What Was the First Casino in Las Vegas?
Hotel Nevada, now Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, is generally credited as Las Vegas's first hotel-casino. Follow its documented history from 1906 to today.
Casino Context
Updated July 24, 2026
Hotel Nevada, the property now known as Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, is generally credited as the first hotel-casino in Las Vegas. It opened at Main and Fremont streets in 1906, one year after the railroad land auction that established the Las Vegas townsite.
That answer needs one qualification. Gambling took place in saloons and other informal settings before purpose-built casino resorts became the city’s defining business. “First casino” can therefore mean the first hotel with gaming, the first licensed casino after Nevada relegalized gambling, or the first resort on the Las Vegas Strip. For the first hotel-casino within the city of Las Vegas, the official city history identifies Hotel Nevada.
The short answer
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What was the first hotel-casino in Las Vegas? | Hotel Nevada, now Golden Gate Hotel & Casino |
| When did it open? | 1906; Golden Gate gives January 13 as the opening date |
| Where is it? | 1 Fremont Street, at Main Street in downtown Las Vegas |
| What other names did it use? | Hotel Nevada, then Sal Sagev, with Golden Gate Casino opening at the site in 1955 |
| Is it on the Las Vegas Strip? | No. It is downtown on Fremont Street |
Hotel Nevada opened as Las Vegas took shape
The Las Vegas townsite began with a railroad-company land auction in May 1905. The City of Las Vegas timeline records that Hotel Nevada and the Overland Hotel opened at Main and Fremont streets in 1906. Hotel Nevada occupied the corner that remains home to Golden Gate.
The property promoted comforts that were notable in the young desert town, including electric lighting, ventilation, and steam heat. Golden Gate’s history also records the installation of Las Vegas’s first telephone at the hotel in 1907. Its number was simply “1.” These details matter because the original business was primarily a hotel with gaming tables, not the self-contained casino resort that later generations would associate with Las Vegas.
Gaming stopped during Nevada’s prohibition
Hotel Nevada’s early poker and roulette play did not continue without interruption. Nevada enacted a statewide gambling prohibition that took effect in 1910. A Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau history explains that the ban was reimposed in 1913 and remained in place until 1931, although illegal gambling continued in parts of the state.
Assembly Bill 98, approved on March 19, 1931, created a licensing system for games and gaming devices. The law did not make gambling unregulated; it made operating named games lawful only with the required license. This distinction is why a guide to the “first casino” should not describe all early play as continuously licensed casino gambling.
From Hotel Nevada to Sal Sagev
After gaming returned legally in 1931, Hotel Nevada expanded and adopted the name Sal Sagev - “Las Vegas” spelled backward. Golden Gate’s property history places the change in 1931 and the Golden Gate Casino opening in 1955. The surviving photographs and postcards from this era show a downtown hotel embedded in Fremont Street rather than an isolated resort complex.
The name change also separates two parts of the property’s history that are often compressed into one sentence. Hotel Nevada was the pioneering 1906 hotel with gaming; Golden Gate Casino was the later casino identity established at the same site.
Golden Gate Casino arrived in 1955
Golden Gate’s official history says a group of San Francisco investors opened Golden Gate Casino at the historic site in 1955. Italo Ghelfi managed the casino for nearly four decades. The Golden Gate name eventually became the identity of the entire hotel-casino.
The property has been renovated and expanded repeatedly, so visitors are not walking into an unchanged 1906 building. Its significance is continuity of place: the corner at 1 Fremont Street connects the railroad-town hotel, the Sal Sagev era, and the modern Golden Gate.
What was the first casino on the Las Vegas Strip?
Golden Gate is downtown, not on the Strip. The City of Las Vegas identifies El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941, as the beginning of the Strip era. That property was outside the incorporated city and no longer exists. Confusing downtown Las Vegas with the Strip is the main reason different venues are sometimes called “the first Las Vegas casino.”
A useful way to keep the history straight is:
- 1906 · Hotel NevadaOpened at Main and Fremont and is credited as Las Vegas’s first hotel-casino.
- 1931 · Licensed gaming returnsNevada established the modern licensing framework, and Hotel Nevada became Sal Sagev.
- 1941 · Strip resort eraEl Rancho Vegas opened outside the incorporated city and began the Strip era.
- 1955 · Golden Gate CasinoGolden Gate Casino opened at the Sal Sagev site.
Is the first Las Vegas casino still open?
Yes. Golden Gate Hotel & Casino still operates at 1 Fremont Street. The current property markets its original rooms, casino, bars, and its place in downtown history. Operational details, room inventory, and amenities can change, so visitors should use the property’s official site for current information rather than treating historical figures as permanent.
The durable conclusion is narrower and better supported: the present Golden Gate site contains the Hotel Nevada property that the City of Las Vegas recognizes as its first hotel-casino, opened in 1906.
