CHICAGO – On Thursday, May 18, Potter & Potter Auctions will hold its signature Spring Gambling Memorabilia sale, starting at 10 am Central time. More than 540 lots of gambling- and cheating-related books, materials and apparatus will be offered, as well as exceptional examples of antique to modern playing cards and gambling chips. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
NEW YORK — Casino chips have no inherent value outside of the gambling venues that issue them. They are meant to be exchanged for cash under that roof, on the spot. Sometimes, though, people take casino chips home as souvenirs or forget to cash them in. The casinos themselves might be thoroughly transformed or long since bulldozed, but their chips might not be worthless. The collecting and resale of casino chips is big business. Some vintage chips that bear the livery of defunct casinos or have eye-catching graphics (or both) bring hundreds of dollars each, with a few individual pieces selling for several thousand and the scarcest examples breaking the five-figure mark. While it doesn’t happen every day, casino chips can achieve sums well in excess of their face value.