Las Vegas History Series – DeVille Casino

In the history of the Entertainment Capital of the World, Las Vegas has seen many resorts and casinos come and go. Aside from that, there have also been places that have never been opened. There is a famous saying that you should never put the cart before the horse. However, in a few casino operator’s cases, they sure did. This is the story of the DeVille Casino.

After developer Frank Carroll sold the Landmark Casino to Howard Hughes, he decided that he was going to build another resort called the DeVille Casino on Convention Center Drive. Landmark along with Circus Circus both opened in 1968. It was now the early 1970s and Casino expansion was continuing. The Western opened in 1970 and Union Plaza opened in 1971. The Deville Casino was supposed to be one of the resorts that would end up joining them in the 1970s.

The building was constructed on Convention Center Drive diagonally across from the Las Vegas Hilton. However, like many other casino projects, sometimes they never officially open due to not getting a gaming license or other business-related reasons. That is the story of the DeVille Casino. It is one of these Las Vegas resorts that never ended up opening, but the structure was built. Below on our map, you can see where the DeVille Casino was supposed to be.

Though the establishment never opened, the story does not end there for the collector’s chip market. A set of four chips were produced in 1973 for the DeVille Casino. They were intended to be used for the gaming tables in real play.

Below are pictures of each of the four chips. You can click on each picture to purchase them. The denominations of the chips are $1, $5, $25 and $100. The chips are Nevada molds. The manufacturer of the chips was Bud Jones. Please take note the chips are all in unused condition because the casino was never opened.

$1 Chip 

$5 Chip

$25 Chip 

$100 Chip 

As a special for our newsletter and blog readers, we are offering a 300 Deville Casino Chipset. The set consists of 100 $1 chips, 100 $5 chips, 50 $25 chips and 50 $100 chips. The set is $1400. You can buy it below.

So what happened after the DeVille Casino did not open? The building structure ended up being vacant for many years. In 1992, the Sport of Kings Racing Parlor opened up, but that lasted less than a year. After that, the structure originally meant to be a casino became a nightclub in 1994. The Beach Nightclub opened to rave reviews and reportedly to some it was the best singles bar and dance club at the time. It ended up closing in 2006. The building structure was then demolished and all that is left today is the parking lot.

Though a casino may have never operated, collectors can own the set of all 4 denomination chips from us that you see above. It is no doubt one of those things that a person owns and asks this question, what would the chips look like if the casino existed and they were used on the tables? It is just another one of those what if Las Vegas history stories chip collectors enjoy discussing amongst themselves.