Aruba Casino of the Day Part 3 - 230 JE Irausquin Part 1 of 5

[Michael Siskin R-7387]

On October 15, 1969, a little over a year after the Aruba-Sheraton opened, the Holiday Inn opened a fair distance up Palm Beach at 230 JE Irausquin Blvd. Aruba has hotels and resorts that do not have casinos, but I believe these were the first three resorts. The main City in Aruba is Orangestad. In Orangestad, two hotels opened before the Aruba Caribbean, The Coral Strand (or The Strand, at different times) and the Talk of the Town. It was not until the resorts were built that Aruba began to have casinos.

The Holiday Inn opened with a casino, which collectors have always assumed bore the name of the reort, as had the two previous resorts. I suppose it was because the chips do not have a name on them. Nor does any other standard collectible. A letter has been discovered since my original post, written by the successor casino owners to Ewing, which lets us know the actual name of the resort (as well as certain company officers of that company):

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The Casino Royale was run by Clifford Jones and Jake Kozloff, the same duo that first ran the Aruba Caribbean Casino.

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You can see the distinctive CJ/JK they often used throughout the Caribbean, which we saw on the dice of the Aruba Caribbean. Note that on one $1 chip, those initials have been scratched off. Initially, those were the only known Holiday Inn $1 chips, but since then, pristine chips have surfaced. I don't believe anyone knows why the initials were scratched off.

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When I posted that last postcard on an Aruba bulletin board many years ago, people (including his son) recognized the chef pictured on the card, who had worked in Aruba for many decades. Also, of note, is that you can make out which chips are being used in the casino portion:

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It's the same $1 chip!

Here are some images I have obtained from others over the years:

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Michael Siskin

[Doug Balduini "Mr.Sahara" LM-8917-289]

Well Done Michael !!!!   

[Michael Siskin R-7387]

Aruba Casino of the Day Part 3 - 230 JE Irausquin Part 2 of 5

Three brothers, Frank, Maurice and Herman Kozinsky began producing motion pictures in the 1940's. They changed their surname to King and named their production company King Brothers Productions. They were notable for hiring black listed writers to write screenplays for them. Their movies included "Dillinger" and "The Brave One". The King brothers started another company, King International. King International began running the casino at 230 JE Irausquin Blvd. in the Holiday Inn in 1972. As shown in Part 1, King International purchased their chips and some other equipment from Ewing Manufacturing Co.

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In the letter, Bruce Bolis notes that a person named Everett McCarlie was operating the casino.

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Like Clifford Jones and Jake Kozloff, McCarlie worked in Las Vegas prior to showing up in Aruba. McCarlie is one of the people on the famous series of Thunderbird business card chips (host chips?):

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McCarlie, a native of Mississippi, started working in Las Vegas at Binion's Horseshoe in the 1950's. McCarlie also operated Castaways in 1963 to the end of 1964 with his partner, Mississippi oilman Ike P. LaRue. McCarlie owned and operated casinos in Curacao and the Havana Hilton in Cuba, and opened the Splash Casino in Tunica.

Everett and his son Gene both had business card/host chips at the King International (these images are borrowed courtesy of the Chip Guide and the MoGH):

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Even if McCarlie operated the casino, Herman King was the face of the King International Casino, and his name appears on a number of $1,000 ncv chips (I don't own any, but you can see them in the Chip Guide). Others, including his brother Frank, had their own chips, too (images courtesy of the Chip Guide and the MoGH):

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As noted, the first series of King International chips, like the Casino Royale chips, were made by Ewing with the Ewing mold (one of my personal favorites):

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If you look very closely at the two $5 chips, you will notice that, along with one being drilled, the colors of the divi divi tree are slightly different. This is a recognized variation and can be found in a number of denominations.

In the second series, they dropped the word "International" from the chips, but not the casino.

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Here are some more collectibles:

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I was able to date the last matchbook to this casino by the opening and closing dates of the hotels listed. And they also issued my only Christmas matchbook:

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They even had barrel matches:

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Note that there are two versions of the barrel matches, English and Spanish. Spanish is an important language in Aruba because of its close proximity to Venezuela.

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Here is something unusual I was able to buy, and I'm still excited about it. It's a letter for a Jubilee in 1975. It came with the brochure above:

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And, of course, here are some borrowed images:

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Michael Siskin

[Michael Siskin R-7387]

Aruba Casino of the Day - 230 JE Irausquin Part 3

In 1985, Danny Jones purchased the King International Casino from Frank King. On July 2, 1986, the casino opened as the Grand Holiday Casino. The Grand Holiday is most notable as the first place to offer Caribbean Stud. A friend of Danny Jones, James Suttle supposedly invented the game and, in 1987, Danny Jones introduced it at the Grand Holiday Casino. The game took off when they added the progressive jackpot. As a side note, David Sklansky claims to have invented a game that was earlier and like Caribbean Stud in most respects.

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For some reason, samples of these chips are readily available:

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Also, for some reason, they used $1, and perhaps $5 Scandinavian Dawn chips at their poker tables. They are available in linen and satin finishes:

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The Poker Room had its own hot stamped chips:

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I first went to the Holiday Inn's casino after it was no longer the Grand Holiday, but I did play in a poker tournament at the successor casino, the Excelsior, and they used $25 Scandinavian Dawn chips along with chips from an Ultimate Bet tournament as their tournament chips. The Scandinavian Dawn chips were very worn. Although they used their own tokens in their slot machines for fractional amounts, they used Scandinavian Dawn's $1 tokens:

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I have been told the paint on the 5 cent token indicated that the winner won some special prize.

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Borrowed images:

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Note that you can see both Grand Holiday chips and Scandinavian Dawn chips on the table.

Michael Siskin