A New Jersey man received terrible news as he learned that his nearly $60,000 of old poker chips from a defunct Atlantic City Casino were no longer redeemable.
The man had purchased the chips in an online auction and attempted to cash them with the state Treasury Department’s Unclaimed Property Administration.
The 389 individual chips came from the Playboy Hotel and Casino, which operated in Atlantic City from 1981 to 1984.
According to a report from the New York Post, the administration exists, and chips are transferred to it for situations like this. However, it is unlikely that anyone expected a redemption attempt over 40 years later.
The chips were worth $59,500, a nice boon for the man after he purchased them from an online auction without knowing their source. The amount he paid for the chips in the auction has not been disclosed.
After a thorough investigation over two years, the New Jersey State Police eventually determined that the chips no longer held any value. At its closing, the casino hired a company to destroy the chips.
But a former employee pilfered several boxes of unused chips around 1990 and put them in a bank deposit box, hence the source of these auction chips.
The employee who pilfered the chips declared bankruptcy around 2010 and claims he forgot about them for years. The bank where the chips were stored opened the box and confiscated them, which is how the auction house came into contact with them and eventually gained possession.
The man’s claim for the money was rejected in June 2023, but he appealed the decision, which led to a drawn-out decision that lasted until April 1, 2025. Ultimately, his appeal was rejected, ending the man’s dream of receiving the extra $60K.
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