would guess came thru me at one time or another. By the way the history lesson for today.... "Otrabanda" means Other Side in the interesting island dialect of Papiemento.