Long before the days of the gold club at the Wynn Las Vegas and the fountain show of the Bellagio, there stood one lone casino near what would become the heart of modern Las Vegas. And in fact, the first casino wasn’t even on the road that would come to be world famous as the Las Vegas Strip. Before the days of the Rat Pack and Elvis, before the Flamingo and the Golden Nugget, there was a little spot where you could try your luck gambling before gambling was even legal in Nevada. What was the first casino in Las Vegas? Here’s a hint, it wasn’t Paradise, like part of the city is known these days… it was the Pair-O-Dice Club.

The Pair-O-Dice Club was built off Highway 91, a long and winding narrow road (by today’s standards) that was just about the only way to get from Southern California to southern NV. That made it the perfect road next to which a house of leisure could set up shop. And set up shop that house did, thanks to an entrepreneurial couple named Angelina and Frank Detra. The Detras weren’t much concerned with pesky things like laws, so their club opened in 1930 as a place to gamble and to get a drink despite both being illegal at the time.

Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, and the Pair-O-Dice Club immediately saw its clientele count rise as their illicit gaming operation could finally go public. The club continued selling illegal liquor, much of which was made on site, until Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The Detras sold the Pair-O-Dice club a few years later. Las Vegas’s first casino and night club has since undergone so many changes since the 1930s that no trace of the original remains… except in history.