“I thought coming to Las Vegas, it was important for me to come out, shut my mouth, listen, learn, watch and learn about the hotel business, learn about the beverage business, learn about the the slot business, the table game business. In 1959, it became the first to serve the 50-cent shrimp cocktail, a dish that would become a staple and in some ways a symbol of Las Vegas.Īnd it was the first gaming property that Derek Stevens and his brother, Greg, acquired in Las Vegas back in 2008, a move that would be a catalyst for change for downtown Las Vegas in the 14 years since.Īs the hotel celebrates turning 116 this week, Stevens recalled why the Golden Gate was the perfect entry point into Las Vegas for him. It opened as the first casino in Las Vegas.

But when telephone lines were installed in Las Vegas it was Miller’s hotel that got the first telephone, and with it the first phone number in town - “Ring 1.” Miller opened the 10-room hotel on the corner of Main and Fremont streets in 1906, then called the Hotel Nevada, telephones were still a bit of a rarity. It wasn’t the first hotel built in Las Vegas, as some have claimed, but the Golden Gate is a hotel full of firsts.

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