The Casino Collectibles Association, dedicated to the collecting casino memorabilia and preserving gaming history, will come to the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas June 16-18. The annual show will offer four educational seminars related to gaming history at no charge to the public.
The seminar topics, speakers and appearance times are as follows:
- Bahamian Rhapsody. The history of casinos in the Bahamas. Hosted by Charles Kaplan, chairman of the Museum of Gaming History and curator of the ChipGuide, the most comprehensive reference guide available for casino chip collectors, featuring a free on-line image database of over 285,000 gaming chips and memorabilia from worldwide casinos. Kaplan’s presentation will cover the time period after the mob was kicked out of Cuba by Castro’s revolution, when they sought other venues to ply their trade. The nearby Bahamas was one of their first targets. Gambling was illegal in the Bahamas until the Duke of Windsor, then governor of the Bahamas, issued an exemption for a seasonal casino at a private club on Cat Cay Island in 1939. The story is complicated and complex involving corrupt government officials, swindlers, the mob, a future president of the United States, a television celebrity and several billionaires. Seminar: Thursday, June 16 at 8 a.m.
- How the chip market is affected by “sudden” new finds. Oscar Lappalainen has been immersed in the casino collectibles world and valuating chips and tokens on a daily basis for years through his work at Spinetti’s Gaming Supplies, and through the tutelage of CCA Life Member Mike Spinetti. Lappalainen will talk about the barrage of large quantities of “rare” chips that surfaced last year, and the affect this has had on the valuations of casino chips in the marketplace. Seminar: Thursday, June 16 at 3 p.m.
- Collecting and Researching Silver Tokens. Dennis Berry, a coin collector since he was 12, got the silver token collection bug in 1994 when he discovered them at the Boomtown Casino in Verdi, Nevada. He is a charter member of the Silver Strike Club and the author of World Denominational Casino Tokens Silver and Gold. His presentation will cover his experiences over a quarter century collecting, researching and valuating casino silver tokens. Seminar: Friday, June 17 at 8 a.m.
- Hot Oklahoma Nights. Paul Schaffer, a former Guinness World Record holder of the Largest Chip and Token Collection and CCA Life member will cover Oklahoma gaming from the beginning to the present day, including how Native American cultures influence chip design. Through his collection he will share stories from his many travels to the Sooner State, highlighting his favorite and rarest Oklahoma chips. Seminar: Friday, June 17 at 3 p.m.
The free seminars will run concurrently with the Casino Collectibles Association trade show, which features museum-like exhibits from more than 50 dealers of casino memorabilia from all over the world. Items on display include gaming chips, tokens, dice, slot cards, playing cards, matchbooks, menus, dinnerware, swizzle sticks and post cards. There is a small admission charge for the show floor on Thursday and Friday. Show admission is free on Saturday.
For more information, visit CCGTCC.com.
