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.