…When I moved here to Las Vegas in February 1980, I stayed at a motel for a month, across from the then Treasury on Tropicana & Reno. I then moved to a brand new apartment complex on Flamingo & Paradise called Woodbridge. What a great deal that was! 😊 $300 a month rent & fully furnished with a king size bed, TV & other furniture. Just a studio, but still very nice & that included all utilities. I was on the third floor facing south. Right across the street was a big vacant lot. Nothing but desert. Then they started building a casino/hotel which was to become the Continental Hotel.

Once built I was in there a lot. Playing nothing but blackjack. It was not too hard to get a food comp to their one restaurant. They had good food, especially the prime rib. I could also get rooms comped for friends who came from out of town. The only other casino in that area was the Ambassador on the same side of the street & only about a couple of hundred feet away. Once the Continental opened it really hurt the Ambassadors business.

I always look back fondly to those early years when I moved here. That was THE Las Vegas I miss the most. The MOB controlled days in my opinion were better than the now big corporations.