Four Gaming History Seminars Offered Free at Casino Collectibles Show

28th Annual Casino Collectibles Association Show is June 17 -19 in Las Vegas

The Casino Collectibles Association is dedicated to the growing hobby of collecting casino memorabilia and the preservation of gaming history. Every year at their annual show four educational seminars related to gaming history are offered at no charge to the public. Each seminar will be presented in the Joshua Room of the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Attendees are asked to arrive before each presentation’s scheduled start time. The audience will be encouraged to pose questions of the speakers at the completion of each seminar.

The seminar topics, speakers and appearance times are as follows:

Collecting and Researching Slot Cards. Robert Baker has the largest collection of slot cards in the world, and will share tips, tricks and insight from his years of collecting. His presentation will also cover the free electronic Slot Card Guide that he publishes quarterly – information provided, organization, and how it has been integrated into the Museum of Gaming History’s ChipGuide to provide easy reference for collectors. The ChipGuide is a free on-line image database of over 260,000 gaming chips and memorabilia from casinos the world over. Seminar: Thursday, June 17th at 8 a.m.
The Mob Museum. Geoff Schumacher is Vice President of Exhibits & Programs for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. For several years he was a journalist for four Las Vegas media publications, and has authored two historical books featuring Las Vegas, Sun, Sin & Suburbia: A History of Modern Las Vegas and Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue. Schumacher will delight with his stories of the Mob in Las Vegas, and how the Mob Museum has preserved the Mafioso’s influence in the city for generations to come. Seminar: Thursday, June 17th at 3 p.m.

The Trail of the Museum of Gaming History. Jim Follis is the Exhibits and Events Director and board member of the Museum of Gaming History (MoGH). An educational project of the CCA, the MoGH is an expanding series of fascinating casino memorabilia kiosk exhibits in Las Vegas located within The El Cortez and Plaza casinos, and the Nevada State, Mob, Neon and National Atomic Testing museums. Follis will present a behind-the-scenes look at the MoGH successes and failures, and what it takes to both install a museum-quality exhibit and to keep it fresh for multiple years. Seminar: Friday, June 18 at 8 a.m.
When the Mafia Ran Cuba. Charles Kaplan is the current Chairman of the Museum of Gaming History. He is also the curator of the ChipGuide, the most comprehensive reference guide available for casino chip collectors, featuring a free on-line image database of over 260,000 gaming chips and memorabilia from worldwide casinos. Kaplan’s presentation will cover Post World War II Cuba, when President Batista sought to make Havana the Monte Carlo of the Western world by enlisting Mafia boss Meyer Lansky to clean up the casinos and make Cuba a magnet for gamblers. This seminar looks at the history of Cuban casinos, those who ran them and the casino collectibles from that era. Seminar: Friday, June 18 at 3 p.m.
The free seminars run concurrently with the Casino Collectibles Association’s 28th annual show, which runs June 17-19, 2021. Featuring museum-like exhibits and over 40 invited dealers of casino memorabilia from all over the world, the public is invited to join in the fun of examining, buying, selling, trading or even evaluating casino collectibles and mementos. These include gaming chips, tokens, dice, slot cards, playing cards, matchbooks, menus, dinnerware, swizzle sticks, post cards – just about anything with a casino name or logo on it. There is a slight admission charge for the show floor on Thursday and Friday. Show admission is free on Saturday.

The Casino Chips and Collectibles Show registration and admission is open to the public June 17, 9 AM – 5 PM (admission $10), June 18, 9 AM – 4 PM (admission $5) and June 19, 9 AM – 4 PM (admission is free). Location is Exhibit Hall C at the South Point Hotel Casino, 9777 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, Nevada.