Laughlin Gambling Age
Don Laughlin at the Riverside Resort and Casino in July 2009 | |
| Born | May 4, 1931 (age 89) Owatonna, Minnesota, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Gambling Entrepreneur |
- Laughlin Nevada Gambling Age
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Laughlin Nevada Gambling Age
Donald Joseph Laughlin (born May 4, 1931) is an American gambling entrepreneur, hotelier and rancher for whom the town of Laughlin, Nevada, is named.[1]
Laughlin Gambling Trips
A native of Owatonna, Minnesota, Laughlin worked winters during his youth as a fur trapper. He took the profits and used them to purchase slot machines for installation in hunting lodges. The young businessman was making $500 a week when his school principal gave him an ultimatum: get out of slots or get out of school. Since he was making more than three times what the principal was, he got out of school.
Laughlin moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in the late 1950s and purchased his first casino, the '101 Club.' By 1964, Laughlin had sold the 101 Club. That same year, Laughlin was flying his private plane over the California/Arizona/Nevada tri-state area near the Colorado River. Growth in the area, specifically in Bullhead City and Kingman in Arizona, and Needles in California, was spurred by the construction of nearby Davis Dam, completed in 1951. The area was also a major stop along Route 66. It was during that flight that Laughlin envisioned the potential of the area as a resort destination. Soon after, he purchased a shuttered, eight-room riverfront motel on 6.5 acres (2.6 ha) for US$250,000. Though the landowner had several offers, he decided to sell the property to Laughlin because of his previous casino background.
In less than two years the Riverside Resort was entertaining guests not only with gambling but with all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents. Play at the casino was on twelve slot machines and two live gaming tables. Accommodations at the Riverside were available in only four of the motel's eight rooms; Laughlin's family occupied the remaining four.
Tonight Dec 10 - Dec 11 Check prices close to Harrah's Laughlin Casino for tonight, Dec 10 - Dec 11 Tomorrow night Dec 11 - Dec 12 Check prices close to Harrah's Laughlin Casino for tomorrow night, Dec 11 - Dec 12 This weekend Dec 11 - Dec 13 Check prices close to Harrah's Laughlin Casino for this weekend, Dec 11 - Dec 13 Next weekend Dec 18. Presentation of the Laughlin Edgewater Casino Resort. The Edgewater Casino is located in Laughlin, Nevada, 100 miles South from Las Vegas. This establishment opened in 1966 and now offers more than 400 penny machines including IGT, Bally, Aristocrat, Williams, Aruze and Konami.
The Town of Laughlin is believed to have received its name when a U.S. Postal Service inspector asked Laughlin to give a name to the area post office in order to receive mail. Laughlin suggested the name 'Riverside and Casino,' but the postal inspector in turn suggested 'Laughlin' because of their common Irish heritage.
In 1972, the property, now known as the Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino, underwent a major expansion with the addition of 48 new rooms. In 1975, 52 more rooms were added. Construction of a 14-story hotel/casino tower in 1983 added 253 rooms and in 1986, a second 14-floor tower added 307 more rooms and an automotive museum. With free admission to the public, the Riverside's extensive collection is an offshoot of the famous Harrah's collection. One longtime exhibit, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro nicknamed 'Big Red' and specially prepared for road racing, has been returned to service and was the cover story of the May, 2005 edition of Hot Rod Magazine. The largest expansion came in 1994 with the addition of 800 more rooms for a current total of 1405 rooms. A bowling center, one of only two in Laughlin, was constructed in 1999. Mr. Laughlin also helped finance the construction of a bridge over the Colorado River between the northern tip of Laughlin and the Laughlin-Bullhead International Airport (on the Arizona side), connecting Nevada Highway 163 with Arizona Highways 95 & 68. He also helped to finance the expansion of the airport to enable it to accept full-sized commercial airliners.
Laughlin spends his time shuttling in his private helicopter between his penthouse suite atop the Riverside and his cattle ranch in nearby Kingman. He also uses his helicopter in travels back to his hometown of Owatonna, Minnesota, for the Steele County Free Fair, parking it in a vacant lot behind the Owatonna Country Inn & Suites before it was replaced by a cinema's parking lot.
References[edit]
- ^Hashimoto, Kathryn; Fried-Kline, Sheryl (1995-05-01). Casino management for the 90's. Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co. p. 66. ISBN978-0-7872-0483-9. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
External links[edit]
History of Laughlin, Nevada
Laughlin History – the southernmost tip of Nevada, along the Colorado River, where Nevada, California and Arizona meet, has become a major national tourist destination and gambling resort within the last few decades. The townsite of Laughlin was established in the 1940s as South Pointe because of the proximity to the southern tip of the state of Nevada. The early town consisted of a motel and bar that catered to gold and silver miners, construction workers building Davis Dam, and fishing enthusiasts. In the 1950s, construction workers left, and the town all but disappeared.
History of Laughlin Nevada
In 1964, a man by the name of Don Laughlin, owner of the 101 Club in Las Vegas, flew over the site and saw the tourism potential. He offered to buy the land, and within a few years, the small motel and casino, consisting of only 12 slots and two live tables, was bustling.
Laughlin Casino News
In 1972 the Riverside Resort added 48 rooms, followed by several additions and in 1986 built the first 14-floor high-rise. A second casino, the Bobcat Club, opened in 1967 where the Golden Nugget Laughlin currently operates. In 1968 a third casino, the Monte Carlo, opened its doors. Across the river, Bullhead City flourished in the glow of the casino light. Shuttle boats transported customers from the Arizona side of the river to Laughlin’s resorts.
The 1980s saw the construction of several more hotels and casinos. The Colorado Hotel (now the Pioneer), the Regency, Sam’s Town Gold River (now the River Palms) and the Edgewater opened in the early 1980s. Other investors saw the growth as an opportunity to get in on the action. A second boom resulted in the construction of the Colorado Belle, Harrah’s Del Rio, and the Ramada Express (now the Tropicana Express). The Flamingo Hilton, now known as the Aquarius, was built in 1990. In 1987, Don Laughlin funded and built the Laughlin Bridge at a cost of $3.5 million. He donated the bridge to the states of Nevada and Arizona. The bridge carries 30,000 vehicles daily.
Today there are nine hotel/casinos and one motel in Laughlin providing over 10,000 rooms, 154,000 square feet (14,300 m2) of meeting space, 60 restaurants, two museums, a 34-lane bowling center and a variety of boutiques, spas and salons. More than 14,000 casino workers now cross the Colorado by shuttle boat or the Laughlin Bridge each day. The city by the river now attracts nearly 3 million visitors annually who visit Laughlin to gamble, enjoy water sports on the Colorado and attend many high-profile special events hosted by the community.
Mohave Power Station
The Mohave Power Station opened in 1971, but later closed down on December 31, 2005. Mohave was the only power plant in the United States that used coal delivered by coal-slurry pipeline. The 18 inches diameter Black Mesa Pipeline ran 275 miles to the plant from the Peabody Energy Black Mesa Mine in Kayenta, AZ, and could deliver 660 short tons per hour. The land where the mine is located is owned by the Navajo and Hopi tribes. Four 8-million-gallon storage tanks each held the equivalent of 20,000 short tons of dry coal. The slurry transport water was recycled for cooling tower water makeup; this and all other waste water was reused, making Mohave a zero-discharge facility. A natural-gas line run to the facility from a gas main near Topock supplied the required heat to start the plant, although the line was too small to run the plant exclusively on gas. The power was transmitted via two 500kV lines to substations in southern Nevada and southern California.
Hell’s Angels —VS— The Mongols at Harrah’s Laughlin
In April 2002, Laughlin was the scene of a deadly fight between two rival California motorcycle gangs, the Hell’s Angels and the Mongols. The fight broke out inside Harrah’s Laughlin during the annual Laughlin River Run. Mongol Anthony Barrera, 43, was stabbed to death, and two Hell’s Angels, Jeramie Bell, 27, and Robert Tumelty, 50, were shot to death. Six members of the Hell’s Angels, as well as six members of the Mongols were sent to prison as a result of the event, and 36 other people had their charges dismissed.
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