“Other than that it was just all coin slots.” “We opened with only six table games and a ‘Big 6’ wheel,” Hall said.

Back then there was just a casino area and a small coffee shop. The casino started small with only about 16,000 square feet of space. The hotel had opened in the spring with 152 rooms. The road came up from the freeway and it ended right in our parking lot. “The Virgin River was the only thing north of the freeway. “Back then there wasn’t much to Mesquite at all,” Hall said. He said it was quite a change of pace coming to the Virgin River. “Things have obviously changed a lot since those days,” said Lex Hall, who was recruited back in late 1989 to head the management team that opened the then-new hotel and casino.īefore coming to Mesquite, Hall had been working in a small casino in Las Vegas where he had been for 22 years. A small hotel on the site opened just a few months earlier than that, in May of 1990. The casino has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of its original grand opening which took place in September of 1990. It has been a landmark month for the Virgin River Casino. Pictured l to r are Bertha Sandoval, Beryl Gussi, Lex Hall, Diane Gussi and Roberto Murataya. I found garbage under the bed from a previous guest.The Progress A group of long-time employees got together last week to reminisce about their careers spent at the Virgin River Casino, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last month. After a less-than pleasant stay in Primm, Nevada earlier in the week, this place turned out better than expected.

Access to the rooms is from an outside walkway. There is only one place to get ice in each of the buildings and it happened to be on the opposite side of the building from our room. We ate dinner and breakfast in the buffet.

In our case, we wanted to eat at the buffet so we had to go into the casino anyway. The hotel rooms are in buildings separate from the casino which might be good for those with kids who don't want to take the kids into the casino. The beds are hard (which I like, but I know that doesn't work for everyone). One had a newer AC unit that kept the room cool and was pretty quiet, but the other room had an old AC unit that couldn't keep the room cool during the day and barely cool enough at night even though it was on High Cool the entire night.

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