What Was Little Caesars Like? | Las Vegas Advisor

How about a description of the quirky Little Caesars casino and sports book?

Little Caesars casino and sports book opened in 1970. It was located in a squalid little strip mall at 3665 Las Vegas Blvd. S., a block south of Bally's.

This was a "joint" in the best and worst senses of the word. It was the dingiest little storefront you ever saw, with perhaps the busiest pay phones in Vegas outside the front of the place. You walked in through a sort of sliding glass door, whose handle had a dozen or so layers of duct tape wrapped around it; facing west, the metal handle heated up to third-degree-burn temperatures in the summer-afternoon sun. A hand-written sign on the slider instructed patrons to close the door behind them, so as not to lose any precious air-conditioning, which lowered the temperature in the place about two degrees on a good day.

As we recall, there were a couple of crap tables, one of which offered crapless craps, and a couple of blackjack tables, one of which offered double-exposure 21, both carnie games dreamed up by Bob Stupak of Vegas World; Stupak and Little Caesars' owner Gene Maday were buddies. Maday, who also owned Checker Cab Company, hired mostly break-in dealers, so the games were always, shall we say, colorful. Little Caesars also had four antique penny slot machines with a top jackpot of $50, which no one, to our knowledge, ever hit.

Little Caesars was known for fifty-cent draft beers, which you often poured yourself from an iced keg in the corner, as well as pour-your-own wine (no cocktails). To the bitter end, free cigarettes filled bowls everywhere. The Checker cabbies had to come to Little Caesars to cash their paychecks; according to legend, many of their wives showed up on payday to make sure that their husbands didn't gamble away their week's wages.

Owner Gene Maday was known for two things: a ferocious temper that was always a sight to behold when it erupted and a gambling streak that couldn't be beat. Maday was one of the most fearless bookmakers in the world, famous for accepting the biggest bets in town. He said, "The big joints are like stockbrokers. They work on volume and commission. We make our money the old-fashioned way -- we gamble for it."

Only the Gaming Control Board got between Gene Maday and the gamble in him. Like Benny Binion before him, Gene Maday was the biggest gambler in his own casino.

Does anyone recall that, in 1987, the televangelist Oral Roberts announced that God told him he needed to raise $8 million to postpone being called immediately home to heaven? Well, Maday tried to post a line on the proposition, but the GCB wouldn't let him.

"I would have made the over-under line at $4.6 million," Maday told a reporter after being denied by the Board. "And I would've taken any size bet if Gaming had let us."

It was Maday who booked Bob Stupak's million-dollar bet on the 1989 Super Bowl (you can read the whole story in our Stupak biography by John L. Smith, No Limit: The Rise and Fall of Bob Stupak and Las Vegas' Stratosphere Tower). Briefly, Maday apparently needed more money on the Cincinnati Bengals to balance his Super Bowl book that year, so he accepted $1,050,000 for the Bengals to cover the seven-point spread against the San Francisco 49ers. He also gave Stupak a 50% break on the 11-10 vig, which is why Stupak only had to pony up $1.05 mil, instead of the standard $1.1 mil. The Bengals lost, 20-16, but covered the point spread, so Stupak collected a cool million for his trouble.

When Maday paid off Stupak, that same day Stupak gave him a gift: an experimental sports car, which sat in front of the sliding glass doors for a while.

But that wasn't Maday's largest payout, not by a long shot. A couple years later, he lost a $228,000 four-team parlay to a pair of Texas bettors for $2.4 million (though he won much of it back on their subsequent losing bets).

Little Caesars closed in 1994 to make way for Paris. When Gene Maday died that same year at age 68, he took a lot of secrets with him to the grave.

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VegasVic Mar-29-2021

Great Place

I loved going here and stopped at least once on each trip. One crapless craps table, 4 blackjack tables and some machines.  Draft beer and hot dogs.  You could eat the hot dogs at the tables. One waitress and when she was on break the pit boss would do it.  He'd go around asking if anyone wanted a beer or a hot dog.  The "cage" was about 6 feet from the craps table.  Anytime anyone cashed in chips in any amount, even $5, the cashier (there was only one, it was a booth) had to call the pit boss.  "Cashing in $5).  She used a phone but didn't need to, she was so close to the pit.  The "experimental sports car" was a rocket car.  So cool. It was parked outside the front door. Miss that place, it was gambling in someone's basement recroom.

Neal Greenberg Mar-29-2021

Loved Little Cesears

The best was, as mentioned the new crap dealers.  However, what wasn't mentioned was the fact that the craps were a minimum of .25.  Yes, a quarter.

After every roll, the game was stopped so the dealers could figure out the payouts.  Think about that, brand new green dealers coupled along with .25 craps.

I do miss that place.

Pat Higgins Mar-29-2021

Big Tex

Sorry to say Little Caesar’s closed before I started to heading to Vegas on a regular basis.  Would have been a fun, unique place to visit.

Reno Faoro Mar-29-2021

little caesars

maday was a detroiter . description  stated above was correct . i spent an hour there , once , have a $1 chip FOR SALE --BIDDING STARTS AT ONE CENT . TY , TYVM

Jeffrey Small Mar-29-2021

Why did anyone like the place?

I remember walking in there thinking--Why Does Anyone Like This Place?  My local friend must have been placing a big bet because he insisted that we stop there...

Eric Forman Mar-29-2021

Oral Roberts

Damn, I thought the bet on the Oral Roberts thing was going to be whether he got called to heaven. I'd have happily put $20 on hell.

Thomas Chapman Mar-29-2021

Hmmmm

Reminds me a little of the Boardwalk.

VegasVic Mar-29-2021

One Reason

One reason I liked it is because it was smack dab in the middle of the strip.  All of these mega resorts and there was this little strip mall with a little casino. Same reason I also liked the old Nob Hill.  And low minimums.  As I said in my first post it was like gambling in someone's basement recroom.  That made it enjoyable to me.  And lots of "characters" in the place.  I don't care for crapless craps but that's all they had.  When Maday passed away the place became a dress outlet store before the strip mall was razed and turned into Paris.  And who didn't love seeing the rocket car out front?  "Madays Rocket" in black/red on the side.

Anthony Lardas Mar-29-2021

Next Door Horse Book

Not sure if it was part of Little Caesars but the horse racing parlor/book next door was classic with the guy on the platform walking it writing in the results as he held a phone to his ear best place to play the ponies.

O2bnVegas Mar-29-2021

always a visit

We never missed a visit to Little Caesars.  We played their older slot machines that took only pennies.  I recall the jackpot being 80 cents, though maybe more.  Like VegasVic said, we went for the novelty, the fun-creepy feeling you got versus the fancy Strip casinos.  The "car" parked outside looked to us like an airplane fuselage with pedals...it had wheels but we looked for pedals.  Fun memories.

Candy

Dan McGlasson Mar-29-2021

GREAT story!

Really liked this piece of Vegas history.  I always enjoy the historical pieces that QoD does.  The quirkier the better!  Keep them up . . .

VegasVic Mar-29-2021

Sportsbook

@Anthony  the sports/horse book was inside the casino.  In the corner directly to the right when you walked in.  Very small.  Usually one guy taking bets and updating the numbers on the board.  Sometimes, like during NFL season, there would be two guys back there, but there wasn't much room...

Ray Mar-29-2021

Real Vegas

Little Caesar's was Vegas the way I imagined it before I ever went there. As many have said, 25 cent craps, the BJ was always $1 minimum. As Vic mentioned the race book to Anthony, there also were the independent race books (not really on topic with Lil Caes, but still interesting Old Vegas) nearby. I think one was Santa Anita Race Book and another was called Rose Bowl race book.  Maybe LVA could give us a little history of Vegas Race Books from before the casinos took over.

Doug Bergman Mar-29-2021

Back in the day

In 1994, I lived in Las Vegas and people I worked with used to talk about betting at Little Caesars.  I was really confused because thought they were talking about the pizza chain.  I wish I had checked it out because I probably would have loved it.

Also did anyone ever eat at the Nosher delicatessen next door?  I wish I had.  I believe it predates me but it is preserved for posterity in this photo.  https://vintagenewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/las-vegas-1970s-1-1-640x381.jpg

VegasVic Mar-30-2021

Domain Name

I completely forgot about this.  Way back I bought the domain name littlecaesarscasino.com.  I had hoped at some point I'd put up some pics of the place and have the site as a sort of memorial to the place.  I never got around to it though.  Then I got a letter from Caesars (the big Caesars) corporation demanding that I turn over the domain them to them "or else".  I resisted for awhile but decided it wasn't worth fighting a corporation over a domain I would probably never use.  So I gave it to them.  They still own the domain name but there is no associated website

Question of the Day - 29 March 2021

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