The following letter was sent by Knick Kovich to Turner in response to Gene's requested posted on CASINO. It is long, but is so good, I thought you would like to see it.

From: <Kinup@aol.com>

To: gturner@spike.dor.state.co.us

Subject: The Lodge

Mr. Turner,

I am fairly new to casino collecting
having only started a little over two
years ago. I was drawn to this hobby
because of the accessibility of the many
chips and tokens available at face
value. I was an avid baseball collector
for many years and was appalled at the
state that hobby has become. I gave
away most of my collection because of
the greedy underhanded dealings that
became common place. Chip collecting
was to me what baseball collecting used
to be enjoyable and fun. I was truly
amazed to learn that an outstanding
casino like the lodge would appear to
take advantage of the hobby of chip
collecting by offering a Grand Opening
package for more than face value, in
fact the price was $100.00 for a $1, $5,
and $25 chip, it was also interesting to
learn that the General Manager of the
casino made the comment, "If collectors
want them, let them pay." I truly am
bothered by these comments. It reminds
me of a time when I attended a Baseball
card show and a little boy wanted to
purchase a Ken Griffey jr. baseball card
the price of the card was marked at
$7.00. The boy had a price guide with
him and pointed out to the dealer that
the price listed in the guide was only
$1.50. The dealer turned to the boy and
said "Hey, if you if you don't want it
somebody else will, I gotta make a
living." The little boy turned to his
friend and said "man I thought this was
gonna be fun, this place is a rip-off,
let get out of here." I also realized
that the hobby of Baseball collecting
was not much fun anymore and stopped
collecting as well. My point here is
that many people enjoy and support
casino chip collecting. Please don't
let casinos like the lodge go unchecked
in their offering of overpriced casino
chips. You may find that the people who
collect casino chips don't find it fun
anymore either.

Thank you for your attention to this
matter.

Sincerely,

Nick Kovich
CC&GTCC Member R-3638