GREAT CANADIAN CASINOS
Click on the City to see chips specific to those locations
Vancouver(2), Nanaimo/Richmond, Victoria, Richmond, Prince George(closed?) Kamloops (closed?) Saanich/Langley (Closed) Surrey
** They also run Casino View Royal in Victoria, and Casino Coquitlam in Coquitlam **
Great Canadian Casino's Website
OPENED: ?
CLOSED: NO
They are VERY active in creating GREAT Commemorative Chips, and so many have been produced,
I have a separate link to them. The $2.50 chips have a number above the right corner of the logo,
and these numbers refer to the date of production, IE: 0194 signifies a production date of January 1994.
In order to properly number these, I would recommend you use the 050BC Guide number and
then add the number code after it; IE; 050BC-0194.
SOME EXCEPTIONAL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY OUR COLLECTING FRIEND, RON GREENE:
The following is a summary of the Great Canadian Operations, as known, up to April 2006.
Great Canadian appeared in the Victoria phone book in 1986 as Great Canadian Casino Supply Co. Ltd., located in an industrial area. I presume that they were a floating casino operator at that time. One Victoria chip that we know of has the date 587 which is before they opened a permanent location in Victoria. They opened at the Red Lion (1987 phone book) which is in Saanich. By the 1989 phone book an operation called Casino Victoria, which I have been told was a Great Canadian operation, opened in the Windermere building. It had its own rather nice chips -- will provide scans soon. In 1991 this operation was renamed Great Canadian Casino (per the phone books). In 1992 the casino was moved to the building on Douglas Street at Finlayson, across the street from the Mayfair Shopping Centre, and became known as the Mayfair casino. So the chronology seems to be:
1986 or 1987 a small casino in the Strathcona, possibly called Caesar's Canadian Casino, this casino moved to the Windermere building
the dates might be as late as 1988 (see below for comments)
1988 - 1990 a casino in the Windermere building, called Casino Victoria in time for the 1989 phone book, operated by Great Canadian
1991 - 1992 A Great Canadian Casino in the Windermere building
1992 - 2001 Great Canadian Casino moved to Mayfair. Dec. 31st, 2001 was the last night of operation.
It probably operated until the wee hours that night which meant that it closed Jan 1, 2002.
Kamloops opened 1986, closed in 1992, when it became part of Lake City Casinos
Kelowna opened c. 1988, closed in 1992, when it became part of Lake City
Vernon opened 1987, closed in 1992, when it became part of Lake City
In 1992, one of the partners in Great Canadian (GCC), Fred Glasgow, left GCC. Part of his buy-out involved assuming ownership of the Kamloops,
Kelowna and Vernon operations. He died in 2002, and Gateway took over Lake City, but is still operating as Lake City
Prince George opened, 1986, sold to John Major of Wagers in 1988 (thus closed in 1988)
Langley opened in 1987, closed in 1992
Nanaimo opened in 1986, and is still in operation
Richmond opened in 1987 and closed in 2004, when River Rock opened
Saanich opened in 1987 in the Red Lion Inn and closed in 1999. I believe its license was transferred to View Royal
Surrey opened in 1988, closed in 2001
Victoria GCC operated Casino Victoria for a while in the former Windermere Hotel building, apparently 1989 to 1992, when the operation moved to Mayfair. At Mayfair GCC chips were used. Closed in 2002. I believe the license was turned back in to obtain more slot machines somewhere.
View Royal GCC opened in View Royal when they couldn’t convince the City of Victoria to accept slot machines. Opened 2001 and still in operation
for a while were using generic GCC chips, but lately the higher denominations ($25 and up) appear to be domiciled.
Coquitlam opened in 2001, recently (2005?) an expansion took place and the casino was rebranded as Boulevard Casino. Boulevard has its own chips, but before the rebranding generic chips were used.
Vancouver GCC was operating a seasonal casino at the Pacific National Exhibition in the early 1980's and is still operating it. This operation runs only a couple of weeks a year while the PNE is running (late August into Sept.)
Holiday Inn (sometimes called Downtown), a casino in the Renaissance Hotel, opened in 1986 and is still operating
Renaissance (or Broadway), a casino in the Renaissance Hotel (located on Broadway Avenue). Opened in 1993 and closed in 2004.
Jack Of Clubs at Wells, B.C. This casino which opened in 2002 ran into financial troubles and GCC took over the operation during the 2003 season. It is a seasonal operation (summers only, while nearby Barkerville is open).
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.50
Common In All Image Courtesy of Bob Vollenweider CCG#-154BC |
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.50
Common In All Image Courtesy of Ray Smith CCG#-203BC |
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$1.00
Common In All Original Issue CCG#-047BC |
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$1.00
Common In All Second Release CCG#-048BC |
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$1.00
Common In All New Release CCG#-049BC |
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$2.50
Common In All Image Courtesy of Ron Leis CCG#-050BC |
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$2.50
Common In All Image Courtesy of Ray Smith CCG#-164BC |
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$5.00
Image Courtesy of Ray Smith CCG#-141BC |
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$5.00
New Issue Image Courtesy of Jim Follis CCG#-128BC |
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$5.00 Commemoratives
Images Courtesy of Ron Leis CCG#-053BC |