I saw some McCarran Airport $1 tokens from 1988 for sale by Spinettis. It got me wondering how long have slot machines been at the airport? And I guess it also would mean they had to have the old-school coin machines back in the day?
Michael Gaughan won the lucrative airport slot concession in 1985; he applied for the license back then, when he was 42 years old, and it was awarded to him. He certainly had some juice, given who his father, Jackie Gaughan was, and having grown up in the casino business in Las Vegas. Operated by Michael Gaughan’s Airport Slot Concession, Inc., Gaughan has been running them continuously since then.
And yes, as you saw at Spinetti's, coins and tokens were used there up until TITO showed up.
There's no question that it's a been a lucrative deal for Gaughan. In November 2022, the company announced that the airport's machines had generated more than $1 billion in all-time revenue.
Although the airport slot concession isn't a lifetime award, in Michael Gaughan’s case, it might as well be. He’s held it for 41 years, renewing it in 2008 and 2018.
At the time of the 2008 renewal, Gaughan was selected as the designated operator and it’s not clear from the minutes whether he had any competitors or not. He agreed to pay Clark County at least $35 million a year or 86.5% of net revenues, whichever was greater.
The 2018 renewal was contingent on Gaughan’s commitment to invest $3.8 million in upgrades to “modernize [airport] slot machine operations with the most up-to-date and popular industry games and technology,” which gently implies that Gaughan hadn’t been keeping up with the times. In return, the concession was extended through September 2025.
There was absolutely no fanfare or even any announcement about a contract extension six months ago, but we did find a Clark County Department of Aviation concession goals document (2024–2026) that indicates Gaughan’s gaming concession agreement is set to expire in September 2028. That makes sense, since it's a third 10-year period.
