I managed to make it to the 6PM opening of the Lodge Casino in Blackhawk.

First the good news.... it is by far the nicest looking casino in Colorado. This place is first class, everything from the restaurants to the spacing of the slots to the bar service is first class. It's late and I just got back from the opening so I'll fill you in with more details in the July 1st Colorado Casino Chip Exchange newsletter.

Now the bad news...

For some reason this $40 million dollar casino thinks they can sell a $1, $5, $25 set of chips in a "real" plastic frame from the casino cage for $100. Yes folks, the grand opening chips are being pawned off to the chip collectors of the world at a $69 profit. This is highway robbery and according to many collectors is contrary to Colorado gaming statutes. This story hasn't ended and I'll keep you all informed and I will do everything I can to prevent something like this from happening in the future. My biggest fear is that this precedent will be followed by future casinos or other new chip issues.

This is indeed a sad day for the collector of casino chips and tokens. They made 500 of these sets and at $100 each they will still be sitting on most of them this time next year.

Amazingly, they were selling regular chips for face at the table and you could play $1 slot machines with a token that _only_ cost $1. See the GO rip off sets and the house chips and tokens on the Colorado Casino Chip Exchange at http://www.cochips.com . The scans will be available after 8PM Mountain time tomorrow (6/25).

Allen Banick
Colorado Casino Chip Exchange