They'll fire it up every weekend.'įertitta had bought out his partners by then. And it will be here the whole month of April. 'It was trucked down,' Fertitta told News 3 at the time. In fact, an authentic, 19th century locomotive was brought in on loan for the switch in spring 1984, with the whistle sounding on a regular basis. They ditched the name 'Bingo,' held onto 'Palace' and added 'Station' to supply a train motif. That was all good, but by then the name again didn't feel right. 'You couldn't build the place fast enough,' recalled Gauger. In 1982, Clark County District Attorney (and later two-term Nevada governor) Bob Miller and Clark County Commissioner Manny Cortez helped kick off an aggressive expansion. Those all became standard at locals casinos - but they were new at the time, and Bingo Palace caught on. But Bingo Palace used strategies to target locals, like a reasonably priced buffet, a cheap breakfast special, check-cashing and T-shirt promotions. The casino was attached to a Mini-Price Inn, which provided lodging for tourists. 'And I want to go beyond the best be the best I can be. 'I said, 'I want to be in a small, local place,' ' remembered Berkin.

The new property also got the attention of Bernice Boykin, who had been a waitress on the Strip and wanted a change. 'But people soon recognized that it was a full-service casino.' 'It got the name Bingo Palace with the addition of the Bingo game here, or the Bingo parlor,' said Gauger. Newspapers from the mid-70s ran multiple ads for bingo parlors in major hotels every day. The main owners - Frank Fertitta Jr., Jerome Snyder and Carl Thomas - must have noticed that in the late 1970s, bingo was big in Las Vegas. Gauger had not quite started his long career at what was called simply The Casino in 1976, but he had watched it going up. 'Matter of fact, when they told me they were building it over here, I told them they were crazy,' longtime employee Henry Gauger told News 3 in 2011. Station Casinos got its start in a modest structure, at what was then a surprising location. LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) - A gaming giant geared more toward locals is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

Bingo at station casinos