Nevada is the state that has had legal casinos for longest in the country. Which means that the oldest casino in Nevada is also the oldest in the country. Which one would that be -- that's still operating today?
The oldest casino in Nevada, and thus as you point out the United States, is Railroad Pass on Interstate 11 at the turnoff to Boulder City. It opened in 1931, shortly after wide-open gambling was legalized in the state in the initial period of the Great Depression and just as construction of Boulder (now Hoover) Dam was beginning. Railroad Pass will celebrate its 90th anniversary on August 1, 2021.
The Bank Club in Reno received the first gambling license issued by the state of Nevada after casino gambling was legalized. Mayme Stocker's Northern Club on Fremont Street garnered license number two. Railroad Pass was issued Nevada gambling license #3.
From its inception, Railroad Pass was popular with dam workers living in Boulder City, where drinking and gambling were forbidden by the federal managers of the town. (Gambling remains illegal there to this day, one of only two locales in the state where gambling is not permitted.)
In the modern era, it was sold in 1985 to the owners of the nearby Gold Strike Casino. Ten years later, both casinos were sold to Circus Circus Enterprises and 10 years after that (2005), Circus Circus (renamed Mandalay Resort Group) was sold to MGM Mirage. In 2014, MGM sold Railroad Pass to a Henderson developer, who still owns it.
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KRock S
Dec-06-2020
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Ray
Dec-06-2020
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