TIL that poker chip enthusiasts can reach levels of insanity I had not imagined.

a brief explanation follows

The number one poker chip manufacturer is Paulson (actually Paul-Son, named after Paul Endy and his son). They are widely regarded as making the absolute highest quality poker chips available anywhere, period.

Their poker chips are highly sought after in the collectors' market.

Paulson is the top provider of poker chips to casinos. They also make various lines of non-casino poker chips for sale to the home market.

Or, they did, until a few years ago.

They got out of the home market, which was a tiny portion of their business, probably at the urging of their casino customers, who didn't want Paulson-branded or Paulson-featured chips of *any* design in consumer hands.

The poker chip collectors did not take this news well.

Used to be, from time to time, the poker chip enthusiasts would make a "group buy" of a large set of custom-made Paulson chips. They'd come up with an attractive graphic design, pool their money, and meet the minimum purchase size necessary for Paulson to do a custom job.

Once Paulson got out of the home market, that avenue for getting beautiful, purpose-made, absolute highest quality poker chips was no longer open.

... but life finds a way.

Paulson's new policy was that they would only sell to casinos.

So an enterprising group of poker chip enthusiasts INVENTED A FAKE CASINO.

They went to great lengths to cover their tracks. Dummy offshore corporations, etc. They invented a cruise ship called the Empress Star, created sufficient paperwork to convince Paulson that they were real, and ordered a supply of chips to outfit the onboard casino.

It worked.

It worked AT LEAST THREE TIMES.

There was one person who handled all the interaction, and a sizable but very private group of people who raised money for the purchase.

They raised half a million dollars.

In secret.

But it worked! So later they tried it again. And then again. Smaller purchases, and not always the same people involved. And it has inspired others to try to do the same - and sometimes they pull it off.

There are undoubtedly some shennanigans going on around who-knows-a-guy-on-the-inside, who can process the paperwork without asking too many questions, who owes someone a favor because they made a really great commission on some related business, etc etc.

Paulson has policies, and those policies are there to make sure their *real* customers don't get pissed off. So anyone trying to flim-flam them into sidestepping those policies is gonna need to tread really carefully.

But besides the question of committing fraud against a corporation (mind you, not a giant fraud - they got paid, they just ended up with a reputational risk they didn't agree to), there's also the tiny matter of

pretending to be a casino

Specifically:

pretending to be a casino
that holds a casino license
issued by a gaming commission
which is a government agency

with

no

sense

of

humor

Probably nothing has happened to these enterprising poker chip enthusiasts because they cared more about staying out of jail than the company or government cared about sending them there

... but the risk cannot be overlooked.

But you gotta admit

A bunch of people got some very nice-looking poker chips out of it

And a guarantee that there will NEVER be any more made just like them

EVER

a genuine collector's item

>levels of insanity I had not imagined

/f

addendum - One of the fake cruise ship casino chip designs was unacceptably similar to some of the designs used for the World Series of Poker tournaments run by Caesars Entertainment.

Caesars was none too happy to learn that thousands of WSOP look-alike chips FROM THE AUTHENTIC FACTORY were in private hands, being traded on forums and ebay.

They forced Paulson to replace all the WSOP chips for free.

Paulson was none too happy either, I'm sure.