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. When I moved they ended up in a box in the basement (along with other pack-rat type stuff 
).
Then, at a local flea market, saw an ashtray from "Joe W. Brown's Horseshoe Club" Las Vegas. What??...Joe W...Whoizzit?? Bought the ashtray for about a quarter. Couldn't find anything on Joe W. so more or less forgot about it. Thought maybe it was some souvenir "get your name in headlines" type of tourist thing.
Several months later, at an antique/collectible show, found a postcard with a picture that showed the Horseshoe's $1,000,000 display...and it had Joe W. Brown's name on it!! Whaaaaaaat...him again??? Bought the postcard.
Soon after that we headed for Vegas. We were in an antique shop, and saw the same ashtray. Asked about it, and the employee got the store owner for us. He got all excited, told us to wait a minute, he wanted to show us something. He ran upstairs, and came back down with a board game from Joe W. Brown's Horseshoe casino. He told us how Benny Binion had to serve time for income tax evasion, and Joe W. Brown ran the Horseshoe in his absence. Said that he'd been friends with the Binion kids, and that he'd helped them put the dice and instructions in the game boxes! (Eventually we found one of the games on ebay)
On the same LV trip, we were in the Gambler's General Store, and I saw Art Anderson's ashtray book. I looked up the Horseshoe tray, it had the same story about Benny doing time, and it listed the tray with a $12-$15 value...and I'd paid about a quarter! WOW!!! How cool was that??!!?!! I bought the book.
Soooo...having spent $20 to get the story for a .25 ashtray, I "had" to keep collecting the ashtrays to justify buying the book! 
The other stuff just kind of joined the collection...
Of course...before casino stuff I collected advertising characters, Bud Christmas mugs, and a few other items over the years. It always gave me something to look for at flea markets! Sooner or later, I always got bored with that stuff though.
With the casino things...first and foremost, my husband enjoys collecting the stuff, too, so it's something that we do together. Also, I've discovered that (for me) learning about the old Nevada casinos is as much fun as finding something to add to the collection.
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