While the awesome Titanic exhibition at Tropicana has long been closed
and all the related paraphenalia dismantled and removed from the property...
and the gift shop associated with the exhibition has also closed.... the Titanic
theme lives on. Trop has installed an island of ten slot machines which dispenses
tickets for players to collect and redeem for attractive heavy bronze commemorative
medallions with Titantic themed designs. The “sign” on the left, is sometimes
posted on top of each of the ten specially equipped slot machines. The signs
do disappear quite frequently as a result of souvenir hunters removing them
from their lucite holders. Now for the “catch” ... so pay close attention.
For every 100 coins or credits played through the .25¢ slot machine ($25.00
in play action), ONE ticket is issued, via a dispenser located on the
side of each slot machine..... similar to Skillo tickets in a kiddie arcade.
It takes FORTY tickets to be redeemed for ONE commemorative
“token” as they are called. Forty tickets times $25 in slot action per ticket,
comes to $1,000 in quarters played to accumulate enough tickets for ONE
“token”! To complicate matters further, there are FOUR different “medallions”,
as I prefer to call them. To add insult to injury, read the fine print at
the bottom of Titanic Slots rules as published to the left. If un-readable,
it states, “Slot cashback will not be earned on Titanic slot machines.” I
guess Trop management figures they are giving enough back to players in the
way of these “tokens” so they are not obligated to give any additional credit
for your $1000 and up slot play! No; I don’t claim to have played thousands
of dollars in order to redeem enough tickets to offer these medallions to
my subscribers.
To be perfectly up-front with all of you... I have spent litterally close
to a hundred hours or more over past several long weekends to accumulate tickets
left behind by day-trippers who didn’t realize there were tickets left in
the dispenser... or knew what they were used for.... or after they found out
they needed 200 tickets for a boxed set of four medallions, they simply gave
their tickets to me.
Now, to the bottom line. I have a very limited supply of tickets to redeem
for these medallions. Not knowing in advance which specific medallions some
of my subscribers may want, or how many requests I’ll receive, I’ve not redeemed
my several groups of accumulated forty tickets yet. I’m assuming that the
most popular design requested will be the dramatic one of the ship sinking.
I’ll redeem my tickets at the promotions booth for the corresponding Titanic
medal want-list developed. Price is $20 per medal, pre-paid, (your choice)
... or $75 for a matched serially numbered set of all four medals in a hinged
custom presentation case. The four designs are; Titanic Underway At Sea; Captain
E.J. Smith; Titanic First Class Grand Staircase; and Titanic Tragedy At Sea.
I can’t promise that I’ll have enough tickets to redeem for medals for every
request, so this will be strictly on a first-come first-served basis until
I run out of tix..... or until the slot machine ticket promo is withdrawn
from play.
NOW ON TO LATE CHIP NEWS
Claridge (fast becoming known as the “chip issuing factory of the east”)
has issued four commemorative Halloween chips with little fanfare or prior announcement.
I’m happy to report that we have a few chippers-in-the-know who are employed
at the Claridge who occassionally keep some of us informed as to what chips
are being released and when. Most chippers who showed up to purchase the new
Halloween chip on Friday were expecting a single design with possibly a $5 and
$10 denomination, as has become the policy at Claridge. No one was prepared
for TWO different designs in both $5 & $10 denominations. As a result,
most chippers were blind-sided as their wallets emptied rapidly and had to make
quick runs to the ATM machines for more cash. Unfortunately, my MAC card only
has a $400 limit per day on cash withdrawals. Luckily, my Sovereign Bank in
Brick has a branch in Absecon, about ten miles outside of Atlantic City, where
I was able to replenish my quickly exhausted cash on hand which allowed me to
purchase this issue.
I have very little else in the way of new chips to report on.... as not too
much has happened since the Miss America issues... and now Halloween. Can
a Thanksgiving chip be in the offering for the future? Blondie is still on
hold at Trump Marina... I hear that the reason is because a signed
release from Blondie had not been obtained in advance of the chips being manufactured.
However, the attractive roulette series there is becoming more and more popular
(and the last few colors are more difficult) for collectors to obtain.
MORE NEW .50¢ A.C. TOKENS
Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal have issued new .50¢ slot tokens
in the past couple of weeks. There are presently four A.C. casinos that now
have switched over from using U.S. Kennedy half dollars to a fifty cent house
token. Trump Marina and Claridge had made the switch to .50¢ tokens a few months
ago and all were sent out to my token subscribers earlier.
STEVE WYNN’s PROGRESS
The “Brigantine Connector” as it is being politically called (more commonly
referred to as; “the tunnel”, .......... or “the driveway to Steve Wynn’s
property”) is progressing very rapidly. The approaches to the overpasses presently
under construction on Route 30 are taking shape, as are the new inner roadways
into the Marina District.
Have a Very Happy Thanksgiving and happy chip & token collecting,
Archie
BULLETIN.....BULLETIN.....
I had just put this issue of my A.C. Newsletter to bed.... ready to go to
Staples with the paste-ups first thing in the morning to run of on their copy
machine (or so I thought) when I received word late Sunday night that Trump
Marina had issued the final high denomination tokens ($10, $25, $50, $100)
to complete their new tokens series; replacing all the old Trump Castle tokens.
Wanting to get these tokens out into this mailing, I drove back to A.C. around
1:00 a.m. early Monday morning to pick up the needed Marina tokens. They look
pretty nice when shiny and new without any dings or bag marks?
Happy collecting,
Archie
