LOST VEGAS: Bob Stupak’s Vegas World

Stupak was able to make an incredible $100 million annually thanks to innovative promotions, which included the first million-dollar slot prize in history, unusual table games like Double Exposure 21 and Crapless Craps, and almost unbeatable vacation packages.

This week, forty-six years ago, Bob Stupak opened the most successful casino in Las Vegas history.

Stupak, often known as "the Polish Maverick," was the closest thing Las Vegas has ever had to its own P.T. Barnum.  The showman/hustler's penchant for the theatrical would ultimately change the skyline of the metropolis.

With a garish space motif, Vegas World opened on Friday, July 13th, 1979, in an unpopular site on Las Vegas Boulevard, south of downtown but north of the Strip.

In a campaign that resulted in Stupak being fined $1 million by regulators for false advertising, the vacation packages, which included airfare, hotel, meals, show tickets, and gambling credits for as little as $99, were addressed to millions of households in the United States.  (The fine print concealed extra costs, limitations, and the have to endure lengthy sales presentations.)

Put in the Work

Stupak, who was born in 1942 in Pittsburgh to the proprietor of an illegal dice club, appeared destined to follow in his father Chester's unusual footsteps.  Young Bob, who left school after the eighth grade, engaged in dangerous activities that sharpened his huxterism.

He sold watches door-to-door, operated illegal card games, and established a successful business selling coupon books with two-for-one deals.

“I never had a steady job,” Stupak once told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “All the jobs I had were self-inflicted.”

He sang in nightclubs as Bobby Star and raced motorcycles for excitement.

When Stupak came in Vegas in 1971 with $300,000, he bet on a 1.5-acre area of land that would later become the Cheateau Vegas.  In March 1974, Stupak converted the eatery into Bob Stupak's World Famous Historic Gambling Museum.

Two months later, a fire that authorities deemed to be "of suspicious origin" destroyed the casino.  In a federal lawsuit, insurance companies claimed that Stupak started the fire in order to collect "grossly overstated" losses; nevertheless, the matter was settled without conclusive proof or a conviction.

On the same plot, Stupak constructed Vegas World with a $1 million bank loan and his $300K insurance settlement.

Bob Stupak is photographed on the gaming floor at Vegas World in the 1980s

Additional Stupak-ery

Stupak's previous publicity stunts included playing no-limit poker against a supercomputer for $500K on national television, donating $100K to the United Negro College Fund to shoot hoops with the Harlem Globetrotters, and putting what is thought to be the first million-dollar wager on a single sporting event.

In Super Bowl XXIII, Stupak placed a wager on the Cincinnati Bengals to cover a +7 point spread against the San Francisco 49ers. Stupak won and doubled his money because the 49ers only lost by 4 points.

However, turning Vegas World into the Stratosphere (now the Strat) was the trick that would have made P.T. Barnum most proud.  The casino was enlarged, two hotel towers were erected, and the 1,149-foot tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States was still there.

In contrast to Vegas World's original model, which was destroyed in a 1991 windstorm, the Stratosphere Tower was initially intended to be a more durable roadside sign.  Stupak made the decision to enlarge and improve it after being inspired by iconic structures like the Sydney Tower and Seattle's Space Needle, as well as by the then-new Mirage capturing the public's attention.

He enlisted Grand Casinos Inc. as the Stratosphere Corporation's principal investor in order to cover the $550 million development cost.  However, the Stratosphere filed for bankruptcy in 1997 because weak visitor numbers after the property's April 1996 debut caused the company's stock to fall.

According to reports, Stupak lost around $200 million of his own fortune when he was fired during the reorganization.

However, Stupak continued to be a vibrant character in Vegas, running for lieutenant governor, starting a number of new businesses, and participating in the poker scene until his death from leukemia in 2009 at the age of 67.

The Stratosphere is shown under construction in the early 90s at Vegas World. Note the Vegas World sign at left.