A man is attempting to exchange casino chips worth $59,500 for the long-closed Playboy Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Keith Hawkins took legal action to try to recover the value of the 389 chips that he purchased in 2022 online. While he lost his original case, Hawkins appealed the decision before the final ruling came last week.
He believed he had a case because following the facility’s closure in 1984, it sent money to the Unclaimed Property Administration in the state treasury department to cover the value of any outstanding chips.
a former employee of the casino stole boxes of unused chips in and around 1990
New Jersey law enforcement started looking into the matter and discovered that a former employee of the casino stole boxes of unused chips in and around 1990 and kept them in a secure deposit box. A company was supposed to destroy all unused chips, but clearly failed to do so. The bank was aware of the chips and drilled open this box in 2010 to confiscate them before eventually selling them in an auction in 2022.
Judges in the ongoing case are happy that there’s sufficient evidence to prove that the chips Hawkins purchased were unissued and slated for destruction, which means that they are not redeemable.
The property was only open for three years before closing in April 1981. Donald Trump eventually bought the casino after several other owners, developing it into the Trump World Fair, which lasted about three years.
