Las Vegas slot parlor closes

Tuesday, March 2, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.

The Town Hall slot parlor on Koval Lane south of Flamingo Road closed Monday because of financial problems.

The 100-slot Town Hall suffered from a changing market, property owner Hal Danzig said of the business, which, along with the adjacent Days Inn motel, he's owned and operated since 1988.

Property workers said the laid off employees include slot attendants, cage workers and bartenders. The casino's bar was closed but the property's coffee shop remains open and will remain open.

Town Hall technicians today were on site disconnecting slot machines while others were taking down the Budweiser signs and other bar decorations. Occasionally, people expecting to play wandered through the casino, wondering why the slots were turned off.

"It's just hard for a small casino to make it nowadays, but our motel is doing well so I'm hoping I still have a job," a property employee, who declined to be named, said.

The rain and gloom outside matched the spirit inside the slot parlor.

When Danzig took over the small casino and motel, there were no megaresorts on the Strip and no time share resorts looming over Koval Lane and Harmon Avenue, he said. Times have changed in this part of town, where the big Paris hotel-casino, just to the west of Town Hall, looms over the property.

Less than 40 workers lost their jobs because of the closure, Danzig said this morning.

"I don't know what will happen to the casino," said Danzig, who said the 357-room Days Inn will remain open. "The hotel's doing fine."

Both the hotel and casino have been on the market for some time, and Danzig said they'll remain for sale. The Town Hall is Danzig's only gaming property.

"They've been having some financial problems," state Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said of the Town Hall this morning.

Casino managers notified the Control Board about the planned closure, and board agents were on hand and ensured an orderly shutdown of the property, Enforcement Division Chief Keith Copher said this morning.

The property had no table games. A progressive slot jackpot was disbursed to customers in a Sunday contest, as approved by state regulations, Copher said.