Don, I could write a book on the fun and enjoyment I had at the Four Queens creating ideas for chips. There were 3 of us on the unofficial chip commettee.
Casino Mgr Rick Howe, Bud Jones Salesman John Liner, and myself. There was many days we sat around and threw ideas at each other for hours. Very little work got done on chip days. To the FQ's it was all about money. The President thanked me for keeping the FQ's afloat during the Bankruptsy. Every release day he would call me and ask how much we would take in and how long before they would be gone. Add up the FQ's LE's and see what the profit comes to. You would be amazed.

It was not about money to the chip commettee. It was a fun thing. One year Rick wanted to have 2 chips ready for the presidential election. We would release the winner and destroy the loser.

The snapper was also Ricks idea. Of course you know a snapper is a natural Blackjack. You would need $2.50 snapper chip to pay a $5 snapper. By the way there were 9 different snappers. I desided to make the snapper a limited edition rack chip. 4,000 on the 1st one. They disappeared in short order. If the snapper was so popular why not make more. I wanted different hats on them. Say, Santa Hats, pilgrim hats, etc. The vote was 2 to 1 against. So we desided on the snapper family. 4 chips 1,000 each, pink. In a month we needed more - 4 chips 1,000 each. yellow. There was a lot of thought went into selecting the names.

I miss my days on the chip commettee. Rick would call and say "chip alert." Every FQ's LE was desided in these meetings. You would not believe how many times the art work went back for changes. We tried to make them the best we could. John actually got in trouble for making so many art changes. You would not believe some of the ideas we had.

Rick is now working for DP Stud and John Liner is lost somewhere in Florida.

I am not a sentimental kind of guy, but I look back on those days and wish it was again. True friends are hard to come by in the casino industry.