The Native Juice

NATIVE JUICE our city gone dark.

AS A 5TH GENERATION FAMILY of our beloved city of Las Vegas, NEVER in my lifetime did I imagine or fathom that we would witness Las Vegas’ neon lights go dark and our relished Las Vegas Strip so desolate. On March 18, 2020, following Governor Steve Sisolak’s directive given the night before; our local casinos were shut down for the 1st time since John F. Kennedy’s funeral back on November 25, 1963. I vividly remember it was St. Patrick’s Day and we were enjoying some corned beef and cabbage at our favorite local pub with some friends. There was an eerie sense of uncertain chatter among guests discussing if any of us thought this shutdown and closures of local businesses that we love and support on a regular basis would actually come to fruition. That was our last dine in meal, unbeknown to us that we would enjoy even up until now at a local venue. To date it’s been almost 7 weeks of casinos, restaurants and bars being closed with no definitive plan in place for hope of re-opening and that brings us to this issue’s Native Juice article spotlighting the Gaughan family. Michael Gaughan played many roles in the gaming and casino sector of Las Vegas. Gaughan opened up the Barbary Coast in 1979 at a cost of $11.5 million and it set the precedent for all Coast Casinos to follow. Subsequently, Michael sold the Coast Casinos to Boyd Gaming in 2004 for $1.3 billion. Then in July of 2006, Boyd sold the South Coast to Gaughan for an

By: Candice Wiener

estimated $576 million. Gaughan renamed the casino to South Point as a part of the purchase.

It’s also known that Michael Gaughan currently owns all of the slot machine operations inside of McCarran airport. It’s unclear what year the Gaughan family took over all slot operations at McCarran, but as part of our Wiener family history, it was a known fact that our late Grandfather, Louis Wiener Jr. owned all slot operations at McCarran for 20+ years prior to the Gaughan family. While we’re not 100% clear of the changing of hands and years that it took place; McCarran is said to have over 1,300 slot machines in all of the terminals and

has since operated under the name Michael Gaughan Airport Slots. Gaughan was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 2009.

With annual casino revenue of over $11 billion; it’s an interesting fact to know our city accounts for about 80% of that. Nevada first legalized commercial gambling back in 1869 and that as primarily card and dice games played against the house. Progressive opposition in 1909 brought the state of Nevada to start criminalizing gambling. After the Great Depression around 1931, the state lawmakers took into consideration allowing casinos to bring back gambling halls.

With those facts, we know that the shutdown of gaming and our casinos has been a detriment to our local economy and many local hospitality employees. According to UNLV's most recent data 100,450 people are currently employed on the strip in the resorts prior to the COVID-19 mandated shutdown. This had nearly doubled since 1990 when the strip resorts only employed 68,395 employees. While we all understand the significance of this pandemic and the importance of opening up in a well thought out planned re-opening; it’s also vital to know the importance of gaming to our local community, our economy and our local citizens that work in the gaming and hospitality sectors.

We are hopeful that when we re-open our city and casinos in a healthy and cautious manner, travelers will be eager to come back and visit our beloved city and the impact; all be it a struggle, will start to lessen with time.

It is factual that the Gaughan family played a vital role among other local Las Vegans in the gaming and casino industry here in Las Vegas. Michael Gaughan’s father, Jackie Gaughan, moved his family to Las Vegas in 1950. Both the Boyd family and the Gaughan’s have been noted to give back to our local community on a regular basis. The Gaughan family has supported various charities including the Catholic Church and Bishop Gorman High School. It is also said that Gaughan was the type of business owner who was known to help casino players and hotel employees in times of need by covering funeral expenses, providing free meals and helping with additional costs brought on by hardships. Stories also have circulated about how Jackie Gaughan would often help any local resident in need. It’s even said that he would help drivers stranded on the side of the road and in fact, he even carried a container of gasoline in his car for individuals in need.

Local casino moguls with hearts like that for citizens in our community, it’s easy to see how that type of humanitarianism is still alive and well in our city and passed on from multiple family lineages here in Las Vegas from many different generations. We hope to see in the remaining year of 2020 many more old school benevolent displays from the top gaming leaders in Las Vegas and throughout all other industries in our community which continue to make us #realvegasstrong and #vegasstronger and hope that our city will emerge out of this crisis stronger than ever before, with a renewed sense of community and mindset, just like the good ole’ Vegas days our parents and grandparents used to exude.