Not long ago, I gave a seminar on the history of California Gaming chips and had to do some research which concluded that since 1849 there have probably been more than 12,000 different gaming chips made for California. Many of them were used in illegal games, but the majority of what we find in our catalogs are those that were licensed or at least tolerated by the local authorities.
California remains the sleeping giant of chip collecting with few chippers leading the way to create interest. More chips were made for California than any other area of the world and gaming remains heavy here with the trend away from the stud/draw games of Gardenas past; to the Indians and their increasingly plush casinos AND the Asians supporting a huge drop (income) in the PAI GOW games of the larger card clubs. Strange when these types of ethnic groups were not welcome in most past eras of gaming......looks like the red and yellow man's revenge is here......mellow, yellow, Mel