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Sunday, September 05, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Experts debate whether collectible casino chips should be destroyed
By Ed Vogel
Donrey Capital Bureau
MINDEN -- Gaming chip expert Howard Herz thinks regulations of the Gaming Control Board are destroying an important slice of Nevada's gaming history.
He cannot understand why the regulatory agency requires casinos to demolish chips when they shut down or switch to new styles.
"The state should pay some homage to its own history," said Herz, one of the nation's leading authorities on casino chips and tokens. "Collectors should have access to a certain number of chips that otherwise would be destroyed. It doesn't have to be a lot. Twenty may be enough."
As an example, he said the state required the destruction of chips from Harolds Club in Reno that were made during the years Howard Hughes owned the property.
"Howard Hughes had an enormous impact on the state," Herz said. "His presence was a turning point in the gaming industry. The state should maintain an archive of artifacts of the gaming industry."
Related to the former owners of Harvey's at Lake Tahoe, Herz has been chronicling the saga of chips from every casino in Nevada since he was a teen-ager.
Harvey Gross sent him on a statewide trip in 1967 to collect chips from every licensed casino in Nevada. Herz missed only two of 110 gaming establishments as he developed a chip display for Harvey's.
"The two I missed didn't have chips," he said.
Even today he can name the funky clubs that once operated in such out-of-the-way places as Gabbs and Pittman.
Later he worked 15 years in the cage at Harvey's.
"I got a good indication of what side did better," quipped Herz, who never gambles.
He operates Gaming Archaeology, a business that sells and auctions off rare chips, many from casinos defunct for decades. Bidders for some of these chips must be willing to spend more than $1,000.
Herz and his wife, Klegg, also authored the "Collector's Guide to Nevada Gaming Checks & Chips." And they edit Chip and Token News.
His talks with Gaming Control Board Chairman Steve DuCharme about keeping chips for posterity have not produced the results he anticipated.
"We have agreed to disagree," DuCharme said.
DuCharme said there is no need for special sales for chip collectors. They should simply go into a casino before it closes or ends a chip series and buy what they want.
He fears the real motive of some collectors is to acquire recalled chips for less than face value. Since there have been thousands of chips manufactured over the years, some people may try to slip them past a dealer.
"There are only a certain number of colors for chips," he said. "In a stack of 10 black chips, you might stick two bogus black chips in. Sometimes dealers don't pick up on them."
Herz can understand the reluctance of gaming authorities to preserve old chips. Some time ago, a Las Vegas dealers' school acquired chips from a closed casino.
"People at the school took them and began redeeming them through change girls and lower-level employees. A guy could have taken $1,000 of old chips and played with a dealer who didn't know they weren't being redeemed."
DuCharme confirms the accuracy of the story.
Chips have become a "subculture currency," particularly in Las Vegas, among casino employees who use them for tips and small retail purchases, according to Herz.
While chips technically are not supposed to be moved from their gaming house, Herz said typically casinos accept each other's chips. Later they exchange them for cash.
As recently as last year, Herz acquired a 1934 chip for the Club Cal-Nevada on Lake Tahoe's north shore simply by asking a cage employee at Lake Tahoe if she had any old chips. He quickly made a $300 profit when he sold the chip.
Today there are about 2,000 serious collectors in the United States -- along with millions of Nevada visitors who picked a couple of them up as souvenirs and dropped them in a drawer. They may not realize the chips they forgot are worth real money.
Herz misses the hokey casinos he saw on his statewide trip 32 years ago. He said there is a "corporate harshness" to the modern megaresorts.
"The quirky places can't meet today's accounting standards," Herz said. "Today's casinos are run by accountants. I like my accountant but I wouldn't make him my PR agent."
When Herz started collecting chips for Harvey's he figured there were less than a dozen serious collectors in the country.
Chips did not become an integral part of a casino operation until after the United States stopped minting silver coins in 1964. Until then, the silver dollar virtually was synonymous with gaming in Nevada.
Patrons used silver dollars on gaming tables, in slot machines, restaurants, everywhere.
"Gaming came from the wrong side of the tracks and now has become legitimate," Herz said. "The chip hobby is growing because gaming is spreading like wildfire around the country.
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1999 Best of Las Vegas Results.
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Printable version of this story
Rare casino chips in Howard Herz's collection include, clockwise from top left, a 633 Club 50 cent chip, a 633 Club $5 chip, a Kentucky Club wheel check and a Yorkshire Club wheel check.
Photo by Ed Vogel/Donrey Capital Bureau
Howard Herz is one of the nation's leading authorities on gaming chips and tokens.
Photo by Cathleen Allison/Special to Review-Journal
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