Las Vegas in the 1940s Cortez Hotel and Casino. The Arizona Club, also known as the "Queen of Block 16", was the first Las Vegas saloon to have second story constructed for prostitution and was unchallenged until 1941. In 1942, Las Vegas closed its prostitution district, accommodating a request from the military, and by December 1942, bars and casinos were closed for an eight-hour period, starting at 2:00 AM. The West Side Club opened for African American customers in the early 1940s as, in 1942, Las Vegas city commissioners denied a permit for an interracial hotel-casino in the Downtown area. The Hotel Last Frontier was
The Mint Las Vegas The Mint Las Vegas The Mint Las Vegas was a hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. The Mint was the sponsor of the Mint 400, the largest off road race from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. The Mint was made famous (or infamous) as the first night's stay in Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Acosta's legendary 1971 weekend trip to Las Vegas, immortalized in Thompson's novel "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." The Mint opened in 1957. Milton Prell, who also owned the Sahara Hotel and Casino and the Aladdin Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip,