Art Grant and Norman Little opened two Honest John’s locations in Las Vegas: the first at Francisco Square (Las Vegas Blvd & Sahara), and this one at Ogden Square Shopping Center in ‘61.

Andy Tompkins bought the 3rd & Ogden location in 1964 – “a struggling operation with 17 slot, a hot dog stand, a barber shop, newspapers, magazines and a few racks of paperbacks” – and turned it into a full-time slots casino. Tompkins changed the name in ‘68, founding the Lady Luck Casino, and later founded the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

“Andy threw fantastic three day parties. He hated unions, said he would give the casino away to a stranger, before he allowed any unions in his casino. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays he would give me a counting clicker and told me to go to each Fremont Street casino and count how many people were there. I just walked around with the clicker hid in the palm of my hand secretly clicking every time I saw a person. He wanted to see which casino was doing the best and why.” - Joe Dize

Overlooking 3rd & Ogden, mid 60s.

3rd St facing Ogden, the post office (Mob Museum), and Honest John's casino – circa 67.