Palace Station began in 1976 as The Casino, a small gambling property on West Sahara Avenue. Frank Fertitta Jr. developed it for a local audience that included people working in other Las Vegas casinos. The business grew into Bingo Palace and then Palace Station, giving the Station Casinos company both a foundation and an enduring part of its name.
Three names, one growing property
Bingo Palace followed in 1977, according to the operator’s historical account. Bingo, a buffet and other additions broadened the business beyond its original casino floor. In the early 1980s a naming contest produced Palace Station. Station’s 2021 account dates that change to November 22, 1983. These were successive names for the same growing property, rather than separate casinos replacing one another on the site.
A railroad identity
The Palace Station name came with a railroad identity. The January 2012 photograph shows a clock-tower frontage, decorative locomotive shapes and a roadside sign built around the theme. It records an earlier appearance of the casino, not the frontage visitors encounter after later remodeling. The name continued even as the architectural theme changed.
From a small casino to a resort
By its 1997 annual report, Station described a substantial hotel and casino at Sahara Avenue and Interstate 15, with restaurants and more than a thousand guest rooms. Those figures describe the property at that time. They show how far it had expanded from its small beginning without turning an old room count into a claim about today’s accommodation.
The 2018 transformation
A major redevelopment begun in 2016 and completed in 2018 changed the property again. The operator’s account describes an enlarged casino, a new low-rise exterior and arrival area, renewed hotel rooms, restaurants and a pool area. The Oyster Bar continued through that transition. The work was a renovation and expansion of Palace Station, not a new casino opening under a different identity.
A company remembers its beginnings
In 2026 Station Casinos marked its fiftieth anniversary with a new company identity inspired by Bingo Palace’s original mark and roadside sign. Palace Station remained part of that living company history. The current hotel and casino at 2411 West Sahara Avenue offers dining, bingo and movies alongside gaming, and it appears in Nevada’s June 30, 2026 report. Its present map area is larger than the original casino and should not be read as an opening-day plan.
Read the full history ↗ Sources and context
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Opening paragraphs: Frank Fertitta Jr., The Casino in 1976, Bingo Palace and November 22, 1983 Palace Station name. Company priority/superlative claims omitted.
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The Name Changes and The Winning Name: Bingo Palace in 1977 and early-1980s naming contest. Three names are not described as three separate casinos.
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July 1990, printed page 17, PDF page index 16: contemporary account of The Casino in 1976, Bingo Palace in 1977, Palace Station/railroad remodeling dated 1984. Contrasts with operator’s later November 1983 account. Announced tower/garage plans are not treated as completed by that publication date.
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PDF page index 1 property overview, Palace Station at Sahara Avenue and I-15: hotel, restaurants and 1,028 guest rooms. Historic figures are dated to the report, not current room counts.
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Retrospective updated account describes work begun fall 2016 and completed fall 2018: enlarged casino, exterior/arrival area, hotel, dining and pool. URL month is not treated as proof all work was complete by June 2018; current amenity guarantees omitted.
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2026 company identity announcement, original Bingo Palace mark and sign inspiration; Palace Station launch context. Scheduled fireworks are not asserted to have occurred.
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Current operator site, hotel, dining, bingo, movies and footer address 2411 West Sahara Avenue, read October 19, 2026. Prices, operating hours and changing counts omitted.
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Palace Station Hotel & Casino, location 03149-02. Gaming-area label is a regulatory grouping, not proof that this Sahara Avenue property is on Las Vegas Boulevard.
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Way 698199401 version 8, current tourism=hotel area, full geometry inspected October 19, 2026. Point 36.1424186, -115.1749241 is inside roughly 318 by 373 metre area; not a building footprint. Deleted older relation not used.
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John Phelan / Faolin42 own-work photograph, January 29, 2012. Explicit CC BY 3.0 Unported; original 3072 by 2304 pixels, 1,459,876 bytes, visually inspected and native stored bytes verified.
The opening is recorded to 1976. The Casino, Bingo Palace and Palace Station are successive names for one continuing property.
The operator’s 2021 account dates the Palace Station name to November 22, 1983. Some historical accounts use 1984; the broad early-1980s transition is used here rather than silently treating the dates as identical.
The historical photograph shows the railroad-themed frontage in January 2012, before the later redevelopment. It is not a current entrance photograph.
The map shows the current resort area. Its extent does not establish the original casino footprint or the dates of every later addition.
