Only in Las Vegas does a casino throw itself an 85th birthday party and its owner gets counted as part of the milestone. El Cortez Hotel & Casino, at 600 E. Fremont St. in downtown Las Vegas, opened on November 7, 1941. Its chairman and CEO, Kenny Epstein, was born on July 10, 1941, and turned 85 this year too. This week the property marks the shared birthday the way only an original can: a city proclamation on Thursday, November 5, and a public celebration with complimentary cake and champagne on Saturday, November 7, exactly 85 years after the doors first opened.
El Cortez carries a distinction no other Las Vegas casino can claim: it is the only operating casino listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the longest continuously operating hotel and casino in the city. To understand why this birthday lands differently from a normal casino anniversary, you have to walk the whole 85 years, from a $245,000 bet on the edge of town, through a one-year mob ownership that helped bankroll the Flamingo, to nearly five decades under an owner who simply lived upstairs. Here is the full story, plus exactly how to join the party this month.
Two Birthdays, One Proclamation
The official moment comes first. At 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, Epstein will stand with Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley and Las Vegas Councilwoman Olivia Diaz for a proclamation ceremony at the property, with remarks on what El Cortez has meant to the city. Right after the proclamation, Epstein and Berkley will recognize nine team members, each honored as the longest-serving employee in their department, a fitting gesture at a property where tenure is measured in decades.
Epstein tied the celebration back to the man who owned El Cortez before him. "Jackie Gaughan, my longtime friend and mentor who owned El Cortez for 45 years, understood that people came back because they felt valued here. That's something I've never forgotten," he said in the anniversary announcement. "When you take care of a place with this much history, you have a responsibility to the people who built it and the people who still walk through the doors every day. I'm proud of how far we've come, and I'm even prouder that our longtime guests and players still feel at home."
The public party follows on Saturday, November 7, the actual anniversary of the opening, with complimentary champagne and a slice of anniversary cake for anyone who stops by the casino. No invitation and no reservation required. Guests must be 21 or over to enter the property, a rule El Cortez has applied property-wide since April 2022.
A $245,000 Bet on the Edge of Town
El Cortez began as a wager on geography. In 1941, Marion Hicks, John C. Grayson and J. Kell Houssels built the hotel at 6th Street and Fremont, ground that many locals considered too far from the center of downtown to succeed. They spent about $245,000 to raise a 59-room hotel in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, and when it opened on November 7, 1941, it stood as downtown Las Vegas' first major casino resort.
The skeptics were wrong fast. El Cortez became so profitable so quickly that it drew the attention of some of the most famous, and infamous, names in American gambling. The building kept its Spanish Colonial Revival bones, and a 1952 modernization brought the neon arrow marquee and the signature roof sign that still anchor the east end of Fremont Street today. It is one of the few casinos in Las Vegas that has never replaced its exterior facade, holding onto the same signage and ranch-themed architecture for more than seventy years.
The federal government made the point official in February 2013, when El Cortez was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It remains the only operating casino listed on the register, a status that says plenty about what historians and the city itself think this building is worth, and one more reason the 85th birthday is being treated as a civic event, proclamation and all.
Bugsy Siegel Owned It for About a Year
The most famous chapter lasted barely a year. In March 1945, Houssels sold El Cortez to Moe Sedway and partners for a reported $600,000. The partnership included Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum and Dave Berman, an arrangement the Mob Museum's Geoff Schumacher has identified as the first mob ownership of a Las Vegas hotel and casino.
The mob era ended almost as quickly as it began. Houssels reacquired the resort in 1946, while Siegel used profits from the sale of El Cortez, around $166,000, toward his stake in the new Flamingo Hotel & Casino, then a luxury resort rising on the highway south of town. History remembers the Flamingo as Siegel's monument. Part of the money that bought him in came from the little downtown casino that could not stop making it, and El Cortez simply went back to work under its original owner.
Jackie Gaughan Lived Upstairs
In 1963, El Cortez changed hands for $4 million, and its longest era walked in: Jackie Gaughan, a casino operator who would own the property for 45 years. Gaughan did not run El Cortez from an office across town. He and his wife, Bertie, lived in the top-floor penthouse, and he was a fixture on his own casino floor nearly every day, a hands-on style no modern corporate owner would attempt.
Under Gaughan, the property grew carefully. The Pavilion Rooms were added in 1963, and a 15-story hotel tower followed in the 1980s, expanding the hotel without surrendering the low-slung 1941 original at its heart. When Gaughan finally sold in 2008, he did not leave. He kept living at the property until his passing in 2014, still playing poker in his own poker room years after the sale. His penthouse is preserved today as the Jackie Gaughan Suite, now used for private events, its vintage architecture and golden accents straight out of the casino era he defined.
Gaughan's philosophy was the one Epstein quoted at the top of this story: people came back because they felt valued. It sounds simple. Held to for 45 years, it turned a small downtown casino into an institution that outlived nearly every competitor around it.
The Epstein Era: $120 Million Spent Protecting 1941
Kenny Epstein's connection to El Cortez predates his ownership by decades. He joined Gaughan as a partner in 1975 and bought the property from his friend and mentor in 2008. Since then, the Epstein family has invested more than $120 million in improvements, expanding the casino floor, remodeling rooms and adding restaurants, all while keeping the historic character that makes the place worth saving.
The recent work is specific. A $25 million renovation project in 2021 added a high-limit room. A $20 million casino renovation, completed in 2025, added 10,000 square feet of casino space, a high-limit slot room and two new bars, and brought in the Hot Noods noodle restaurant and a Starbucks that never closes. One of those bars, ShowBar, is a vintage-inspired lounge built for live entertainment and classic cocktails. In a very modern twist, El Cortez has also become one of the few Las Vegas casinos that allows players to stream their live table play to online audiences, building it a second clientele that watches from far beyond Fremont Street.
The newest chapter is dining. Alex Prime Steakhouse, a New York-style steakhouse pouring USDA Prime cuts, slow-roasted prime rib, fresh seafood and Italian-rooted pasta, recently opened in a dining room of emerald-green banquettes, cognac leather and gold detailing. Beside it, Siegel's 1941 has been reimagined. The restaurant, which first opened in 2015 and is named for Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and the year the casino was established, builds a scratch-made menu around comfort classics and the spirit of the martini lunch: matzoh brei, country-fried steak and eggs Benedict at breakfast, and a patty melt, a French dip, a seafood Louie and steak frites at lunch.
85 Years in Eight Stops
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1941 | El Cortez opens on November 7 as a 59-room hotel, built for about $245,000 |
| 1945 | Sold to Moe Sedway, Bugsy Siegel and partners for a reported $600,000 |
| 1946 | J. Kell Houssels buys it back, and Siegel puts his profits toward the Flamingo |
| 1952 | The neon arrow marquee and signature roof sign join the Fremont Street skyline |
| 1963 | Jackie Gaughan buys El Cortez for $4 million and moves in upstairs |
| 2008 | Kenny Epstein, a partner since 1975, buys the property from Gaughan |
| 2013 | Added to the National Register of Historic Places in February |
| 2026 | El Cortez and Epstein both turn 85, with more than $120 million invested since 2008 |
How to Do El Cortez This Month
You do not need a players card or a reservation to take part in the birthday itself. Here is the practical plan:
- Thursday, November 5, 2 p.m.: be downtown for the proclamation ceremony with Mayor Berkley, Councilwoman Diaz and Epstein, including the recognition of the nine longest-serving team members.
- Saturday, November 7: stop in for complimentary champagne and a slice of anniversary cake on the casino's actual opening date. While you are there, ShowBar is selling a limited-time commemorative beer can, priced at $9, in honor of the 85th anniversary.
- Players, November 5 to 7: the 85th Anniversary $85,000 Slot Tournament and Drawing. Earn 10,000 slot points November 5 through 6 for a tournament entry, plus another entry for every 10,000 points earned on November 7. Open sessions run Friday, November 6 from 4 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, November 7 from noon to 4 p.m.; the final round is November 7 at 5 p.m., followed by an influencer slot tournament at 5:30 p.m. Tournament prizes are paid in free play and topped by $10,000 for first place. The drawing is at 7 p.m. on November 7, with one entry for every 1,000 slot base points earned November 5 through 7, and its prizes are paid in free play too.
- Every Wednesday: Wednesday Free Play Madness, a 6:15 p.m. drawing with up to 22 winners of $100 in free slot play, at one ticket per point earned Monday through Wednesday.
- Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11: earn 1,000 slot base points to win $10 to $100 in free slot play.
- Staying over: the hotel's 361 vintage-inspired rooms and suites range from the Original 47, reached only by stairs and as old-school as it gets, to the Cabana Suites across Ogden Street and the Tower Premium rooms. Parking in the attached garage is complimentary, and a courtesy airport shuttle runs daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for drop-offs, by reservation. Book direct from November 27 to 30 and the Black Friday sale takes 25% off a two-night minimum stay, good for stays through August 31, 2027.
Start any visit at Siegel's 1941 for breakfast, served daily from 7 a.m., then walk a casino floor where more than 800 games now sit inside the 1941 room, look up at the 1952 roof sign at dusk, and finish with a steak at Alex Prime or a cocktail at The Parlour Bar, where vocalist Michael Nugent sings vintage Vegas standards on Wednesday evenings in November. Most Las Vegas casinos spend fortunes trying to look new. This month, the most Vegas move in town is the opposite: a Fremont Street original turning 85 in public, with its 85-year-old owner standing next to the cake.
