32 Fremont

Las Vegas, NV

 

Gambler

'

s Hall of Fame

1974 to 1976

Gambler’s Hall of Fame was owned by Deil Gustafson of Minneapolis.
 
It was licensed for slots, 21, craps, and roulette. 
 
According to Fullers Index Plus it opened on May 16, 1974 and closed on June 9, 1976, however those were the dates the license was active. Its doors were actually closed in January 1976.
 
Deil Gustafson seemed to have recurring problems with the state gaming authorities including …
”a complaint against the casino last month (Nov. 1975) seeking to revoke its license and fine it $155,000 for 'repeated and flagrant violations' of state regulations… the control board's charges include alleged violations of technical regulations. The casino allegedly removed drop boxes from gaming tables and counted the take at unscheduled times… The casino was accused of failing to have more than one person counting the receipts,  which was a violation of regulations... The casino did not count free chip plays in its total revenue for tax purposes…”
(Las Vegas Sun December 13, 1975)
 
An article in the Las Vegas Sun reports that the property closed in January of 1976 and was auctioned off to Al Sachs, the former general manager of the Stardust Hotel. Sachs would turn the property into the Sundance West.  Also bidding for the property was Herb Pastor, the owner of the Golden Goose. Pastor lost out out on the property that time but would later become the property owner and change it to Sassy Sally's.
 
 
 
 
Gambler’s Hall of Fame
Gambler’s Hall of Fame $5 chip from ChipBoy Jim!
Gambler’s Hall of Fame matchcover from the Over50Vegas collection
This is an interesting article in that the loan that was defaulted on for the Gambler’s Hall of Fame property was owed to the Teamster’s Pension Fund which was often associated with mob money.
 
The original loan shows as being from 1963 which would have been 11 years before Gambler’s opened.
 
It appeared that the judge in the action may have thought Deil Gustafson’s corporation, which was the parent company of Gambler’s,  appeared to be using a front to buy the property back at a discounted price.
Gambler’s Hall of Fame -Sept 1975 original tourist photo © Over50Vegas.com
 
Herb Pastor and his son owned the property until 2016 when the Stevens Brothers,
owners of the Golden Gate, The D, and the former Las Vegas Club 
bought the property as they expand their interests down Fremont.
 
 
Photos and collectibles for the business are very scarce but below are a few for your enjoyment.
All of the properties shown on this page have fallen to the wrecking ball.
 
To the left is the site in February 2018.
 
Click here for more photos of the demolition of this block and the progress of the new downtown property.
Creative Commons License
Over50Vegas.com by Over50Vegas.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://over50vegas.com/index.html.
 
This is a non-commercial, educational, hobby site. Images on this site are from our personal collection and from personal collections of fellow enthusiasts who have shared their scans with us.  Other images are noted by source with links to the original.  If you feel that any image used here has infringed upon fair use of an image you hold the copyright to, please contact us at the links above and it will be credited or removed at your request. 
 
Sources you might want to visit for more information include: 
Newspaper Archive    Newspapers.com   UNLV Digital Collection    UNLV Reno   Las Vegas Sun     mypubliclibrary.com   
TCR numbers are used by express permission of SSS Publishing publishers of The Chip Rack.
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