Playboy casino memorabilia has become a popular market for collectors. The first US-based Playboy casino opened up in 1981, but there were several other international casinos. Some of the most desirable collectibles are casino chips and playing cards.

Synonymous with glamour, Playboy casinos were patronised by Hollywood A-listers, sports stars, and celebrities. In the US, the only official Playboy Casino existed in Atlantic City in the early 1980s, but there were several international Playboy Clubs with full casinos.

Playboy Casino memorabilia is now a massively popular market. From chips that won fortunes on the casino floor to shot glasses and Playboy-branded playing cards, there are lots of collectibles available. And with the possibility of new Playboy clubs opening soon, this is the perfect time to explore how you can start your very own Playboy collection.

A brief history of Playboy casinos

By the 1960s, Playboy owned nightclubs across the US and a full casino in London. Gambling-style entertainment was available at Playboy’s Lake Geneva Club in Wisconsin, but this wasn’t an officially licensed casino.

In 1981, Playboy opened the Playboy Hotel  & Casino in Atlantic City with a license from the New Jersey gaming regulators. Internationally, there were several Playboy casinos, but these have now closed. However, in 2025, Playboy announced that it was moving its headquarters to Florida and had plans to open a new Playboy Club in Miami Beach.

How to start building your collection

For anyone looking to own a piece of casino history, Playboy casino memorabilia isn’t hard to find. Chips from the casino in Atlantic City can be purchased from eBay for under $100, although they can be priced at much more.

It’s also easy to track down other items of Playboy casino memorabilia that were in use at the casino. That includes coasters, ashtrays, swizzle sticks, packs of playing cards, lighters, and matchbooks.

Less common to find are the keys that signified one’s membership in the Playboy Key Club. This exclusive portion of Clubs and Casinos was only open to a privileged few and was guarded by a ‘Door Bunny’. Featuring the signature rabbit head design, these keys make a cool collectible and have a typical value of around $300.

Other popular items include glasses and mugs featuring the distinctive ‘femlin’ character designed by LeRoy Neiman in 1955. Intended as a mischievous female sprite, the femlin measures between 10-12 inches and is clad only in black gloves, stockings, and high-heeled shoes.

Femlins have appeared on the ‘Party Jokes’ page of every Playboy edition since 1955. They were also used as decorations on glasses and other casino accessories, and were made into a special set of commemorative ceramic figures in 1963. Originally priced at $7.50 each, a set of four of these figures sold at auction in 2024 for $5,000.

If you’re out and about, vintage stores can be a great place to start looking for Playboy casino collectibles, especially stores specialising in casino ephemera. Yard sales can also be a treasure trove of less common pieces.

Online, eBay, and similar sites can be excellent sources of Playboy items. You can also find online auctions specifically dedicated to Playboy casino wares.

Searching for Playboy casino collectibles can be fun, especially if you’re a dedicated fan.

However, if you’re new to the game, here are some smart tips to get you going in the right direction: 

Look out for rare items

One of the most iconic pieces associated with Playboy casinos is, of course, the infamous outfit worn by the Playboy Bunnies. According to legend, the bunny costume was designed by Zelda Wynn Valdes, a pioneering fashion designer.

Each costume was specially adjusted to its wearer and featured a riff on a classic tuxedo, complete with white cuffs, a black bow tie, a clip-on rabbit tail, and bunny ears and a tail. According to the Playboy Bunny handbook, each Bunny was strictly required to look after their outfit and would be given demerits if their outfit was not deemed to be up to standard.

While the main color associated with Playboy Bunnies is black, there were actually several variations. Cigarette Bunnies wore pink while croupiers wore black. These Bunny costumes were so famous that they were even patented with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Full Bunny costumes are hard to come by, but can be very valuable. In a recent auction, a vintage Playboy Bunny costume sold for nearly $10,000.

A little research goes a long way

As with all collecting, the danger exists that a replica could be mistakenly labelled as a genuine article. To avoid this, it always pays to do your research. For example, if you’re considering buying one of the most common pieces of casino memorabilia, a casino chip, you can cross-check the chip against local guidelines.

In New Jersey, for example, chip colors were dictated by law. So, at the Atlantic City Playboy Casino, $1 chips were white, $5 chips were red, and $25 chips were green. Lower value chips are much more common and a lot easier to find, but the black $100 chips and purple $500 chips were mainly used by high rollers, and they are much rarer. Each casino chip weighed 12 grams and was marked with the signature Bunny logo.

Know that value can go up and down

While collecting can be a fun way to potentially make a little money on the side, the value of Playboy memorabilia can go down as well as up. In 2008, in a strange turn of events, a construction worker in Mississippi uncovered a huge trove of chips from the closed Playboy Atlantic City casino. The original company tasked with destroying them when the casino closed had not done so, and these chips flooded the collector’s market. This brought their value down significantly, and actually started a long debate about whether the chips could still be cashed (the answer was ultimately no).

Vintage purchases come with risks

Thinking of trying to cash in on some vintage Playboy pieces? Before you get too excited, remember that vintage purchases may come with risks, especially if you want to do more than just collect memorabilia for your own personal pleasure.

In 2022, Keith Hawkins bought nearly 400 vintage Playboy Casino chips at an online auction, with a face value of $59,500. He believed they were authentic and redeemable through New Jersey’s Unclaimed Property Administration. When he tried, the state refused. Investigators revealed the chips had never actually been issued to players when the casino was active. Instead, they were misappropriated by a former employee in the 1990s, tucked away in a safe deposit box, before they later surfaced at auction. In April 2025, a New Jersey appellate court confirmed the decision that the chips were ineligible for redemption, much to Hawkin’s dismay.

So whether you’re buying Playboy casino pieces from an auction or a private seller, think twice about how much you plan to spend and why.

If you’d like to start your own collection of memorabilia, the great news is that there are lots of options, from easy-to-find casino chips to rarer items like costumes. There is also a range of prices to suit all budgets.