Does Anyone Collect Used Casino Playing Cards?

I was wondering if anyone collects used playing cards from poker rooms or blackjack tables like collectors collect casino chips and dice?

[Editor's Note: This answer is supplied by Andrew Uyal, table-games supervisor at the Cromwell and author of The Blackjack Insiders.]

As a general observation over the last 10-plus years, I can safely say that casino aficionados will collect anything. This includes the items you mentioned — chips and dice, and playing cards. It’s also common to see people collect fifty-cent pieces, usually in hopes of finding a Kennedy half-dollar.

Some people — though surely not the upstanding readers of the LVA — even collect things they shouldn’t, like spacers from the chip tray, lammers, and any other coins or buttons used for a given table game. Small pocketable table-game supplies disappear off the games with puzzling regularity.

Today’s question, though, is about the cards. It goes without saying that even the smallest casinos use a lot of decks. For just one shoe game on the Strip (with a shuffle machine, as is the common practice), 16 decks of cards are needed. The larger Strip casinos have nearly two hundred tables. That’s a lot of cards.

A small portion of this huge number of decks of cards is sorted, repackaged, and sold in the casino gift shops of the casinos (and places like the Gambler’s General Store). At some casinos, like Ellis Island, they’re purposefully damaged, so they can’t be reused, then given away at the players club booth. An even smaller portion of decks is often given back to the department itself. These are used for training, mainly. Even in casinos, it’s always handy to have some used cards around.

In most casinos, some of the stash that has been returned to the department is kept in the pit podiums. A savvy casino enthusiast may know that they can stop by the pit and ask the supervisor — in the friendliest of manners, of course — if any extra used cards are lying around.

As far as collecting for value, well, there isn’t much. There’s an immense and never-ending supply of playing cards. Unless there’s a demand for a very specific supply — like that of a casino that’s no longer open — it’s hard to find any monetary value in cards. Like anything collectible, it depends what you have and if someone else wants it (and how much they want it).

Often, when people collect them, it’s for the simple pleasure of a souvenir. Table-games department heads know this, so most of them do try to keep a small supply on hand.

Remember, it’s not a guarantee that there will be cards available when you happen to stop by, so a little bit of luck and chance is involved. Hey, it’s a casino, after all.

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Comments

Kevin Rough Jul-10-2020

Dollar Tree

From time to time, they sell used cards from the Vegas casinos in my local Dollar Tree here in PA.  When they have them, they are sitting in a box while you are waiting to check out.

Kevin C Jul-10-2020

Poker vs. Blackjack

One should also note that cards used at poker tables are usually far more durable plastic or polyvinyl acetate whereas cards used at most all other table games are usually paper. Getting cards used in the poker room is, in my experience anyway, far more difficult.

alohafri Jul-10-2020

MGM

MGM resorts used to sell them at their sundry shops. Not anymore. I used to buy a bunch each trip for my home poker buddies.

Matthew Jul-10-2020

Kennedy half dollar

All half dollars since 1964 are Kennedy half dollars. I suspect the author meant that collectors are trying to find silver Kennedy half dollars that stopped being minted after 1970.

Allen Emory Jul-10-2020

Slot-Of-Fun Cards....

I have more than one deck of Slots-of-fun cards. They have to be collectable since table games are no longer around at Slots-of-fun. It is a cool thing to have. The ace of spades even has the street address of Slots-of-fun printed on it.  I even have a deck of souvenir cards there were given away with their coupon books and free pull (years ago - when slots-of-fun was fun)

 I also have matchbooks from casinos all over Nevada. They are very cool to have. Though I doubt collectable. ( I mean they are a cheap easy to get souvenir, right!?!. )

Roger Gallizzi Jul-10-2020

Cards

Most gift shops have them but if you are looking rare cards, try Spinetti's Gaming Supplies, they have a large selection of collectibles, especially chips.

Allen Emory Jul-10-2020

Slots-a-fun...

mmmm... of course I meant Slots-a-fun.....

Dave in Seattle. Jul-10-2020

Souvenirs.

In the 80's, my buddy collected ash trays from the casino's we were playing. he gave me 30 vintage one, but they were donated to a local thrift shop.
  As the pit boss said at The Golden Nugget in Sparks, "People take a beating at the tables, so they take the furniture."
I still have a Harold's Club Reno one.

Ray Jul-10-2020

matchbooks

Allen, I don't remember seeing casino specific matchbooks in recent years. I DO occasionally find them in antiques shops and other resale shops. I would think that those might also be somewhat collectible. They are also a cheap buy at these places, so an inexpensive item to collect. (Easy to store, too. They don't take up a lot of space.)

Alex Jul-10-2020

I'm a Collector

I've been collecting casino playing cards since my first trip to the Stardust in 1983. At first I thought I would start with blue decks (most places only had red/blue decks) - then I added the red decks - then more designs and colors. Now around 2,200 decks from casinos from around the world. Gamblers General Store and Spinetti's are great places to find cards. Casino gift shops continue to be outsourced and most do not carry used cards from the casino they're in but you can still find some.

Jerome Sinkovec Jul-10-2020

Free Cards

Free decks of cards are pretty easy to get if you frequent different casinos. My favorite deck was one I bought at an Indian Casino in South Dakota. the face cards were unique, with famous chiefs portrayed as the Kings, Warriors as the Sacks, and Indian maids as the Queens. When I brought the deck home and used it with friends they were all impressed by the different look from the usual cards.

That Don Guy Jul-10-2020

Cards are easier to get than dice

I remember when pretty much every drugstore on the Strip had a section of packs of used cards. You can probably find them in Viva Vegas or ABC stores as well. Dice, on the other hand, can be hit and miss; for example, there appears to be only one location in the Venetian that sells their dice, and even then, they're not always in stock.

Jose Gamez Jul-10-2020

Gambled there

My collection includes decks from 14 Las Vegas casinos and 2 from Native American casinos. My requirement for adding to the collection was I had to have gambled in the casino and purchased the deck on that visit. My family has been understanding of my endeavor.

[email protected] Jul-10-2020

Interesting Topic

I've never seriously collected cards, but have accumulated some over the years, mostly giveaways for joining slot clubs.  I never bought a deck.  Just for the heck of it after reading this I checked what I have.  I have 5 unopened decks from the Tropicana (they had a "free spin" slot machine at the entrance for years and pretty much every time I "won" a deck of cards).  4 are blue and one gray.  I also have "certified casino used" decks from the Alladin (collectable now?), Bally's (with a notch cut in the sides), and the Gold Coast.  The coolest deck is a promotional deck (unopened) which I got at the Riviera (also maybe collectable?) which has a pretty color photo of the hotel on the back.

The only dice I have is a pair of casino-used dice that I bought in the TI gift shop.  They always seem to have cards and dice there.

Bill Hirschman Jul-10-2020

Bill Allentown

My 1st Vegas trip was June 1967.  15 y/o. My father was a Luckies smoker. Smokes were free at the tables then. So I have ash trays with matching stellar shape match books from Aladdin, Dunes, Tropicana, Riviera, Sahara, Sands, Caesars, Flamingo, Frontier, Stardust, Yeah me !!!!!!
ElCortez.  And generations of matches/cards over the years [til the classics went the way of the dinosaur!!!!

Lucky Quitter Feb-14-2023

Getting random decks to complete collection

I like collecting decks but I don't like that you can't find specific ones wihtout going to 100 places looking.  If you order from Amazon the decks you get are random.  I used to get specific decks at a site call CasinoDecks.com but it seems to have stopped working.

Question of the Day - 10 July 2020

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