When he’s in town, Bob Gossett visits the Railroad Pass casino almost every day. A construction worker who splits his time between Boulder City and Dolan Springs, Ariz., Gossett passes time at the casino playing the slots or dining with friends.
“It’s a good place to get away from work and cool off,” Gossett said. “It’s a place to be comfortable.”
The scene would have been much different after the casino opened as the Railroad Pass Club in 1931. Hoover Dam workers would have stopped in after a week on the job and stayed to enjoy an illegal drink, gamble on roulette or listen to the five-piece band.
To get in, you had to know the password — gaiety. The barnlike building was cooled by electric fans and damp sheets hung from the ceiling.
The friendly atmosphere that made the club a popular gathering place during the height of Prohibition has stuck with the casino through multiple owners, several renovations and the introduction of electronic slot machines that dominate the gaming space.
“Obviously it’s changed throughout the years. We have air conditioning now,” Railroad Pass General Manager Curt Thompson said. “But we’ve been providing the same service for 80 years. When you come into the Railroad Pass, our staff knows you very well, and they probably know your family too.”
The casino celebrated its 80th anniversary Monday — its grand opening was Aug. 1, 1931 — with a VIP event to kick off a week of 80-cent hot dogs, 80-cent beers and gaming specials.
The recipient of Nevada State Gaming License No. 4, gaming was added as a cover for its speakeasy operations. Today, it is the oldest still-operating casino in the state.
Although the Strip is known for imploding pieces of its history to make room for new developments, Railroad Pass, tucked on a hilltop along U.S. 95, still maintains a connection to its roots.
“I think there are other casinos that are hugely important, but I don’t know of any other ones where you can walk into and get the sense of early days,” historian Mark Hall-Patton said.
Although it has undergone several renovations to add gaming space and a hotel tower, the building’s original footprint is still discernible and visitors will hear the occasional train whistle echoing from the tracks out back.
Carpet covers safes that were built into the floor, and a vault room protecting the safe where dam workers’ pay was held forms a permanent part of the building. The payday safe is still there, although the combination has been lost and it hasn’t been opened for 30 years.
The casino is home to a living history, too, with generations of Boulder City residents flocking there each weekend just like their parents and grandparents did decades earlier.
“We don’t go anywhere else,” said Greg Debelak, a retired carpenter.
Debelak’s parents worked as dealers at Railroad Pass when he was young. His wife, Pam, remembers taking donkey rides as a child in the foothills just behind the property.
The pair were at the casino like they are most weekends to drink, gamble and maybe have dinner.
“It’s a fun place to come to because we know everybody,” Pam Debelak said.
Joining them was Pam’s mother, Millie Grensted, who worked as a cook at one of the casino’s restaurants in the 1970s.
“It was a lot different back then,” she said.
Now owned by MGM Resorts International in a portfolio that includes megacasinos such as Bellagio and Mandalay Bay, Railroad Pass seems to have eschewed corporate casino trappings in favor of a down-home, locals-oriented approach.
The casino’s gaming host also doubles as the mascot and tour guide, wearing suspenders and an old miner’s hat to pair with his long gray hair and beard.
“It’s casual,” Thompson said. “We don’t wear ties here.”