Jackie Gaughan, 1920-2014

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

Gaughan was born in Omaha in 1920, earned an undergraduate degree as in business goldspike-picadministration from Creighton University and went to work as a bookie. He later joined the Army Air Corps, which led to a fateful posting to Nellis Air Force Base during the Second World War. 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.  He moved his family to Southern Nevada, and wangled a small stake in the Flamingo, then run by mobster Dave Berman. When the latter called Gaughan a “dime-a-dozen punk,” the Nebraskan up and quit.

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. Many of the casinos he once owned or was an investor in no longer stand and his final purchase, the Gold Spike (bought in 1985), recently had all its gamblers and slot machines kicked out by new owner Tony Hsieh.

But the El Cortez, bought in 1963, remains Gaughan’s 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 had obligated John Kell Houssels Sr. to provide lifetime accommodation to aging Mob man Irish Green. Gaughan didn’t have to honor the agreement – but he did for the rest of Green’s life.

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

Gaughan’s helpfulness toward customers went well beyond just making change. In the late Seventies, when son Michael Gaughan launched the Barbary Coast, Gaughan Sr. could sometimes be spotted cleaning up the coffee shop. Another time, he took a half-dozen waitresses out to dinner. When his “fun books” of coupons needed passing out, he would do it himself. If an employee died and his family couldn’t afford a funeral, Gaughan was known to pay the tab.

“All these other guys, some were sort of mean, they had this certain aura about them. But Jackie was just a wholesome, nice person,” El Cortez CEO Kenny Epstein told Las Vegas Weekly.  Added General Manager Mike Nolan, “Any customer, any employee could go up and talk to Gaughan anytime they wanted.” Employees’ loyalty was reciprocated: Back in the Seventies, if male patrons got too grabby, cocktail server Liz Butler 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.

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

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 – and, before that, a pied-a-terre in Summerlin — but Jackie wouldn’t hear of it. He was his own man, right to the end.

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