gamble online

Let the show begin...The actual street where our story takes place is Las Vegas Boulevard South. Tough not a very big place it changed names quite a few times. It started as the Arrowhead Highway, and then it was changed to Salt Lake Highway, Route 91, Los Angeles Highway, and finally Las Vegas Boulevard South. (Jerry Fink has discovered that somewhere between Arrowhead Highway, Route 91, and Los Angeles Highway, it was also known as Fifth Street). Guy McAfee, a police captain and commander of the vice squad renamed the Los Angeles Highway the "Strip" in affectionate memory of the Sunset Strip. The Flamingo he saw reminded him of the sophisticated clubs he had seen on the Sunset Strip in the 1930s. (Yes - very loose connection-we thought so too...) The Strip is a world of its own. Where else can you go to visit Kings and Queens, Egypt, New York, the Tropics, Rome/Greece, Hollywood, and much more all on one street? (Mind you, no drugs!) This is the street of fantasy, dreams and sometimes-even miricals. This is the street that never sleeps. Some dreams come true becoming great successes and others sadly die. One look down the street on just a usual night is enough to see how ready for action and competitive the Strip is. Each property has to not only keep up with the others, but to also attract and maintain their visitors. Creativity, imagination, nerve and even vision are required for all of this. Just take a good look at any of these structures. There is inspiration all around them. The childhood dreams of owners, architects, designers, interior decorators, and employees are all wrapped up into these architectural wonders, making us believe all is possible. And all this in only three miles long!!!
Mayme V. Stocker and J.H. Morgan were the first lucky men who were issued Clark County Gaming License No. 1, on March 20, 1931 when gambling was legalized. It cost them $1,410 for a three-month license for Stocker's Northern Club located near the Hotel Nevada on Fremont Street. The Northern Club later became the Exchange Club, then the Boulder Club, then Rainbow Club. Wilbur Clark of Desert Inn fame leased the property from Stocker in 1954, once again changing its name to the Monte Carlo Club. During the mid-1960s, the property was decidedly unsafe. It leaned with the wind. (So does the pizza and is anyone doing anything with that?) When it was taken down in 1966, it was found that the adobe in the back wall was plastered over a big coil bedspring for support (whoopee...). The property now holds the Coin Castle. Some time after the license was issued, Morgan who was in poor health committed suicide. Stocker died in 1972 at age 97.
That same year (1931), the American Federation of Musicians became represented in Vegas, listing one Jack Tenney in the original charter member of 22. Musicians were paid $3 or $5 tops.
Who owned the land that is now occupied by Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay you ask? (Or maybe you haven't, but trust us to do the job) Between 1929 and 1934, four 160-acre parcels passed out of the General Land Office and were acquired by four private citizens under the terms of the 1862 Homestead Act. That is, the parcels were assumed virtually for free (!!!). Lester Rains, Mrs. Ira Logan, Carl D. Farrar, and Clark County Assessor Frank DeVinney (pictured) owned those properties.
The city of Las Vegas made its first attempt to annex the Strip in 1946, but was rebuffed by the organized efforts of hotel operators and residents who favored the looser codes and lower taxes of the Strip. Thirty years later, in 1960, locals no longer referred to the clubs on Fremont Street as the downtown area. Merchants voted to change the reference to Casino Center.
A tent located where the Sal Sagev was situated at Main and Fremont was the first post office. Walter R. Bracken, vice-president and general manager of the Las Vegas Land and Water Company, was postmaster in 1905.
The first resort in Las Vegas to open was the Arizona Club on March 31, 1906. A large portion of the resort was destroyed by fire on June 10, 1911. The first resort on the Strip, El Rancho Vegas, succumbed entirely to fire on June 17, 1960. (Talk about luck...)
Las Vegas was incorporated in 1911. Clark County was born on July 3, 1909. The Rotary Club in Las Vegas commenced in 1923.
The first people to fly to Las Vegas were Lieutenant Randall Henderson, editor of the Blythe, California Herald, and Jack Beckley. This first airplane flight was made in May 1920. The men left Blythe on May 7 at 9:40am and flew to Needles arriving at 10:10. After lunch, they left at 1:10pm and arrived at 2:40pm. (What a waste!!!)