It was 8:00 pm and I had just finished my shift at the Union Plaza
when I noticed a huge black cloud of smoke in the sky. It was a
pleasant evening in May 1974 as I drove towards it only getting
as far as the Enchanted Village apartments where I had to park.
Bob Stupak’s World Famous Million Dollar Gambling Hall and Museum
was burning. A huge crowd of people had blocked off LVBS, Main and
Oakey streets. Bob was running in and out of the museum throwing
large panels of dollar bills that had covered the walls on top of a car,
tears running down his face, crying out “I just got the place open.”
I had been in the place a couple of times but didn’t like paying the $3.50
admission fee. You did receive ten dollar size washers with a yellow sticker
that were playable in some machines. One eight reel slot payed a $250,000
jackpot that was the largest in town. (Gaming Control made him pull it after
nine days due to lack of security). Another $5000 jackpot payed by dumping
mostly dollar bills from a plastic barrel overhead. A friend or mine had a large
chip collection mounted on a wall. The insurance company claimed the fire was
arson but Bob disagreed and collected $300,000. He later bought an ice cream
store at LVBS and Gass and called it the Million Dollar Dairy Freeze complete
with slots (to keep his license). If you hit the jackpot, you got to keep the machine.
I asked Bob for one of his $10,000 chips that were in the hopper of the $250,000
machine and he told me to make him some displays. I made one of chips, swizzle
sticks, dice, and postcards as well some framed articles on the fire that he displayed.
Later, when he was building Vegas World I got to know the project manager who had
a trailer parked on sight. Once he took me inside where there were cases of half
gallon bottles of booze. I asked him what they were for and he said “building inspectors.
In my opinion, Vegas was much more fun when guys like Bob Stupak were around.