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Surrounded by pawn shops and T-shirt stores, a couple of rather uneasy
blocks' walk east of the Fremont Street Experience, the shabby,
quasi-Moorish El Cortez has allowed half a century to slip by
since its brief 1940s heyday.
In
1941 it was the largest downtown hotel - albeit with a mere 59 rooms -
while in 1946 it served as a stepping stone for early investor "Bugsy"
Siegel en route to the Flamingo .
Since 1963, however, it has been owned by Jackie Gaughan, who lies in a
penthouse flat upstairs and has barely changed a thing - according to
scurrilous popular legend, not even the ashtrays, let alone the carpets. |
Its cut-rate rooms and suites make it a haunt of budget travelers, but
the bottom dollar lies in its appeal to local low-rollers. As well as
offering some of the lowest-stakes gambling in town, Gaughan continues
to stage regular drawings of Social Security numbers, with prizes of up
to $50,000 for matching all nine digits.
600 E Fremont St
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