Actually, it has to be done on a biennial basis. The procedure gained notoriety in January 2008 when the New York Times ran a story on what became known as "Trailer Station." (The term was coined by the Las Vegas Review Journal's lead gaming reporter, Howard Stutz.) Station Casinos set up a construction shed and a porta-potty on the site of the former Castaways Casino (originally the Showboat). Inside the shed were 16 slot machines, which were switched on for eight hours, to preserve the gambling-entitled status of the land.
The ritual was repeated in January of this year. Ironically, Station had abandoned its plans for the Castaways location and put up for resale in April 2009. But buyers are hard to find in this market and the value of the isolated parcel would fall dramatically without its gaming entitlement.
That year alone, "Trailer Stations" were conducted on the former site of the Sport of Kings (which later became a nightspot called The Beach and is now a small vacant lot), at Foxy's Firehouse, the Moulin Rouge (subsequently lost to fire) and at the now-demolished Queen of Hearts motel. More recently, one was hosted at the dilapidated Nevada Hotel downtown.
Unless the Vegas dailies happen across one of these shindigs, it's hard to keep tabs on them. The Nevada Gaming Control Board, surprisingly. does not track where these eight-hour grind joints are conducted.
These eight-hour "casinos" are an intermittent source of income for United Coin, which is customarily hired to provide the slots for the occasion. We called United's Rob Woodson, to find out if there had been any recent temporary casinos that we'd missed. He said United has been back to The Beach last fall and, since the sequel to "Trailer Station" at the Castaways site, his company had run a one-day casino at the former Holy Cow Brew Pub & Casino, immediately north of the Sahara.
Woodson has two more temporary casinos on his slate this summer (you just missed the June 8 one at Skinny Dugan's Pub on West Charleston Boulevard), including a possible return to the Moulin Rouge on June 23-24 (permits are still pending) and the Queen of Hearts in late July, adding, "That'll probably be it for this year."
So if you've ever wanted to play in trailer casino, hurry. Opportunities are limited!
