New York, NY

This chip was part of the Great Casino Chip Grab '04... which was the first trip I made where I consciously decided to start collecting. Starting with the 25th Anniversary Barbary Coast chips, I spent the better part of a day wandering in and out of Strip casinos, getting house chips.

The New York, NY will always be remembered for a couple of things. It was the site for my greatest ass-kicking ever, thanks to a murderous run at $25 blackjack. In fact, I think I have vowed to never play cards there again.

Speaking of New York, NY ass-kickings... Hop and I were wandering back to the the NY one night. About 25 yards in front of us were the front doors, with a bench on the other side of the sidewalk. A teenage kid was sitting on the bench. All of a sudden we hear, "There he is!!" and 4 or 5 other teenagers run from behind us to the bench and start throwing haymakers at the lone kid sitting there. They knock him off the bench, get in a few kicks and are gone as fast as they show up. I think both Hop and I were in shock, as we didn't even have time to make a funny comment. We both just kind of kept going, opened the doors and walked into the casino. That may have been the first fight I ever saw out there, sanctioned or not.

It was also the site for my most bizarre radio show call-in. When I worked at WILX, my boss always liked it when I called his radio show from Vegas. Which meant I had to be up and on a phone by 9am local time. Not always easy. He also liked to have plenty of sports book information, so it always helped if I was near one of those... even though it is illegal to use a cell phone in a sports book. Luckily, the New York, NY sports book has a low wall, so you can stand behind it and be on the phone, yet still see all the day's odds. So I'm sitting at a slot machine behind the wall, waiting for Tim to get out of a commercial or something and this homeless looking guy carrying a trash bag walks up to me. Right as Tim starts to introduce me, the guy walks by and says, "Hey man... you need any ecstasy?" A perfectly legit question at 8am on a Thursday. I declined, started laughing and then answered whatever questions The Dean had for me. But I always wondered if that entire trash bag was filled with ecstasy.

Not specific to any one stay at the New York, NY (I think I've stayed there 3 or 4 times), but I've probably uttered, "Where the fuck is teh Century Tower" at least 100 times. I know casino lay-outs are designed to keep you near the gaming areas, but trying to find your room in that place is nearly impossible.