The Gaming Table (5th Ed., 2017) identifies these chips as being used at a "Wadie's Cafe" in San Diego (no address). No such establishment has been found in or near San Diego. It is likely these chips were used at "Wadies Cafe" in Hawthorne, relatively near the T. R. King offices in Los Angeles. The cafe paid a federal slot machine tax in the 1940s. (See Archive)
T. R. King sold 2,800 of these large crown chips in five colors to Wadies Cafe between 1938 and 1940.
Advertisement from 4/2/1937 (The Los Angeles Times). |