Started collecting Nevada Club chips early on in my time in the hobby. Any Nevada Club, anywhere. Lots of different chips and many of them were quite attractive to my eye. Some are pretty common chips and there are some scarce ones with the Nevada Club name too. Makes for quite an interesting hunt. Oddities too, the LV dovetails with the black edge painted on, same outfit as the HHL chips with the serial numbers that have never been adequately explained. Still have an interest in any NC chip but did kind of narrow most of my research into the Reno specimens mainly because of the enigmatic owner of the joint, Lincoln Fitzgerald.

I've found that an individual chip really comes alive for me the more I know about it. Who, when, where. I've had a great time poking around the Reno Nevada Club and gathering knowlege of it. I've gotten lots of help from the #1 Nevada Club collector, Kent Hedburg and from Club member Ron Leis who used to work for Fitz. I've managed to sit and talk with folks who knew the Man and I've about worn out Google searching around for stuff on Fitz and the Reno Club. One of the payoffs of acquiring a lot of info about a joint is that after awhile, because you know the personalities and setting surrounding your favorite chips, you can merely intuit the answers to a lot of the questions that initially drew you to the research.

On day, I was more than a little surprised to run across an eBay auction of a matchcover for Robbins Nevada Club. Peering at the image presented in the auction, I noticed that it was Reno, "Near the Arch". In the time I had been persuing Nevada Club, I realised I'd never given any thought to the origin of the place or how Fitzgerald got the place started. Harolds Club and Harrahs I knew from reading a couple of books but not Nevada Club. I knew that Fitz had arrived in town from somewhere around Detroit. Got the match cover and ran it past Kent. Kent was kind enough to pass along a bingo card from Robbin's Nevada Club. Looked up the pertinent headings in Kling's Rise of the Biggest Little City and it seems that a father and son opened their store in 1941 on Virginia St. First licensed as Robbin and Robbin and than a few months later as Robbins Nevada Club according to Fuller. Kling was frankly ambiguous about the Fitzgerald acquistion of the Club in 1945. Kling states "...the Robbins family joined forces with Dan Sullivan, Lincoln Fitzgerald, Mert Wertheimer, and Ruby Mathis to form a partnership."

After more time on Google, I found more info on the background of Fitzgerald. He was the #2 guy of the Chesterfield gang under the bossman Werthheimer. The Chesterfield gang operated under the auspices of Detroit's Purple gang. Sullivan and Mathis were Detroit guys too. A picture of the true nature of the Nevada Club "partnership" with the Robbins became apparent to me. During those same years I guess you could say Poland "joined forces" with Nazi germany too.

Al Moe puts the whole affair down nicely in his excellent history, Roots of Reno You need this book BTW!

Snagged another Robbins Nevada Club match cover with the imprint inside, "Robbins' Ocean Park California For A Pleasant Afternoon or Evening" Research shows the Robbins were carnival folks just like the Smiths and Bill Harrah. How about that?

Hope you can see that this kind of activity can really enhance your favorite chips and keep the hobby fresh for you as it has for me. Of course, every time you think you've answered a question, you'll find you have more...like for instance, since Robbins Nevada Club had ten 21 games, four roulette tables and faro, WHERE'S THE CHIPS??????