that we have this "huge" collection of items comes from. I don't think any one associated with the MOGH or the Club has ever made such a statement. We have yet to make a full court, consistent call for physical donations of items to be displayed. We have made periodic calls for folks to consider leaving their collections to the Club or the MOGH during their estate planning. In conversations over the years we have scores of members and even non members who have said, just like Mr. Benedict, that they will donate items or collections once we have a physical location. Since we won't find a building that is ready for display the first day we have it, build out time will allow us to begin amassing the permanent collection. I can tell you with just a half of dozen of those commitments we could fill several rooms in any location we find. I am confident when we find a location and make the call, we will have more artifacts than we can display at one time. And that collection will grow over time.

We have never discouraged folks from donating items and we do have "some" items that would be used for display. Just a rough idea of some of items off the top of my head that we currently have are a Silver Strike slot machine, a slot machine from the old Thunderbird Hotel, the OTY collection, the #1 Club medal collection, the paintings done by Carlos, a couple of boxes of books including a first edition of Borland's Bluebook, a small collection of silver strikes, a few hundred chips and a couple boxes of casino ashtrays.

Several years ago we looked at a software program used by smaller museums and one of the components was a "virtual museum". I think the virtual museum is a fine idea, as long as we have the artifacts to put in to it and display as our "collection". The logistical issues need to be considered as well. Cataloging, researching, storage and care of the physical artifacts. Scanning or photographing the artifacts, uploading and maintaining the virtual museum. Of course all of this would be much easier from a central location where all the artifacts are stored. And we have the man power on hand to do it.

The main charge to the Building Fund Committee/Museum of Gaming History has always been to find a location for the Club. That is the main focus of the committee and we are continually working on that very thing. From the very beginning we knew this was going to be a long, slow journey and it is, trust me. As it's evolved, we've dealt with other issues that need to be addressed, such as the "collection". We need to plan for this because at some point we will need that collection, but we first must find a place to put it all.