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My affair with
Las Vegas started downtown. My mother loved to play slot machines,
and in the 50’s, there were very few slots in the strip hotels.
The strip catered to table game people. Slot machines were for
amateurs; they were in the strip hotels as an accommodation for those
not hip enough to play craps, blackjack or roulette.
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In the 50’s downtown
Las Vegas had small gambling joints, clubs not casinos, filled with just
slot machines, no table games. My mother subscribed to belief of the
time, that downtown slot clubs gave you a better return. Most of these
joints were 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep, long rows of slot machines
with every machine occupied. Roaming photographers would snap your
picture, then keep you waiting an hour or longer for your black & white
picture to develop. How do you kill an hour around all those slots? It
was a western Coney Island. |
Cousin Ronnie In the 50’s with a Million Dollars At the Horseshoe Club
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To my mother, it was
never gambling it was investing. She invested money in slot machines,
just like investing in the stock market or buying land. She loved the
very successful Nevada Club, because every 15 minutes a man would scream
over a loud speaker, for the next 60 seconds it’s ‘Double Jackpot
Time’. Change girls would run up and down the rows, as the players
frantically put coins in the slots to hit a jackpot in the one minute.
Always, the floors were littered with empty paper coin rolls. The
machines consistently had coin jams, so slot mechanics were everywhere.
While you played the slots, they gave free drinks and sandwiches from
rolling carts. At the Nevada Club, it was Coney Island and New Years
Eve every 15 minutes. |
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Mom and Dad at the Nevada Club 1958 |
In the summer of
’58, I was 10, and spent most of my time walking up and down
Fremont Street, waiting for my parents. You had to be 21 to get
in; the clubs were for adults only. They were very strict, would
not even let me pee in the place. My Dad would walk me to the men’s
room, and walk me back to the sidewalk. After 20 years of seeing
great gobs of their money going downtown, gradually slot
machines became a strip mainstay. By the ‘60’s we stayed on the
strip, because now they had lots of slot machines. No more
sidewalks for me, the strip hotels had poolside restaurants, lobbies
with couches and chairs, gift shops, dinner shows, more stuff for
me. |
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The one place
downtown that continues in the 50’s, style is the Golden Gate.
They have good food, cheap booze, with low limits on the table
games, lots of nickel slots, and a great musty smell. The
‘signature dish’ at the Golden Gate is the 99-cent shrimp
cocktail. I get one shrimp, two crab cocktails, with lemons,
and crackers, I take all this stuff to the bar on a tray, order
a beer, and play video poker. Eat, drink, and gamble, on the
cheap. |
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Heading to
Vegas, Primm, Nevada ‘73 and now, what a difference 32 years
makes! |
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