Nevada Palace opened on Boulder Highway in July 1979, a few months after nearby Sam’s Town. Despite its grand name, it was a relatively small hotel-casino. A contemporary farewell account identified casino veteran Gene Lucas and a group of Los Angeles partners behind its beginning.
Its early years were unsettled. The same account described a 1980 bankruptcy, a brief hotel closure and a longer interruption to casino operations, followed by another bankruptcy in 1983. By late 1985, Bill Wortman had become a co-owner. The property survived those changes and developed a clientele that valued its smaller scale.
In a 2006 interview, Wortman said some Nevada Palace customers felt overwhelmed by larger casinos. That observation helps explain the appeal of a modest Boulder Highway property: its size could be part of the attraction. But Wortman was also involved in the larger Cannery in North Las Vegas, and a new Cannery resort was planned beside Nevada Palace.
Cannery Casino Resorts acquired Nevada Palace’s gaming assets in September 2006 and continued operating it temporarily as construction proceeded. Company records fix its final closure at February 29, 2008. Contemporary reports describe employees preparing for work at the new Eastside Cannery, which opened that August.
The redevelopment changed the arrangement of the site. Nevada Palace’s old roadside area became front parking for Eastside Cannery, whose main building stood farther east. This was a replacement within a larger property, rather than a renovation that simply gave the old casino another name.
Eastside Cannery itself closed in 2020 and was demolished in 2026. The map for Nevada Palace therefore marks an approximate former-site vicinity at the old 5255 Boulder Highway address, close to the later frontage parking. The exact outline of its old hotel and casino has not been reconstructed here. Its pin is deliberately separate from the later Eastside building point.