My personal interaction with Bill Borland was always positive. I never purchased, or had offered to me, any of the questionable chips that have been discussed over the years.

When I started collecting more actively, his sales lists were a great way to add to my collection. This was before he published the Blue Book (I have an autographed and numbered copy of it.) As I was a regular customer by mail, Bill -- and his partner, Starr Warrick -- would answer my questions by return mail. And Starr even took my by-hand list of chips and inputted them in their computer system back in the day when having a home computer was not common.

On one trip to LV, they even invited me to stop by, and I had an educational 1-on-1 discussion about chips at their apartment. I was a small-timer, but they were generous with their time over the years. As a side note, I recall talking with Bruce Landau at a chip show, and he remarked that Bill's store was his first stop on arriving in Las Vegas.

Borland was an entrepreneur with other side businesses, on top of his main job as matri d at one of the Dunes high end restaurants (Dome of the Sea, I think.) This was in the day when such positions made good money with the tips for a good table in Las Vegas.

He also ran a quarter-size newspaper/flyer called "The Gambler" in which you could buy all kinds of gambling stuff. And also you could have a personalized poster made for you while in LV, and they would make it and hand-deliver it to you at your hotel room. And of course, there were the sets of chips he made commemorating closed casinos (with open & close dates, no deception in them). I have almost a complete set, though missing a few of them. I like them.

Borland had a few employees in his endeavors, and I have heard that it may have been one of this employees, not Borland personally, that did the fake chips. I don't know either way. But he had the molds and equipment to fabricate personalized home game sets for people, so who knows?

I close out with a tease about Borland buying the chip inventory from the SilverBird. He had to do some wrangling with NGCB over his legally having the inventory. He bought the chips at the SilverBird's bankruptcy auction, and he did get to keep the chips after some back & forth with the regulators. He called himself "debtor-in-possession" regarding the chips. Not sure if that's the correct term, but he used it. All the SilverBird chips were reasonably priced EXCEPT the $20. It was the key chip with a higher price tag. I was reluctant, but eventually pulled the trigger. Bill was a good saleman!

Bottom line, I liked him (and Starr). It was a different era back then, I guess.

The SilverBird $20 - from MOGH/ChipGuide: