Las Vegas Mayor Goodman raises stakes with flip of her $1K chip

Former Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, Carolyn Goodman’s husband, gave out black poker chips with his likeness. The couple gave them out everywhere they went when he was in office.

“And it was like we were giving out solid gold coins and diamonds and things. People just stood in line for them, no matter where it was,” she said.

Oscar Goodman wanted something that was more reflective of the novelty of Las Vegas than a regular business card, she said.

“He thought about it for a little while — what is Las Vegas?” she said. “And he thought Las Vegas is showgirls and gaming.”

Goodman succeeded Oscar, a three-term Las Vegas mayor, after he reached his term limit in 2011. And the chip idea stuck around in her administration.

The popular tokens aren’t just a quirky, unique way of disseminating her contact information — they were also part of a pivotal moment in her decision to run for mayor.

At the time, 17 other people had filed to run to replace her husband, and she had been kicking around the idea for a few months. Her grown children approached Goodman and urged her to run because she was the only person who would keep advancing what their dad started during his tenure.

Black chips are typically worth $100 in a casino, but Goodman’s yellow chips denote a much higher amount.

“I said ‘I’ll do it on one condition,’ never dreaming I would win,” Goodman said. “I said, ‘I would do it if I get my own chips. But instead of $100 chips, $1,000’s.’”

Goodman has gone through “boxes and boxes and boxes” of yellow chips since she first took office in 2011. The first version of her chip came during the campaign. Once she won, it was replaced with “Carolyn G. Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas.”

Goodman sources the chips at the Gambler’s General Store, just down Main Street from City Hall. Goodman typically orders 100 in a box for 50 cents each, and she buys 10 to 20 boxes at a time. She pays for them with money either from her political fund or out of her own pocket.

The chips aren’t produced in Las Vegas, but all of the artwork, inlay and production of custom chips is done in-house, said Wendy Rock, retail store manager for the Gambler’s General Store.

“She’s definitely a steady customer,” Rock said of the mayor.

During the poker craze of the 1990s, the store’s chip business was predominantly playing sets. That’s since changed, and Rock estimates now about 90 percent of the chip business is for promotional purposes or in a business card-like format.

Clad in a red jacket, pumps and a blue skirt — with her signature blond coif — a beaming Goodman, hand on one hip, is pictured waving with the Las Vegas skyline in the background. The flip side features her contact information, including her Twitter handle, which replaced the fax number a few years ago.

The artist and cartoonist Mike Miller, who died in 2014, created both Goodman caricatures on their respective chips.

The Goodmans have given out chips everywhere from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the NBA All-Star game to the City Council meetings and the grocery store. When she goes to the supermarket, Goodman keeps a box in the car and reaches in for some to take with her.

“Wherever we went, we just took boxes with us,” Goodman said. “It’s been a wonderful marketing tool for us.”

The mayor handed out chips at a recent ugly sweater contest she judged and a downtown business opening she attended. When she gives them out, Goodman wishes people good luck and good health.

Children will come up to her to say they kept one she gave them when they were younger. She’ll even pass one along to the occasional news reporter.

While maybe priceless for some, the chips aren’t worth anything in a casino. When people ask Goodman if they can use them at the tables, she warns that it could land them in a local detention center.

“I always say, ‘You’re going to get picked up because they’ve got thousands of them out there, and you’re staying locked up because I’m not going to pick up 1,000 people out of the clink here because they tried to pass them off in a hotel,’” Goodman said.

She always has chips with her. She has a regular business card, which she often gives to people who are coming in from out of the country — but foreign visitors always take a chip with them, too.

“If we go out at night to the hotels, or go to a restaurant, I always have a bunch because I love to go back into the kitchen and talk to people,” Goodman said.

Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @JamieMunksRJ on Twitter.