Was putting on some clean mom jeans this morning and LO AND BEHOLD what do I find in my pocket but SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS in Planet Hollywood casino chips!!! Alas, what luck have I!  My first thought, of course, was holy shit, $600 I didn’t know I had. Kind of like found money, because, well, it’s money and I found it.  This is great!!  But is it really?

I reported my good fortune to the gentleman on the String. Mongo immediately texted back that he found some chips just that same morning in his travel bag, and provided photographic evidence, to wit:

IJ, pissing on the parade per usual, noted that a lotta guys cash their chips in before leaving the casino.  Although certainly true, this is clearly not always the case. So I got to thinking. Is it a good thing when you find some prodigal casino chips, or nah?

I think it depends on the amount.  When you find the stray $1 or $5 chip, which happens all the time, that’s a loss. I wouldn’t cross the street to cash a $5 chip.  Just throw it the change bowl and laugh at yourself, as I do often. 

In the $25 to a couple hundred dollar range, that’s a wash. Yea, you found real money, but you gotta go back and convert it to actual money.  If you are going back to the chip’s homeland in the near future, then no big deal, but you still gotta remember. Remembering things is a pain in the ass if you ask me. 

Above a couple hundred dollars, then I think it’s a good thing, but not completely sure about that either. Again, you gotta make your way back to wherever the chip came from, which is a negative, but you can start playing with literally found money, which is a positive, and it might even be lucky.  So huge positive overall there. On the other hand, you have to question yourself, and wonder how it is that you lost track of $600 in chips that you didn’t know you had.  Was it the drink, perhaps, that led to the oversight? That takes us down a path I don’t want to go, if we are being honest with one another.

So, in lieu of further self doubt, I will officially declare that finding casino chips in excess of $250 is a good thing. Congratulations to me and Mongo. Winners!!