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Four Queens Hotel and Casino

On June 2nd 1966 the Four Queens Hotel & Casino opened on Fremont Street, downtown Las Vegas. The casino was named after the four daughters of the founder and president Ben Goffstein. In turn, they were named after a queen from a pack of cards: Michele (the eldest) was the Queen of Spades, Benita the Queen of Clubs, Faith the Queen of Hearts and Hope the Queen of Diamonds.
Construction on the Four Queens started in late 1964 and on opening there were 115 rooms and suites across 8 stories, a casino floor with 406 slot machines, 6 crap tables and 17 blackjack tables. There was also the Royal Lounge and the Crown Room Restaurant. The opening promotions featured some fabulous prizes – 1st prize, a mortgage-free home built to the winners specifications, 2nd prize $100 a week for 20 years and 3rd prize an 8 carat diamond ring!
The museum has one of their later promotions in our archives – free stockings!
Ben unfortunately passed away the year after the opening leaving his partner, Tom Callahan, to take up the reins.
By 1968 the property was expanding and a 10-story tower of 210 rooms was added plus 75,000 sq ft of additional space and bringing the room total to 325.
In 1972, Elsinore Corporations, a subsidiary of the Hyatt Corporation, bought the Four Queens. When David Hood, the Four Queens president in 1977 died, his wife, Jeanne Hood, succeeded him, becoming one of the few women to serve as a president and chief executive of a Las Vegas hotel-casino.