Las Vegas has a pretty fascinating history—especially if you’re curious about the city’s mob-friendly past. Sitting front and center in the history books is the El Cortez Hotel & Casino—the first property in Las Vegas that was purchased by the mob (you’ll most likely recognize the name Bugsy Siegel as one of the property’s new owners in 1945).
Historic El Cortez Hotel & Casino (Courtesy Las Vegas News Bureau)
The Mob’s First Hotel in Las Vegas
We took a tour of the El Cortez Hotel & Casino and saw some of the property’s historic sights firsthand. If you’re visiting the hotel, take a walk down the Las Vegas History Hallway to learn more about the property itself and the buzzing neighborhood in which it resides.
El Cortez Hotel & Casino was built in 1941 for under a quarter of a million (about the cost of a starter home in 2023) and became a listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2013—a major milestone, as it was the first hotel and casino property to enter the list.
Historic El Cortez Hotel & Casino (Courtesy Las Vegas News Bureau)
Today, the historic property is still a major mainstay of the Downtown Las Vegas area. The casino and the hotel have undergone multiple changes, expansions, and renovations to keep up with the constantly-changing landscape of Downtown Las Vegas. The first of those significant changes occurred in 1952 when the El Cortez website says the hotel gained a barber shop, nightclub, pool, and a four-floor tower. This is also the year that the iconic signage was brought to the property.
In the 1960s, casino operator Jackie Gaughan purchased El Cortez to add to his empire of Downtown Las Vegas properties which included Plaza, Gold Spike, The Western, and The Las Vegas Club. One of his most significant changes to the property includes the 15-floor tower built in the 1980s that was home to his own personal penthouse residence on the 15th floor. The suite has been painstakingly maintained as the Jackie Gaughan Suite. Even if you’re not familiar with Jackie, you may have heard of his son Michael, who opened his own casino empire—Coast Casinos. The brand was later purchased by Boyd Gaming, and Michael Gaughan’s only current Las Vegas property is South Point Hotel & Casino at the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Though the interior of El Cortez Hotel & Casino has changed frequently throughout the over 80 years it has been operating, the original exterior facade has remained the same in all of its years, serving as one of Downtown Las Vegas’s most prominent landmarks for years to come. If you’re curious about staying at El Cortez, check out our recent visit here.
Historic El Cortez Hotel & Casino (Courtesy Las Vegas News Bureau)
