Courtesy of Las Vegas Review-Journal Archive
Marion Hicks, along with John Grayson, built the El Cortez and opened it on November 7, 1941. Baker, turned up from Southern California. In December 1939, Marion Hicks, one of Grayson’s partners (including Bennie Benson and George Perry) in the defunct Mt.
Grayson, out of business, was at a loss – a casino expert living in Phoenix where gambling was unlawful, Mob-controlled and required juice and political payoffs to operate. But, according to Grayson, East Coast racketeer Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel cut off Grayson’s access to the wire service transmitting race results. Released from jail, Grayson moved back to Phoenix, where he once ran several illicit gambling houses and later a horse race betting business with Chicago Outfit-connected bookmaker Gus Greenbaum.
The state’s attorney general, Earl Warren, ordered all four floating casinos, lurking three miles out in the Pacific Ocean, closed down for good. Baker illegal gambling ship, was arrested with nine other crew members off the coast of Long Beach, California. The El Cortez, pictured during the Helldorado parade in 1946 or 1947, is still going strong as it celebrates its 80th anniversary.
