In the history of Las Vegas, there are a lot of interesting casinos that were opened for a short period of time and then closed. This week, we are going to focus on the story of Silver Star. What history shows is there were actually two time periods the Silver Star casino existed in Vegas history. The first was in 1978.
Located at the address of 207 N. 3rd Street. That casino was a slots-only place that was temporarily opened without a casino license. It was actually Nick Behnen who was the son in law of Benny Binion who was ultimately denied a license. Married to Becky Binion, Mr. Behnen had a past criminal record that denied him getting a license. It was also reported that the Binion family put up the money for Nick to run the casino. It closed the same year.
The second Silver Star period occurred in 1984. According to a site called Over 50 Vegas, it was licensed for the games 21, slots, roulette and poker. Like the first time the Silver Star was opened, it didn’t last past the same year. We were unable to verify the reason it did not continue the second time around. Cards for the casino had a red and white color with a logo that had multiple stars spread out below the words Silver Star in white lettering.
Today, what occupies that area adjacent and nearby is none other than the Downtown Grand at 206 N 3rd Street. The Downtown Grand opened in October of 2013. Considered to be a boutique casino and hotel, the area behind the main Fremont Street Experience where the Downtown Grand is worth visiting. You will then be able to explore and take yourself back to the end of the 1970s and 1980s.
Of course, before the Downtown Grand, the Lady Luck sat adjacent next to both Silver Star Casinos as it was opened from 1964 to 2006. So imagine a Downtown where you would be standing in front of both the Lady Luck and Silver Star right next to each other. That would be a unique view of Las Vegas history past.
So to those who visit Las Vegas, if you’ve never been over to the area where the Downtown Grand is, it’s worth going by to see that place and Gold Spike that is over on 4th Street. Downtown expands well beyond Fremont Street where Binions, Four Queens, Golden Nugget and The D are. If you’ve never walked around, you should. A random fact, there is actually a Silverstar Casino located in Philadelphia, Mississippi that has no relation.
Below, you can see all the Silver Star chips we have. All the chips were hot stamped with gold foil. You can click on each picture to purchase each chip:
Unique Items of The Week:
Number one: If you are interested in buying a rack of cardroom chips, we are selling 100 of them from the NAPA Valley. They are $1 chips. You get 100 for $19.99. Please send us an email or call us at 702-362-8767 if you’d like to buy a rack or two.
Number two: Over the last month, you have bought every layout we have shown. So we will continue to show you layouts. We just put this one up in our store from Montbleu. It is a blackjack layout from a casino located in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. If you are interested in this brand new layout, again, call us or reply to this email. We are selling this layout for $75.
Number three: With the name change to Hard Rock coming next year, we wanted to show you a hard to find deck that was made for an event. What is cool about this deck is that the background for the face side of the cards are actually black and not white. We only have a few of these remaining. They go for $15. If you are interested again, call or email us.
Ebay Auction of the Week:
This week's unique chip is this one from Topaz Lodge. You can bid starting Sunday at the link:
