Yes Jill; This was a "real" roulette chip used at the Fun Nite just prior to the official opening of Harrah's at Trump Plaza (now Trump Plaza).

Prior to the opening of a new casino in A.C. a Fun Nite is conducted by the Casino Control Commission and Division of Gaming to determine if a casino is up to speed with meeting the regulations and competency prior to opening the casino to the public for live gaming. The public is invited to participate in this excercize where paper play money is purchased at .05¢ on the dollar prior to entering the new casino, with all proceeds going to a charity such as United Way. The paper play money is then exchanged at the gaming tables (just like real money) for fun nite chips.... such as what you have posted. Your purple chip was given to a player at a roulette table in exchange for the regular white, pink, green, black, purple FUN NITE chips that was purchased with the previously described Fun Nite paper money. I recall club member Al Zaika and I exchanging many different colors from different roulette tables during this one night excercize as it would have been impossible for one player to "harvest" one or more of every color chip from every table.

After about four or five hours of Fun Nite play, everyone is ordered out of the casino while the gaming officials scored the dry-run excercize with casino key management. If the scores were too low, the casino would be denied permission to open for live gaming and would be ordered to conduct another "Fun Nite" (usually the following night) to correct their deficiencies.

BTW; Slot machines on the other hand were "live" during these Fun Nite excersizes. Cocktail waitresses would be serving drinks to slots and table players during these events ... just like they do today.... but would be insulted if you tipped them with a NCV Fun Nite chip of course... although I'm sure many local players out for a cheap night's entertainment did exactly that.