A New Jersey man who gambled on chips from a defunct casino is out of luck. An appellate court ruled he can't cash in over $59,000 worth of Playboy Hotel and Casino casino chips bought at an auction.
Key takeaways
● A New Jersey man bought 389 gambling chips from the closed Playboy Hotel and Casino in 2022.
● He tried to cash in those chips, which had face values of over $59,000, at the New Jersey State Treasury Department's Unclaimed Property Administration.
● A court deemed this invalid as the chips never circulated as currency, preventing him from claiming any cash.
The court determined the man wasn't entitled to a payout because the chips were unissued. This is because they never circulated during the casino's operational life.
Keith Hawkins purchased 389 gambling chips from Playboy Hotel and Casino in 2022 through an internet auction. The chips, more than $59,000 in face value, were used at the Atlantic City casino from 1981 until its closure in 1984.
Hawkins attempted to cash the chips in 2023 at the New Jersey State Treasury Department's Unclaimed Property Administration (UPA). However, he was denied because the chips were never put into public circulation.
Because the chips Hawkins bought never circulated, they weren't covered by funds deposited with the UPA when the Playboy Hotel and Casino shut down. When the casino closed, unclaimed gaming chips the casino properly issued to patrons were backed by funds deposited with the state.
This ensured customers couldn’t redeem those chips at a future date. However, the court said this didn't include unissued chips or those not approved for gaming use.
Even closed, the house always wins
An investigation the New Jersey State Police conducted revealed the chips' origin. After the casino closed, a company was contracted to destroy any remaining unissued chips.
However, a former company employee admitted he'd taken some boxes of unissued chips around 1990 and stored them in a bank deposit box. That individual, whose name wasn't disclosed in court documents, subsequently went bankrupt and forgot about the chips, which the bank subsequently took in 2010 when employees opened the deposit box.
In 2022, the chips were sold through an auction house and they eventually landed in Hawkins' hands. He thought he could redeem them, so he took the chips to the UPA the following year. When the agency refused him, he went to court, and that's how the case ended with the recent appellate court decision.
The court found the UPA acted within its statutory authority when it denied the claim. In its written ruling, the court stated the record supported the UPA's determination the casino never put the chips into circulation and they were scheduled to be destroyed. Consequently, they didn't have a legitimate claim for redemption.
The Playboy Hotel and Casino was one of the first ventures into Atlantic City's casino business after the Garden State legalized casino gambling in the late 1970s. The state has now legalized several other types of gaming including New Jersey online casinos. Lawmakers are currently trying to stop sweepstakes casinos from operating in the state.
After a brief and tumultuous existence, the Playboy Hotel and Casino shut down in 1984.
