PCP - 360 Vintage Vegas: Jackie Gaughan & the El Cortez

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There are a collection of men who helped build the city of Las Vegas during its formative years that didn’t have colored pasts.  Their origins are not linked to organized crime and their stories aren’t the sort of things people make movies about.  However they would become the shining examples that the gaming industry could not only exist without the Mob but could continue to grow. A fact that was established in 1941 and continues to endure to this day.  The El Cortez is the city’s oldest hotel casino to continuously operate under the same name and only the 2^nd casino ever added to the nation’s historical preservation list.  It’s also the only casino on that list still open to this day.  This is the story of the people and the properties that shaped Downtown Las Vegas.

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Book - The Players: The Men Who Made Las Vegas

PCP - 360 Vintage Vegas: Boyd Gaming

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Sam Boyd was a gambler at heart.  Once he discovered his passion for games of chance, he studied them feverously, learning that in every game, the advantage was always in the houses favor.  So Sam decided the best way to gamble was to be the house.  And that’s how his career in gaming began.  Sam’s son Bill was encouraged from a young age to get an education.  So he did and became a lawyer but eventually the father and son would join forces and become a team that grew into one of the most respected gaming companies in the world.  Factor in their inherent desire to do the right thing and give back to the community, and you instantly start to suspect there’s more to the story than what you’re being told.  But dig as deep as you like, there’s no more.  The story of Sam, Bill and Boyd Gaming may be one of the greatest American success stories in history and overwhelming proof that sometimes, nice guys finish first.