Las Vegas' El Cortez to open new bars, expand gaming floor while keeping 1941 original look intact

El Cortez Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas, originally constructed in 1941, is getting remodeled, including a gaming floor expansion. The property, which is the longest continuously running hotel and casino in the gambling mecca, is the only existing casino on the National Register of Historic Places and has undergone various restorations throughout the years. The establishment’s chairman and CEO Kenny Epstein told local media the venue will be updated yet once again while keeping its 1941 gambling house vibe intact. 

Speaking to Las Vegas Review-Journal, Epstein said: “We’re part of history, and we want to keep this place an original gambling house like in 1941. In fact, we’re remodeling this place, and we’ve had a couple of architects and designers working on several new bars. They were designer bars and real sleek and beautiful. But my daughters and son said, ‘We gotta keep to the original feeling of the El Cortez hotel of 1941.’ We don’t want to build something that looks like it’s outlandish. It doesn’t belong. To give you a feeling of what we’re trying to do, we want to keep this place authentic.”

El Cortez is getting two new bars and expanding the casino east. What used to be a big restaurant will be taken out and the casino will be extended into what is currently known as "the fiesta room," adding about 5,000 square feet of new floor, and remodeling 9,000 square feet of existing casino floor. "We’re at capacity on weekends and we just don’t have enough room to take care of the customers," Epstein told Review-Journal. "We’re just getting together with our designer right now. [...] We’ll probably start next year."

Epstein purchased the place from his longtime friend and previous owner, Jack Gaughan, in 2008. Speaking about remodeling the place after purchasing it from its former owner, Epstein said: “The only thing we’ve done differently is we’ve tried to improve on what he started. We’re modernizing the place. We fixed up every room in the hotel. We put in new stacks for the plumbing, new sewer lines, new electricity, new air conditioning — we sort of rebuilt this place, but all on the inside. You don’t know what we did, but we did it.” 

He further told Review-Journal: “I guess we spiced this place up. It used to be 75 percent locals and 25 percent tourists and now we’re 50-50, or maybe 60-40. It’s more tourists than it is local. We get people from all over the Strip that come down to visit us and the history.” According to him, more younger people visit the property and downtown Vegas now. "They’re coming down here and they really love the place," he added. "I just think they love downtown. It’s sort of like New Orleans’ Bourbon Street."

The updated "Original 47" rooms

The new remodeling will follow a $3 million revamp completed last year, through which 47 original vintage rooms —dubbed the “Original 47” — were upgraded. Originally used as boarding and meeting spaces when the venue opened, now the 47 rooms feature seafoam green walls with green fawn wallpaper, brass bedframes, and mid-century style furniture with marble and brass accents — a nod to Havana, Cuba, where the Mob first ventured into gambling before buying El Cortez.