{"id":12975,"date":"2014-03-12T09:06:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T17:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12975"},"modified":"2014-03-12T09:06:42","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T17:06:42","slug":"jackie-gaughan-1920-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/jackie-gaughan-1920-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Gaughan, 1920-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

The humility with which Jackie Gaughan<\/strong> did business would be un-thought-of in today\u2019s \"elcortez-pic\"<\/a>casino world. He\u2019d come to work through the front door and his \u201coffice\u201d was a hotel room adapted for the purpose.\u00a0At various times, Jackie owned all or part of at least 12 casinos, and was an active and visible presence at every one, every day.\u00a0His philanthropy and civic spirit were comparably widespread. Not only did he preside over the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority<\/strong>, he was also on the board of review for Eagle Scouts<\/strong>. In 2002, he launched the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas<\/strong>. His helpfulness also manifested itself in smaller ways: \u00a0Gaughan was also known for keeping gas cans and jumper cables in his car, to help stranded motorists.<\/p>\n

Gaughan was born in Omaha<\/strong> in 1920, earned an undergraduate degree as in business \"goldspike-pic\"<\/a>administration from Creighton University<\/strong> and went to work as a bookie. He later joined the Army Air Corps<\/strong>, which led to a fateful posting to Nellis Air Force Base<\/strong> during the Second World War<\/strong>. Stationed just outside Las Vegas, Gaughan began a love affair with Sin City that continues to this day. Although Gaughan returned to Omaha after the war, times were changing. Taxes on bookmaking parlors rose to 10%, which was more than Gaughan could afford. \u00a0He moved his family to Southern Nevada, and wangled a small stake in the Flamingo<\/strong>, then run by mobster Dave Berman<\/strong>. When the latter called Gaughan a \u201cdime-a-dozen punk,\u201d the Nebraskan up and quit.<\/p>\n

He also shifted his focus to Downtown, where he began buying little bits and pieces of Downtown casinos, starting with 3 percent of the Boulder Club<\/strong>.\u00a0Many of the casinos he once owned or was an investor in no longer stand and his final purchase, the Gold Spike<\/strong> (bought in 1985), recently had all its gamblers and slot machines kicked out by new owner Tony Hsieh<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But the El Cortez<\/strong>, bought in 1963, remains Gaughan\u2019s signature property, the place players used to go to try the newest slots in town. It was also the site of one of his most famous handshake deals. Former owner Bugsy Siegel<\/strong> had obligated John Kell Houssels Sr<\/strong>. to provide lifetime accommodation to aging Mob man Irish Green<\/strong>. Gaughan didn\u2019t have to honor the agreement \u2013 but he did for the rest of Green\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Jackie has his wild-and-crazy side and was known for offering outlandish proposition bets \u2013 the most notorious being one on where Skylab<\/strong> would crash to earth. (The Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> failed to be amused by that one.)<\/p>\n

Gaughan\u2019s helpfulness toward customers went well beyond just making change. In the late Seventies, when son Michael Gaughan<\/strong> launched the Barbary Coast<\/strong>, Gaughan Sr. could sometimes be spotted cleaning up the coffee shop. Another time, he took a half-dozen waitresses out to dinner. When his \u201cfun books\u201d of coupons needed passing out, he would do it himself. If an employee died and his family couldn\u2019t afford a funeral, Gaughan was known to pay the tab.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these other guys, some were sort of mean, they had this certain aura about them. But Jackie was just a wholesome, nice person,\u201d El Cortez CEO Kenny Epstein<\/strong> told Las Vegas Weekly<\/em>.\u00a0 Added General Manager Mike Nolan<\/strong>, \u201cAny customer, any employee could go up and talk to Gaughan anytime they wanted.\u201d Employees\u2019 loyalty was reciprocated: Back in the Seventies, if male patrons got too grabby, cocktail server Liz Butler<\/strong> would haul off and sock them. That would get her fired at any non-Gaughan casino, but Jackie kept her on the payroll for decades afterward.<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/a>On a larger scale, Gaughan was known for the generosity of his pension plan and he even subsidized the continued operation of the unprofitable Western<\/strong> hotel-casino rather than put workers out on the street. His friends included Warren Buffet<\/strong> and Steve Wynn<\/strong> (who credits Gaughan, a former business partner, with helping him learn the ropes during Wynn\u2019s early days at the Golden Nugget<\/strong>) but he was just as popular with the working man.<\/p>\n

As late as October 2012, Gaughan could still be seen playing poker every day at the El Cortez and he continued to live in a penthouse at the venerable hotel-casino, right up to the end. Michael Gaughan offered him a similar aerie atop South Point<\/strong> \u2013 and, before that, a pied-a-terre<\/em> in Summerlin<\/strong> — but Jackie wouldn\u2019t hear of it. He was his own man, right to the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The humility with which Jackie Gaughan did business would be un-thought-of in today\u2019s casino world. He\u2019d come to work through the front door and his \u201coffice\u201d was a hotel room adapted for the purpose.\u00a0At various times, Jackie owned all or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51,140,25,32,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12976,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12975\/revisions\/12976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}