President Casino on the Admiral (PCA) and New Yorker (PNY) chips
"PCA" is shorthand on collector forums for President Casino on the Admiral, and "PNY" for the President Casino New Yorker. Both are Paulson sets tied to President Casinos, but only one of them involved a casino that actually dealt cards. Anyone looking for a PCA secondary $5 or a barrel of PCA $100 chips needs to know which is which, and what the "primary" and "secondary" labels refer to.
In this guide
The President Casino on the Admiral
The casino was a stationary riverboat casino aboard the SS Admiral, a former rail ferry and excursion boat, moored at 1000 North Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard at Laclede's Landing in St. Louis, Missouri. It opened on 27 May 1994, immediately after receiving one of the first licences from the newly formed Missouri Gaming Commission, and started with 100 table games and 150 video poker machines.1 President Casinos, the owner, was established in 1991, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 20 June 2002; Pinnacle Entertainment bought the St. Louis property in December 2006 for $46 million.21 The casino ceased operations on 24 June 2010 after flooding on the Mississippi and a Missouri Gaming Commission effort to revoke its licence, and the Admiral was later scrapped.1
That gives a clear window for house chips: roughly 1994 to 2010, with a change of owner in 2006.
PCA chips collectors discuss
A sale thread on the Poker Chip Forum describes PCA chips as leaded Top Hat and Cane (THC) mould chips with shaped, textured inlays, and lists secondary $5, $25 and $100 chips, primary $500 chips, $1,000 plaques, "Black Bounty" chips, a dealer button and silver strike medals from the casino. The seller called them uncirculated from the casino.3 Another thread, on finding alternatives to the PCA $1, mentions that members told the asker to stay with the original RHC (reverse hat and cane) chips because they are leaded and have the textured Paulson inlays.4 From those two threads you can take away a few practical points:
- PCA exists in primary and secondary versions, and collectors speak of "primary $500s" and "secondary $5, $25 and $100s". The pages read do not explain when each version was used or how they differ in design, so confirm against photographs.
- More than one mould type may appear across the set: the $1 discussion points to RHC chips, while the sale listing describes THC chips for the denominations it offers.
- Condition varies. Because large quantities were sold uncirculated, mint examples exist, but a seller's claim of "uncirculated" should be checked against photographs of the edge spots and the inlay.
The wanted threads behind this article ask for a $5 secondary to complete a cash set and for one barrel of $100 chips; the threads do not specify colours, and the pages read do not list full colour schemes, so check colour against photographs of the exact denomination you are after.5 One participant in a PCA $5 thread said the secondary $5 was among the best $5 chips made, which is an opinion rather than a specification.5
PNY: the casino that never opened
The New Yorker was a 308 foot vessel that President Casinos hoped to run as a "cruise to nowhere" casino from New York City after a 1997 court ruling that allowed gambling ships to operate three miles offshore. According to a forum history, the company spent about $5.3 million preparing it, and in April 1998 the New York City Gambling Control Commission declined to issue a provisional licence. The ship was later leased out and, after President Casinos' bankruptcy, auctioned to SunCruz Casinos in 2003.6
The same history says about 163,000 Paulson chips had already been made. They sat in Paulson's vault until a former Gaming Partners employee arranged a purchase in late 2005, after which they reached collectors by private sale and online auction.6 An owner of a PNY set describes oversized inlays showing New York landmarks, denominations from $0.25 to $500, and a total bank of $27,725; the set was bought around 2005.7 The same history says there are also oversized 43 mm $1,000 chips and limited-quantity $2.50, $20 and $500 chips.6
These figures are forum accounts. They are broadly consistent with President Casinos' known attempts to enter the New York market, which Wikipedia lists among its unsuccessful franchise bids, but the Wikipedia article itself does not mention the New Yorker or the chips.2
Telling the two apart
| PCA | PNY | |
|---|---|---|
| Venue | Operating casino, St. Louis, 1994-2010 | Never opened as a casino |
| Chips | Used and unused house chips | Vault stock sold in 2005 onward |
| Typical condition | Mixed | Mostly mint |
| Collector appeal | Real casino history | New York landmark inlays, mint condition |
If provenance matters to you, PCA is the one with a real casino history. If you want large quantities of unplayed chips on one design, PNY is more likely to deliver them.
PCA and PNY searches need the full vessel name
Try President Casino Admiral secondary $5, PCA secondary 100 Paulson chips and President Casino New Yorker PNY as separate queries. The word 'President' alone is too broad, while 'New Yorker' may surface hotels, magazines and unrelated chips. Keep the vessel name and denomination together.
Before completing a set, give each denomination its own inventory row. The PCA examples above include different mold descriptions, so do not impose one whole-set mold label on every value. For PNY, record the actual inlay design and size rather than assuming that every New York-themed chip is part of the original inventory.
| Seller's description | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| PCA secondary | Matching denomination and issue photograph |
| PNY original | Printed New Yorker wording and an issue reference |
| Uncirculated | Condition of the offered chips, including storage marks |
| Complete sample | Which denominations and accessories are actually included |
| Mixed cash set | Substitutions, relabels and quantities by value |
Do unused chips prove a casino never operated?
No. Unused stock can exist for an operating casino, too. The PCA and PNY histories explain the distinction between these projects, but physical condition alone does not establish it. Keep provenance, issue identity and condition as separate parts of the description so an attractive chip is not assigned the wrong vessel's story.
Sources and further reading
- President Casino Laclede's Landing, Wikipedia: opening, location, closure and ownership.
- President Casinos, Wikipedia: company background and 2002 bankruptcy.
- PCA chip sale thread, Poker Chip Forum: seller's description of PCA chips.
- Is there a THC alternative to the PCA 1?, Poker Chip Forum: forum discussion of PCA dollar chips.
- PCA $5 secondary, Poker Chip Forum: wanted request and replies.
- PNY Part 1: President Casino New Yorker history, Poker Chip Forum: collector-written history.
- PNYs, HSIs, TPs - Sell or Keep?, Poker Chip Forum: owner's description of his PNY set.