Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

El Cortez Related Stories

  • An exterior view of the Four Queens casino in downtown Las Vegas, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013.
    Culinary workers to picket downtown casinos Saturday
    Culinary Workers Union Local 226 members will be on the picket line this weekend to voice their dissatisfaction over the lack of new contracts with 10 downtown casinos. The union, in a media advisory posted this evening on its website, said members would picket from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday in downtown Las Vegas. Union members from Strip casinos will …
  • Jackie Gaughan is a man of the people, which is why he still plays cards among them. Mike Nolan, general manager and COO of the El Cortez, says this of the old days, when he and Jackie used to make the rounds on Fremont: "Any customer, any employee could go up and talk to Jackie any time they wanted. And that was the difference. A lot of owners back then didn't even live in this town, but Jackie was right here."
    Even if he didn’t have the best hand, if he was playing, Jackie Gaughan was winning
    “He played fairly loose and didn’t win very often, because to him money was no object. He was into the social aspect of it. He would stay in every single hand. Even when he was slipping at the end, he was a regular player and the people loved him. He was one of the legends,” an employee at the El Cortez says of Jackie Gaughan, who died last week at age 93.
  • The El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas.
    Joe Downtown: Ceremony to honor El Cortez for inclusion on National Register
    One of Downtown Las Vegas’ oldest residents, the El Cortez, will be honored for winning a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Councilman Bob Coffin will headline a ceremony at 4 p.m. Thursday to unveil a commemorative plaque at the hotel/casino. The city's oldest hotel to continuously operate under the same name, the El Cortez became only the second Las Vegas casino on the nation's cultural preservation list in February.
  • The El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas.
    El Cortez joins National Register of Historic Places
    The El Cortez has become the only Las Vegas casino that's still standing to join the National Register of Historic Places.
  • Culinary Workers Union Local 226 members make their voices heard outside the downtown casinos on Saturday.
    Protest downtown draws thousands of union workers
    For eight hours Beverly Hoffrichter, a cocktail waitress at the D, was picketing outside the property with her fellow Culinary Union workers as part of a massive protest outside all nine downtown casinos Saturday. Hundreds came and went in shifts during the protest, but not Hoffrichter. She stayed.
  • A view looking toward the Fremont Street Experience canopy from the Neonopolis mall in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday, August 1, 2012.
    Downtown casino to Culinary workers: Union protest Saturday will cut into your tips
    A massive protest slated Saturday in downtown Las Vegas stems, in part, from demands by the Culinary Union for a 15-cent increase to workers' health and pension funds.
  • Should the El Cortez be added to the honorary list?
    Does the El Cortez deserve historic designation?
    The Downtown hotel opened in 1941.
  • Volunteers refurbish planters and benches in the courtyard of Las Vegas Academy as part of the Downtown Cares day of service on Saturday, July 14, 2012.
    Downtown school gets a little TLC from group that cares
    At 7 a.m. on a Saturday, while most Las Vegans are still fast asleep, developer Arnold Stalk and his 9-year-old son Jacob are pulling on gardening gloves and priming paint brushes. The pair was among the 125 residents, ranging from grade school students to seniors, who volunteered last weekend to refurbish the dilapidated courtyard of downtown’s Las Vegas Academy.
  • Jackie Gaughan bought the El Cortez in 1963. Over the years, he had stakes in many Las Vegas casinos, but this was his love, his baby. He held onto his majority stake until 2008, selling to his longtime friend and partner Kenny Epstein.
    Jackie Gaughan, El Cortez integral parts of downtown Las Vegas' rebirth
    Once upon a time, Jackie Gaughan owned a third of downtown Las Vegas, from resorts to real estate. He’s celebrated as a gaming innovator, a bookmaker who loved wild prop bets and revolutionized customer promotions. Yet most of the stories you hear are about his kindness, whether you’re talking to a cocktail waitress or Steve Wynn.
  • One of the Cabana Suites at the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas.
    7 looks at revitalized rooms in Vegas on the Strip and downtown
    With nearly 149,000 hotel rooms in Vegas, even the biggest resorts are looking for a competitive edge to land those heads on their beds.
  • Dayvid Figler and Heather Hyte host "The Tell."
    What happens in Vegas: Local storytelling events give a voice to tales of life in L.V. and beyond
    Did you hear the one about the landscaper who ran away from the circus? Or the guys who worked above an escort service?
  • The Golden Gate Hotel in downtown Las Vegas on Monday, March 19, 2012.
    Downtown casino renovations maintain Old Vegas vibe
    Downtown Las Vegas is trying to shake the city's reputation as a place that likes to blow up old buildings. It is trying to update its image without forgetting the character of its past.
  • An exterior view of the newly renovated Plaza Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2011.
    Experts pick casino industry winners and losers of 2011
    The Las Vegas gaming market rebounded this year with a jump in visitor volume nearing the record total of 39.6 million in 2007. Room occupancy rates and gaming revenue are up from the depressed levels of recent years, while visitors have shifted their spending patterns, focusing an ever-larger percentage of their cash on special events and clubs rather than casino floors. So, can you brand Las Vegas a winner in 2011 despite the region’s continued battle with double-digit unemployment, record home foreclosure rates, the ever-present sense of economic uncertainty, and the continued domestic and international expansion of the casino industry?
  • Alexandra Epstein, El Cortez executive manager, sits inside "Hint Suite," one of the suites that was redesigned for the Design a Suite Downtown competition at the El Cortez on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011.
    The Interview: Alex Epstein, executive manager of downtown's El Cortez
    When looking for new life in a city’s downtown, a 70-year-old establishment like the El Cortez is probably the last place you’d turn.
  • Metro Police Capt. Michael Dalley discusses the progress of the Crime Free Corridor, a program that binds police and community members to combat crime in the Fremont Street area in downtown Las Vegas.
    Police, community cooperating to fight crime downtown
    The people clustered in Metro Police’s Downtown Area Command conference room Wednesday morning probably didn’t know one another very well. They sat at a U-shaped table with cards identifying them and their businesses or organizations: Catholic Charities, U.S. Marshals, El Cortez and the Mexican Consulate, just to name a few.
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