Contents
- First Casino in Las Vegas: Three Origins, One Myth
- Quick Answer: The First Casino in Las Vegas
- Vegas’s Three Firsts
- Why Las Vegas Has Three “First Casinos”
- The Myth of the First
- What Was the First Casino in Las Vegas
- How Las Vegas Made Its First Casinos (1906–1931)
- When Was the First Casino Built in Las Vegas
- How Las Vegas Casinos Evolved—Fremont to the Sphere
- Las Vegas 2025 — Visitation, ADR & Gaming Win
- Las Vegas Land-Based vs Online Casino Play
- Fair Play, Then and Now — “Malfunction Voids All Pays”
- Walk the Firsts — A One-Minute Origins Tour
- How I Verified the First Casino in Las Vegas (Sources & Method)
- First Casino in Las Vegas — Old Roots, New Stakes
I took the desert road in 2025 chasing a single answer.
Vegas handed me three.
An address on Fremont.
A license on paper.
A resort on a desert highway that became the most famous boulevard in America.
Neon winked. Flyers stacked in my pockets – glossy smiles, impossible promises. Heat rose off the asphalt; the slots hummed through the doors like cicadas.
I kept walking.
Quick Answer: The First Casino in Las Vegas
Three recognized “firsts” define the story: Hotel Nevada (1906) is the earliest downtown address tied to gambling. Northern Club (1931) held the city’s first casino license, and El Rancho Vegas (1941) was the first Strip resort on Highway 91.
Vegas’s Three Firsts
- 1906 — Hotel Nevada (today’s Golden Gate): the earliest downtown address tied to informal gambling, years before legalization.
- 1931 — Northern Club, Fremont Street: the first licensed casino in the City of Las Vegas after re-legalization.
- 1941 — El Rancho Vegas, Highway 91: the first true Strip resort with rooms, show, pool, and casino.
Highway 91 became Las Vegas Boulevard South. Most of the Strip sits in unincorporated Clark County – Paradise and Winchester – not inside the City of Las Vegas.
Why Las Vegas Has Three “First Casinos”
Law, location, and format do not line up. Gambling surfaced early on Fremont Street (informal play). Legal licenses began in 1931 inside the City of Las Vegas.
The modern resort model launched on Highway 91 in county territory that became the Las Vegas Strip. That’s why reputable histories list three answers.
The Myth of the First
Pop culture makes the Strip feel older than it is. Tourism photos, movie scenes, and Rat Pack lore push downtown into a footnote.
But the truth is layered: license downtown, resort blueprint on 91, and years of tolerated play before both. That friction between Fremont Street history and Strip spectacle keeps the myth alive.
What began on Fremont didn’t stay; it learned the Strip and kept walking.
I left Fremont with neon on my cuffs.
What Was the First Casino in Las Vegas?
I found myself at 1 Fremont Street, where Hotel Nevada opened on January 13, 1906. John F. Miller built it after arriving on the first train in 1905.
The building later became the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, the city’s oldest hotel and an early back-room gambling address.
Inside, it wasn’t gaudy – it was first-class for its day: electric lights, ventilation, and steam heat. Room and board cost $1.
In 1907 the city’s first telephone rang here: “Ring 1.” There’s a small “Ring 1” marker in the Golden Gate lobby; I tapped the glass and wrote the number in my notes.
During the Boulder Dam era the property even wore another name: Sal Sagev (“as Vegas" spelled backward).
By the late 1920s, Fremont had begun to glow – Overland Hotel’s neon among the first in town. Neon doesn’t forget; it flickers and remembers.
It’s been a hotel since 1906; the modern casino downstairs dates to 1955.
How Las Vegas Made Its First Casinos (1906–1931)
Las Vegas wasn’t random desert; it was a railroad stop. In 1905 the depot made Fremont the front door. Hotel Nevada opened 1906 with steam heat and a “Ring 1” phone; gambling was informal until Nevada’s 1910 ban.
Through the dry years, play slipped behind soda counters. The Depression flipped the switch. In March 1931 Nevada re-legalized gaming and cut divorce residency to six weeks.
On March 20, the Northern Club received Las Vegas License No. 1 ($1,410, Mayme Stocker). Downtown had the depot; the highway had the cars – county land on 91 birthed the Strip outside city limits.
Rail built Vegas twice – 1905 brought the depot and Fremont; the 2020s bring Brightline West and faster weekends from California.
The taxi curved south along the old line of Highway 91.
“Fremont wrote the rules. Ninety-One sold the dream,” the driver said. Neon flickered past the window.
El Rancho Vegas opened on April 3, 1941. California hotelier Thomas Hull built it; Wayne McAllister gave it style. A neon windmill spun over Spanish-mission lines and motor-court bungalows.
“Dress is informal. Bring your westerns,” the brochure promised. Air-conditioned rooms and easy dress made it feel like vacation, not ceremony. Locals called Hull mad for building “two miles out.” It worked.
At the Sahara corner, the bus sighed to a stop; the windmill exists only in postcards. A fire took El Rancho in 1960, but the blueprint remained.
Between Fremont’s start and the resort era, a string of 91 joints blinked on: Red Rooster, Pair-O’-Dice, the 91 Club – waypoints tying downtown’s past to the Strip’s future.
Out here the order went like this: Red Rooster got the first Highway 91 license on April 2, 1931. Pair-O’-Dice followed in May 1931, later rebranding as the 91 Club under Guy McAfee, the site evolving into the Last Frontier. One early outlier, The Meadows (1931) near today’s Boulder Highway, flashed the resort idea before the Strip then burned out within months.
I traced them on foot until the sidewalks ran out and the valet lanes took over.
When Was the First Casino Built in Las Vegas
If you want the dates at a glance:
| Year | The “first” that matters |
| 1906 | Hotel Nevada opens downtown on Fremont Street (informal gambling). |
| 1931 | Northern Club receives Las Vegas License No. 1. |
| 1941 | El Rancho Vegas opens on Highway 91 (first Strip resort). |
Those three pins settle when the first casino was built in Las Vegas – place, license, and resort.
How Las Vegas Casinos Evolved – Fremont to the Sphere
- 1906 starts small: a $1 room and card play on Fremont.
- 1931 puts the license on the wall. The rules get real.
- 1941 draws a circle around the idea: rooms, show, pool, casino.
- The 1940s also add a chapel to the ecosystem, Little Church of the West (1942) at the Last Frontier.
- The 1950s prove the showroom pays; the Sands makes nights the product.
- The 1960s scale the stage – Caesars, then Elvis at the International.
- 1989 invents the modern megaresort at the Mirage.
- 1998 adds fountains and luxury as a moat at Bellagio.
- The 2000s package design, dining, and non-gaming into the business model.
- The 2010s curate lifestyle: terraces, art, and residencies you plan trips around.
The 2020s go immersive: Circa downtown, Resorts World north, Fontainebleau revived, and the Sphere wrapping the night itself.
Las Vegas 2025 — Visitation, ADR & Gaming Win
My notes told a quieter story: visitors eased, occupancy softened, ADR (average daily rate) slipped – yet gaming win held. Prices nudged choices. Food inflation and sticker-shock cocktails pushed some trips to “later.”
Las Vegas Land-Based vs. Online Casino Play
In Nevada, land-based still rules. Policy allows mobile sports betting and online poker, but no full online casino games.
Nationally, online keeps rising – about a third of revenue in legal states while land-based holds roughly two-thirds. In New Jersey, some months, online casino gaming win rivals in-person.
Fair Play, Then and Now — 'Malfunction Voids All Pays'
Since 1931, Nevada’s edge has been regulation. “Malfunction voids all pays” isn’t a slogan; it’s backed by audits and the Gaming Control Board.
The 1931 law wasn’t a loophole; it was a blueprint for an industry.
In 1955, Nevada passed the Gaming Control Act and created the Gaming Control Board. In 1959, the Nevada Gaming Commission added final licensing authority.
Walk the Firsts – A One-Minute Origins Tour
Start at Golden Gate (Hotel Nevada, 1906).
Cross to the Northern Club site (1931).
Head south to a Highway 91 waypoint – Red Rooster, Pair-O’-Dice, or the 91 Club.
Stop at the El Rancho corner (1941).
Finish with a living echo: Bellagio’s fountains or the Sphere.
How I Verified the First Casino in Las Vegas (Sources & Method)
I read City of Las Vegas business license entries for March 1931, consulted University Nevada Las Vegas Special Collections (Stocker materials and Fremont photos), and cross-checked opening dates against recognized Strip histories and museum notes. 2025 performance snapshots reflect Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority monthly summaries and standard industry trackers.
First Casino in Las Vegas — Old Roots, New Stakes
“First casino in Las Vegas” means more than one thing.
Downtown’s Hotel Nevada is the earliest address.
Northern Club is the first modern licensed casino in the city.
El Rancho Vegas is the first Strip resort on Highway 91.
I keep those three truths close. They answer what was the first casino in Las Vegas, and they frame when was the first casino built in Las Vegas.
I folded the flyers. Packed my bag for an early flight. Set down the last expensive cocktail.
My head was spinning on a Vegas pillow – high above the Strip, fountains waltzing below like a roulette wheel at last call.
Down on the street, the fountains kept perfect time with the traffic lights. I left with three answers and one road still humming beneath me.
Vegas answered me: the beginning isn’t one place – it’s three. And here, beginnings don’t stay; they become the next first.
