At this small booth there was a roulette wheel and one could win the prizes seen. However, one had to buy tokens to put one’s bet down and these were being sold at three for five dollars and five for ten. They are plastic and orange in colour and had (or have) a paper label stuck to them. I say “had” as there were many with this label worn off or mostly worn off. There were others, however, that were not so bad, but it took a number of purchases to find them. I used all the worn items. All may have been quite new on the first day of the PNE.
WUN2FREE Entertainment is an events company that offers event planning services in a variety of sizes and themes, such as the Richmond Night Market Games and catering services like the Bubble Tea Avenue. Their website gives the location of the night market as an address and it seems to date their contact with this location back to 2013. A photo in the “Contact Us” section shows a booth which was very much like that seen at the PNE, but their rates there are shown to be 5 dollars a bet and 20 dollars for five bets. One can win stuffed toys, though I did not.
38mm diameter.
The company was started by a Wilson Lee in 2013 at the Richmond Market and within two weeks of operating generated more than 60,000 dollars of revenue. It runs in more than 20 locations and the company has more than 100 employees. After two years total revenues surpassed the one million dollars mark. According to one 2014 article plans were to extend the business to the PNE, Calgary Stampede and Canada’s Wonderland. The first goal has been achieved.
Although the token may thus be generic and not just a Greater Vancouver issue, the objective of putting a smile on this person’s face was achieved. Mr. Lee won the New Business of the Year Award at the Business Excellence Awards meeting in Richmond, B.C. which was reported in the Richmond News newspaper on December 2nd, 2014. His revenues are now up by some 30 dollars (to get three tokens in good shape – possibly he should get some that have some ability to withstand some circulation – two of the three tokens obtained have gouges in the label which may not bring smiles to those who get them). A photo of Mr. Lee at the event can be seen at www.richmond-news.com/news/smiles-equal-success-1.1635066 .
So far, apparently, the design appears not to have been trademark registered.
It may be that the tokens issued in Calgary and Canada’s Wonderland, if any, are different in design.
~ Duff Malkin
