New Jersey Court Denies $60,000 Casino Chip Redemption Claim

A New Jersey court ruled that a man in possession of casino chips from a shuttered property had no right to redeem them for cash.

The New Jersey Appellate Division sided against Keith Hawkins, whose 389 chips from the Playboy Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City were worth $59,500. Hawkins purchased the chips via an online auction and then attempted to give them to the New Jersey Unclaimed Property Administration, which refused to pay the amount.

The Playboy Hotel and Casino opened in 1981 and has not been in operation since 1984.

Unawarded chips

Hawkins came into ownership of the chips in 2022 and attempted to swap them for cash in 2023. The appellate court agreed with the unclaimed property administration’s right to refuse the chips since they were not awarded to Hawkins by the casino and were intended to be taken out of circulation.

“We are satisfied that the evidence in the record supports UPA’s conclusion that the chips presented by claimant were 'unissued Playboy gaming chips that were to be destroyed' and, therefore, 'ineligible for redemption,'” the court said.

The company that operated the casino allocated funds to the Unclaimed Property Administration in anticipation of former customers wanting to cash their chips. It then hired a third party to handle the destruction of chips that circulated the casino.

That party did not uphold its end of the deal, leading to chips remaining in circulation and, eventually, making their way into Hawkins’ possession. The chips he purchased were found in an unclaimed bank safe that belonged to a former employee of the company hired to destroy the chips, who told police that he stole them “sometime around 1990” and hid them in the safe.

The same man declared bankruptcy and said he forgot about the safe. The bank gave the chips to an auction house, which sold them as collectibles to Hawkins.

Changes in Atlantic City casinos

New Jersey gaming laws give bettors the right to cash chips they won at a defunct casino if they were in possession of them before the facility’s door shut.

Hawkins, in this case, was not, and he did not win the chips from the casino. The court classified these chips as “unissued.”

The 21-floor Playboy Casino was once a prominent gaming destination along the Atlantic City Boardwalk. It was sold to President Donald Trump in 1989 and renamed the Trump Regency, which operated until the mortgage lender assumed its control in 1992. 

Trump bought it back in 1995 and renamed it Trump’s World Fair, before again renaming it Trump’s World Fair at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. It was closed in 1999 and destroyed in 2000, and its former operating site remains barren today. 

Atlantic City casinos recently stumbled onto hard times as seven of nine properties reported less gross gaming profit than they did a year ago. However, all nine properties remained profitable, even amid the rise of New Jersey online casinos and iGaming.