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Vegas Retold

The history of La Bayou

Opened 1970 Closed June 2016

La Bayou’s illuminated sign above a narrow casino entrance, with daiquiri and Mardi Gras bead signs beneath the Fremont Street canopy.
La Bayou’s neon frontage beneath the Fremont Street canopy on February 18, 2011.

time anchor / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

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Original Commons file retained without editorial alteration. Responsive overview and index presentation may crop the image; original motion softness is retained.

La Bayou was a small casino at 15 East Fremont Street, beside Golden Gate. Its neon frontage, frozen drinks and Mardi Gras beads belonged to a different scale of Downtown gambling from the large casino hotels. It closed in June 2016, and its former site became part of Golden Gate’s expansion the following year.

Coin Castle and the sidewalk pitch

The later casino began as Coin Castle in 1970, according to Pam Goertler’s address-by-address research in Casino Chip and Token News. Coin Castle offered blackjack before becoming a slots-only operation in 1977. Its promoters handed out beads and encouraged pedestrians to come inside, a street-facing approach that continued under the La Bayou name.

The La Bayou name

Goertler dates the change of name and decor to 1999. Contemporary Las Vegas Sun reporting independently confirms that Herb Pastor’s casino was operating as La Bayou by August 2000. The exact renaming day remains unresolved. A 2001 Nevada Magazine account captures its attraction for a summer visitor: a small casino beneath the Fremont canopy, offering a large choice of daiquiris.

An older address, with interruptions

The address had a much older gambling history. Mayme Stocker’s Northern Club opened in 1920, and the Monte Carlo Club opened at 15 Fremont in 1945. UNLV’s records describe interruptions and changes in operation. Those earlier clubs are part of the site’s history; treating La Bayou as a casino that operated continuously from 1920 would hide those changes.

Ownership and the licensed address

A 2015 Nevada Gaming Control Board report records Granite Gaming Group III as La Bayou’s operator, with Steven Jeffrey Burnstine in its management. Its May 2006 ownership start date should not be mistaken for the casino’s original opening.

Closure and Golden Gate’s expansion

The Stevens brothers acquired La Bayou in spring 2016. KNPR reported the completed closure that June. Golden Gate’s September 2017 announcement describes a finished casino extension, enlarged outdoor bar and new entrance occupying former La Bayou land. This was an addition to the neighboring hotel and casino, not a renaming of La Bayou as Golden Gate. The former standalone casino is gone, while the enlarged Golden Gate remains beside its site.

  1. UNLV: Stocker Family Papers

  2. UNLV: Monte Carlo Club records

  3. Pam Goertler: Fremont Street, Fall 2006

  4. Las Vegas Sun: La Bayou operating under its new name in 2000

  5. Nevada Magazine: cooling off in Las Vegas, July/August 2001

  6. Nevada Gaming Control Board: 2015 locations report

  7. KNPR: Fremont Street businesses shut, June 29, 2016

  8. Golden Gate: completed expansion, September 2017

  9. OpenStreetMap: current Golden Gate and neighboring frontage

  10. Wikimedia Commons: La Bayou in 2011

What remains uncertain

  • 1970 is the reported Coin Castle opening year. Collector research dates the La Bayou name to 1999, independently documented by August 2000. Exact opening and renaming days remain unresolved.
  • Closure is represented at June 2016 precision from contemporary reporting of completed closure. Northern Club’s earlier 1920 opening is not assigned to the later casino.
  • The former address and site association are verified. Pin placement is approximate; historical walls, entrances and parcel outlines have not been surveyed.

This site through time

Replaced by Golden Gate Hotel and Casino

2016 – 2017

La Bayou closed in June 2016. Its former land was incorporated into Golden Gate’s completed 2017 casino and bar expansion. Golden Gate’s existing hotel and casino predated this addition: this is a replacement of the adjoining La Bayou use by part of Golden Gate, not a rename or the construction of the whole Golden Gate property.

Historical source — Owner-issued September 5, 2017 release: completed expansion by Dez Motif/MOSER; additions occupy former La Bayou land acquired in 2016. KNPR June 29, 2016 published programme text separately confirms completed closure.

  • Partial former-site absorption; the relationship does not claim matching whole-property footprints or a survey of former walls.
  • Year precision describes the closure-to-expansion sequence. Golden Gate’s 1906 hotel origins are separate from the 2017 addition.

Shared or overlapping site with Northern Club

Northern Club and the later Coin Castle/La Bayou casino are associated with the historic 15 Fremont Street address. They operated in different periods, with Monte Carlo Club and other uses between them. This is a historical site association, not a claim that the businesses operated together, that La Bayou was a direct rename of Northern Club, or that the same building survived throughout. La Bayou closed in 2016; its site became part of Golden Gate’s 2017 expansion.

Historical source — UNLV Stocker Family Papers biographical note, pages 3–4: Northern Club at 15 E Fremont and undated Depression closure. NGCB March 3, 2015 locations report, PDF index 354: La Bayou at 15 E Fremont. UNLV Monte Carlo records describe the intervening 1945 club. The later Golden Gate expansion is independently documented by its September 5, 2017 release.

  • Some historical captions use 13 Fremont rather than 15. The association identifies the general historic address, not identical surveyed footprints.
  • Exact Northern Club closure and the intervening building sequence remain unresolved. No direct rename, continuous casino operation or simultaneous occupation is asserted.
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