LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Long before the “eye in the sky” security systems at Las Vegas casinos, the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino probably watched gamblers through a strip of mirrored ceiling panels, with observers shimmying along a crawlspace on a cart.
A tour that went inside the guts of the oldest Las Vegas hotel-casino on Thursday revealed several little-known secrets from the historic building’s past, including the public’s first look at a room that had been the back portion of the kitchen.
This Las Vegas hotel is 120 years old, and still renting 10 rooms it’s had from the start
The Golden Gate was already the first hotel-casino in Las Vegas when gambling was banned in 1910, and it’s widely believed that gambling never really stopped. But proof of that is another matter. A basement that’s off-limits to the public has another room that is rumored to be the site of a bar during Prohibition.
Brothers Derek and Greg Stevens bought into the hotel in 2008, and it became the first of their Downtown Las Vegas properties, followed by The D Casino & Hotel (originally Fitzgeralds) and Circa Resort & Casino, Downtown’s first new hotel-casino since 1980. This week, the Golden Gate is celebrating its 120th birthday, dating back to 1906 when it opened as Hotel Nevada…