Have any Playboy casino chips lying around? Don’t look to cash those in any time soon. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) announced last week that it would no longer exchange the chips for cash.
Whether anyone has any of the NJ casino free chips and is looking to exchange them for cash is another question. But the NJDGE has closed the door on an almost 40-year program. The NJDGE has maintained a fund since 1982 and the entire ordeal is quite an interesting story.
“I now find that such Playboy gaming chips are expired and the fund for redemption is closed,” NJDGE director Chris Rebuck said in a July 7 order. “There have been recent attempts to present such chips for payment from the funds held by the Treasury where it is clear that the chips were not being presented by gamblers who were owed money by Playboy.”
End of the Playboy Casino Story
The move no longer allowing redemption comes after Playboy was denied a gaming license for an Atlantic City casino in 1982. The property’s partner in the venture, Elsinore, kept the NJ casino open however, and needed a name change as part of the ruling.
That became the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in 1984 and the Casino Control Commission eventually denied Elsinore’s license renewal as well in 1989. Elsinore was ordered to deposit $875,000 with the New Jersey treasury to cover redemptions of both Playboy and Atlantis chips.
“This money was reserved for gamblers who were owed money by Playboy or Atlantis, with such debts represented by gaming chips,” Rebuck noted. “Gamblers could redeem their chips with the Treasury until the fund ran out of money. No time limit was placed on the period for redemption.”
Elsinore informed gaming regulators that the value of the outstanding chips actually stood at about $450,000. The state ruled in 1990 that the funds belonged to the Casino Control Commission and could be transferred to the state treasury at some point.
That appears to be now. Rebuck noted that after being denied a license, Playboy contracted with a company to destroy its inventory of the chips. However, that didn’t happen and more chips may be remaining that were never used by gamblers. The emergency order is meant to prevent fraudulent claims.
“Almost 40 years have passed since the casino property, which no longer exists, was operated under the Playboy name,” Rebuck says in the order. “This is more than sufficient time for actual Playboy gamblers to have redeemed any chips or other instruments of gaming winnings owed by the former casino. At this time, any such chips are most likely to have been obtained by gift, inheritance, or sale from the secondary market.
“The fund held by treasury was meant for the benefit of the original patrons who have winnings to claim. It was never intended to be an open-ended invitation for subsequent acquirers of such chips to cash them in.”
World Series of Poker Main Event Breaks Record
As the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event continues this week in Las Vegas, the winner will take home the largest first-place prize in the history of the series. The event is the biggest tournament of the year and organizers have worked throughout the year to break the record.
That was set in 2006 at the height of the poker boom and saw Jamie Gold top a field of 8,773 players that created an $82.5 million prize pool. Hollywood talent agent and producer Jamie Gold ultimately took the title and gold bracelet for $12 million.
This year, the WSOP ramped up satellite qualifying at casinos across the country and around the world. Additional online qualifiers were also added at WSOP.com and ClubGG in legal U.S. states and via GGPoker in international markets.
Final registration for this year’s Main Event concluded on Saturday with 10,043 players for a $93.4 million prize pool. This year’s final table of nine players will see historic payouts with $12.1 million going to the winner, $6.5 million for runner-up, and a minimum of $900,000 for the first player eliminated in ninth.
“This is an all-time summer for the WSOP,” WSOP Senior Vice President and executive director Ty Stewart said. “Week after week we saw record fields, so it’s only fitting that we break the biggest record of all. 10,000 players is historic for the industry and this year’s champion will be remembered as the one to conquer the richest event in poker history, well at least until 2024.”
The winner’s take may not look as large as in 2006, but there has been a change in payouts since then.
In 2006, the series paid out only 10% of the field but now awards the top 15%.
