In 2008, a construction worker in Hernando, Mississippi, was digging a path on public land when he was stymied by a concrete slab.
Inside the slab was a massive trove of casino chips from the short-lived Playboy Casino in Atlantic City. Green Duck Manufacturing, the company tasked with disposing of the excess chips after the casino’s closure, had apparently failed to do so properly.
Upon hearing about the construction worker’s discovery, people flocked from nearby locales with five-gallon buckets, filled them with the Playboy chips, and started selling them on eBay. This, in turn, deflated the value of the chips in collector markets.
“Before, a $5 Playboy chip would be worth $50 to $100,” Ricky Pushkin, an avid chip collector, told US Bets. “Now it’s $10 all day.”
But Pushkin’s interest in the dig ran deeper.
