November Update

11 new chips have been added to the collection since the last update.  They are:

1.  Blackbird Bend Casino - Iowa.  Just north of Omaha and on the other side of the Missouri River, I visited this casino on a work trip.  We ate at their less than stellar buffet for dinner one night.  One of the least busy casinos I've ever been in.  Even for Iowa standards.

2.  Isle Casino - Cape Girardeau, MO.  Another casino visited while on a work trip.  This one was pretty new and modern looking.  Not the easiest place to get to when you are just trying to make a quick stop on your way to the airport in St. Louis though.

3.  Horseshoe Casino - Cincinnati, OH.  The last of the four land-based casinos in Ohio to open (Ohio also has a handful of Racino's).

4.  Horseshoe Casino - Baltimore, MD.  Just opened in August of 2014, this is the 4th casino (with live table games) in Maryland.  A planned 5th is set to open in 2016.

5.  Rocky Gap Casino - Cumberland, MD.  Opened in early 2013, this was the 3rd casino in Maryland to open.  Guess I'll have to track down chips for the Hollywood Casino and Maryland Live! before too long.

6.  Linq - Las Vegas.  The Linq replaces the Quad, which was the Imperial Palace.  The name "The Quad" lasted for about 18 months, so the Linq has a low bar to clear.  We'll see if it's still in operation in June of 2016.

7. SLS - Las Vegas.  The SLS is the new Sahara, and opened in mid-2014.

8.  Cromwell - Las Vegas.  This replaces Bill's, which replaced the Barbary Coast.  The Coast is still one of my top 3 favorite places to gamble (along with the Monte Carlo and the Bellagio between 3am and 5am).

9. Westgate - Las Vegas.  The Westgate is the new LVH which was the new Las Vegas Hilton.  This name change happened in July 2014.  Westgate is known for being a time-share company, so it'll be interesting to see if the old Hilton shifts from casino/hotel to time share/casino.

10.  Grand Casino Romania.  Julie's Aunt Linda picked this one up for me while on a long boat cruise of the Danube.  This casino is located in the Marriott Hotel in Bucharest.  The front of the chip reads "10 Ron" which I think means it is worth roughly $3 in U.S. equivalency.  Hopefully, the exchange rate brings the value up as it would currently rank last amongst my chips for face value.

11.  Holland Casino.  Aunt Linda got this one for me on the same trip as the above.  But the Holland Casino was located inside the Shiphol-Airport, which seems really nice and convenient to me.  5 Euros makes it worth about $6.25, which places it as the second most valuable chip by face value, just behind my chips from London.

Another New Chip

The newest chip to join my collection is the $5 house chip from the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, MO (near St. Louis). The casino is a "riverboat" situated on the mighty Missouri River. The riverboat doesn't even pretend to act as a boat, the casino is attached to the parking garage/hotel on land. Inside, it's bright and shiny and new looking (being 5 or so years old will do that), but it's nothing special. There is a metric ton of penny slots on both levels. Yes, penny slots. I witnessed a guy hit a 'jackpot' on one of them. Whilst wandering around, I noticed a group of people standing behind a guy, as his slot machine was running through a pay-out. Everyone was amazed at his massive winnings, a solid 10,000 units. Until you realized that on a penny machine, that's $100. Woo-hoo. I wonder if that old guy will get to retire now? Which reminds me, the casino itself was pretty empty. Sure it was a Monday night (President's Day to be exact), but it was empty. Pretty standard collection of old people, oxygen tanks and old people with oxygen tanks. Only a handful of blackjack tables ($15 min.) and other assorted table games. Not the worst I've ever seen, but I would definitely check out the other 3 St. Louis-area casinos before going back to the Ameristar. Which, by the way, wins the award for lamest casino name ever. So they at least have that going for them.