The odds are against you in a casino, so anytime you can walk away with house money it's a cause for celebration. It's also important to remember to cash those chips in — before you can't.
A man trying to cash almost $60,000 worth of chips from a long-defunct New Jersey casino appealed a denial by the state Treasury Department Unclaimed Property Administration (UPA). His luck proved no better in the appellate division of the New Jersey Superior Court, which upheld the decision.
Keith Hawkins' attempt to redeem chips he'd won in an auction brushed up against the bizarre story of failure to do a job and the seismic effect it had on a community of collectors. The Playboy Hotel and Casino may have dealt its final hand in 1984, but the saga involving its chips is longer than the Atlantic City boardwalk it used to tower over.
When the Chips Are Down
The Playboy Hotel and Casino opened in 1981 and offered amenities associated with its brand, such as dressing female dealers in the famous "bunny" costumes. It only lasted three years before folding due to problems renewing its gaming license. The owners rebranded it as the Atlantis.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission oversees many aspects of casino operations in the state, including what happens when a gambling establishment closes its doors for good. All of the casino's chips must be destroyed. The chips Playboy had on hand were sent to a company called Green Duck in Mississippi for destruction.
Before that happened, Playboy conducted a final audit to determine the value of the chips not in possession of the casino when it closed. They were then required to place funds matching the outstanding amount with the UPA, which is part of the New Jersey Department of Treasury. This allows people holding chips from the defunct casino to redeem them for their cash value. In this case, Playboy handed over $450,000. This was increased to $875,000 with the shuttering of the Atlantis in 1990.
This was the fund Hawkins was expecting to be paid from when he brought 389 chips worth $59,000 to the UPA in January 2023. Having won them in an online auction, he had no idea of their history. Unfortunately for Hawkins, the somewhat wild history of Playboy's casino chips meant the deck was stacked against him.
A Man on the Inside
A New Jersey State Police investigation into Hawkins' chips discovered that they had come from a safety deposit box seized by a bank, which then gave the chips to the auction house. Further digging revealed that the box had been owned by an employee of Green Duck who had helped himself (i.e., stolen) the chips in 1990. Having subsequently declared bankruptcy, he claimed he'd forgotten about the box and the chips inside.
In June 2023, the UPA ruled that since the chips hadn't been issued to Hawkins by the casino and were instead the result of a crime, it was under no obligation to redeem them. The appellate panel ruled that the UPA's decision was not "arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable."
You Had One Job
Hawkins' claim may have been doomed from the start due to the strange history of Playboy's chips. In 2008, the sidewalk in front of the building that formerly housed Green Duck was destroyed during a renovation. Thousands of undamaged Playboy casino chips were found beneath it. Bucketloads were carried away by workers, police, and even the town's mayor.
This had a two-fold effect on the value of Playboy casino chips. First, it flooded and destroyed the market for them as collectables. Before the find, a Playboy casino chip with a denomination of $100 or $500 could bring as much as $3,000 from a collector.
It also caused the CCC and the UPA, at the prompting of the New Jersey attorney general, to suspend the redemption of Playboy chips. A total of $12,000 was paid out from the account, and in September 2023 the combined Playboy/Atlantis fund was closed to new redemption requests. The money will remain in the UPA until the state issues legislation to assign it a use or shift it to a different agency.
Related Resources
- Gambling Addict Makes High-Stakes Appeal to Third Circuit (FindLaw's Federal Courts)
- Unclaimed Property Lawsuit in Colorado Revived by Tenth Circuit (FindLaw's Federal Courts)
- State Gambling Laws (FindLaw's State Laws)
