Bidder Loses Right to Cash in $60K in Chips from Closed NJ Casino

An appellate court in New Jersey denied close to $60,000 in poker chips to a man who thought he had struck gold when he purchased some old casino chips at an online auction.

The attempt to redeem the chips from the long-shuttered Playboy Hotel and Casino was initiated in January 2023 and hit a brick wall when an appellate court sided with the New Jersey Treasury Department’s Unclaimed Property Administration (UPA) on April 1, 2025.

The panel ruled that the man had no legal right to the funds because “he did not present chips that had been issued by the casino.”

The Backstory That Backfired 

At the start of 2023, the man first approached the UPA, hoping to cash in 389 casino chips, which were collectively valued at $59,500. 

The chips were originally from the Playboy Hotel and Casino, which operated in Atlantic City from 1981 to 1984. 

When the casino closed its doors, it had the foresight to set aside funds with the UPA to honor future redemptions of outstanding chips.

The man told officials that he had purchased the chips in good faith from an online auction and had no knowledge of their backstory. 

However, much to his disappointment, it was the itself that turned out to be crucial for his denial to redeem the chips.

Not for Casino Patrons

According to data from an investigation by the New Jersey State Police, the chips in question were never supposed to be issued to casino patrons but were meant to be destroyed as part of the casino’s closure process. 

The casino had hired a third-party company to carry out that task. However, somewhere around 1990, a former employee of the respective company “had pilfered several boxes of unused chips” and stashed them in a bank deposit box.

Years later, after the man had filed for bankruptcy and forgotten about the box entirely, the bank opened it in 2010 and took possession of its contents. 

The chips were eventually auctioned off through an auction house, where the unsuspecting buyer decided to scoop them up in hopes for a collectible windfall.

To his surprise, the UPA rejected his claim to redeem the chips in June 2023, citing that the chips had never actually been circulated in the normal course of casino business. 

The man, however, was not ready to give up his dream, and decided to challenge the ruling. They called the ruling unfair and described it as based on improper evidence from the UPA. 

The appellate court, however, disagreed with him, leaving him empty-handed.