Jackpot! : It Wasn’t Luck That Made Laughlin, Nev., Boom

To call this a boom town is an outrageous understatement.

In fact, the only guarantee that can be attached to this mini-Baghdad-by-the-Colorado River is this: Propelled by the infusion of still more gambling-related investment than already exists, the Laughlin of tomorrow won’t resemble the Laughlin of today any more than the Laughlin of today approximates the Laughlin of yesterday. And the Laughlin of yesterday was a poor bedraggled thing for which only the most optimistic of visionaries would have predicted survival.

“Every projection I’ve made about Laughlin since I bought my land here in 1978 has taken half the (predicted) time to happen,” said Robert Bilbray, a Las Vegas lawyer turned Laughlin developer who owns 80% of the private land available here for residential development. “All the demographics I did have been blown to smithereens. Now I’m very leery about making projections about Laughlin’s growth or the character of that growth.”

A skimpy patch of history is in order here.

A mere 18 years ago, an enterprising ex-Minnesotan named Don Laughlin (today’s town is named after him) piloted his private plane over this remote spot across the Colorado River from the drowsy little recreational backwash of Bullhead City, Ariz. He thought the dusty, scrubby no-name tuft of land possessed “good potential,” figuring that residents of Kingman, Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City in Arizona and Needles in California might be willing to cross the fast-flowing Colorado to gamble.

Laughlin, now 53, sold a small casino he owned in North Las Vegas and bought a little club containing only a dozen slot machines and no other gambling equipment. Later he knocked out a wall and added a blackjack table and crap table.

And the club, which, sitting where it did, he named the Riverside, grew and grew. As recently as four years ago, however, only two competitors survived of the three who had dared set up shop along the Colorado and adjacent to an unlighted rut-ridden dirt road that had no sidewalks.

And Laughlin remained scarcely more than a whisper on Nevada’s clamorous gambling landscape.

Nevada’s 1984 gambling revenues, according to figures released in Carson City last week, dramatically illustrate the astonishing Laughlin phenomenon. Last year’s taxable gambling revenues here totaled $117.7 million compared to $80.3 million during the previous year.

That’s an increase of 46.6% in a single year, an extraordinary statistic when matched against revenues of the Las Vegas Strip, which increased only 2.5%, and downtown Las Vegas, which experienced an increase of 7.5% in 1984.

Of course, the income generated by gambling in Laughlin remains minuscule when compared to the totals of the two giant Las Vegas wagering centers that together in 1984 amassed a total of more than $1.6 billion.

Still, the percentage of increase is what casino operators consider eye-opening and, as many of them predict, Laughlin already may be well on the way to overtaking Lake Tahoe as the state’s No. 3 gaming revenue producer behind Las Vegas and Reno-Sparks.

In 1983, Tahoe’s take from gamblers was three times as much as Laughlin’s. Last year, its $248.9 million was only about double Laughlin’s gambling revenues.

Another illustrative figure: Two years ago, Laughlin had 450 hotel rooms and, at most, 2,000 employees. Today, it has 1,600 rooms scattered among its seven casinos and 6,000 employees.

Tomorrow? Well, consider this: The Riverside now has 350 rooms, and Don Laughlin says he is planning to increase the number to 800. The biggest establishment in town, the Circus Circus-owned 600-room Edgewater Hotel and Casino plans a similar increment and the new 225-room Sam’s Town Gold River has a master plan calling for another 500.

As if that weren’t enough, sufficient privately owned land (the vast majority of acreage in the Laughlin area is federal property) exists along Casino Drive, which was paved only a few months ago, to permit the construction of at least eight more substantial casino-hotels. And, almost overnight, major hotel chain and casino operators across the nation have riveted their attention on Laughlin.

According to developer Bilbray, scarcely a day goes by that he doesn’t receive inquiries “from casinos not only in this state but in Atlantic City about buying property.” And none of the property he owns is even zoned for casino construction--yet.

Just what is the allure of this place that once was the proverbial wide spot in a dirt road, and not an especially negotiable dirt road at that?

One can dredge up a mix of plausible theories depending on whom one talks to. But a common logic runs through them all.

“Location, location, location,” said one casino manager in support of this rationale. The town was a “natural,” he explained, noting that it lies smack dab in the middle of one of the nation’s most rapidly expanding recreational areas.

The town sits on the Nevada side of the Colorado River, just below popular Lake Mohave and not far from Lake Havasu--each a Mecca for fishermen and water sportsmen. Outdoorsmen who like to gamble and gamblers who also are drawn to nature’s beguilements find this place irresistible, so the theory goes.

What’s more, Laughlin is accessible to Southern California’s major population areas (Los Angeles is 300 miles distant and San Diego 390 miles away) as well as the most populous city (Phoenix) in the fastest-growing state (Arizona) in the Sun Belt.

Without gambling there wouldn’t be a speck called Laughlin on the map of Nevada in the southeastern-most triangle of the state. Wouldn’t be much of a Bullhead City across the river either.

In fact, until as recently as last summer, almost no one lived here. By charitable estimate, the population of the town was 90. The hordes of gamblers were from somewhere else, and the casino employees went across the Colorado to Bullhead City and surrounding communities after leaving work.

The reason for this near-zero population is no mystery. Most of the private land available to build on was occupied by casinos. Nearly all of the remainder belonged to the U.S. government, the state of Nevada or Southern California Edison Co., which has operated a generating plant here for about 15 years.

Suddenly all that has changed, and so has the projected character of Laughlin. Gambling remains the big industry here but, in the blink of an eye, the town has acquired homes--apartments, condos, mobile-home parks and private dwellings. Nearly 1,000 residential units have been completed, and well in excess of 1,000 more are on the way, plus the stores and shops that will be needed to service them, as well as the inevitable shopping malls.

New School to Open

A six-room school of portable buildings on fixed foundations will open for classes this fall. Previously, the Clark County School District contracted with its counterpart across the river in Arizona to educate Laughlin’s children.

Some of the residential breakthrough was a gleam in Bob Bilbray’s eye as long as six years ago when he acquired the single substantial parcel of developable private land remaining in this area--400 acres. The other part is the result of the Colorado River Commission turning loose some public land because of pressure for affordable housing on this side of the river for the mushrooming population of casino employees.

Even as the spanking new residences were springing up last autumn and this year, the sewers and water and power lines to make them livable were being completed by Clark County.

Today, Laughlin’s residential population totals 1,000--or at least it did yesterday. By this summer, officials estimate that it will climb to 3,000. Educated guesses place the eventual number of residents in five figures.

“Right now,” said James Ley, assistant director of the Clark County Department of Comprehensive Planning, “there are enough jobs in gaming to support a population of 15,000.” He added, “Everybody asks me that question: ‘How far is all this going to go?’ My answer is: ‘I just don’t know.’ ”

A visit to Bullhead City, across the river, supplies at least a clue to the growth that might come here.

Travel from Laughlin to the opposite side of the Colorado is accomplished in one of two ways:

- Motorists may drive a twisting road that straightens as it runs atop Davis Dam, which for 22 years has held back the waters of Lake Mohave. The distance from Laughlin to Bullhead via this route is five miles.

- For those who don’t wish to risk the road, which has claimed an average of two lives a year for at least the last decade, Laughlin’s casinos operate about 25 little ferries equipped with outboard motors between here and parking lots that the gambling establishments own on the Arizona shore.

There is some talk today about building a bridge. The state of Nevada is enthusiastic about the project, but the state of Arizona is not--with the exception of Bullhead City residents. Don Laughlin himself has offered to put up $2 million for its construction, but some people don’t like the idea because, as proposed now, the bridge would funnel traffic almost smack onto Don Laughlin’s property.

The flabbergasting population gain of Bullhead City and its satellites has precisely paralleled casino growth across the river because, until the last few weeks, no other place existed for casino employees to live than the Arizona side.

The year Don Laughlin arrived here, the population of Bullhead City was about 600. By 1970, it was 4,000, by 1980 it was 13,000 and today is estimated by the Chamber of Commerce to be in excess of 31,000, and casino employees and their families are believed to constitute more than half of that number.

The result has been such a disorderly distention in and around Bullhead, Brusso said, that residents, after years of priding themselves on being inhabitants of “a laid-back fishing community,” recently voted to incorporate in an attempt to bring some control to the area.

On the plus side, however, said Bill Paulos, general manager of the huge Edgewater, which is responsible for a substantial portion of the casino populace, “The economic effect on Bullhead City has been spectacular.”

Patty Paasch, a 24-year-old divorcee newly arrived from the Bay Area, waited in the warm winter sun with her aunt in the latter’s pickup truck outside a dune-colored sheriff’s substation, built a mere six months ago. She needed a temporary job permit from the Sheriff’s Department to begin work the next day as a change maker in a casino. She said she had been in town less than a week and had been offered jobs in three different gambling houses. “They literally hire you off the street,” she said.

Laughlin’s remoteness puts off many potential casino employees, and the prospect of living in Bullhead City, where temperatures in the summer may reach into the 120s, is less than enchanting. But, said Laurie Gordo, Paasch’s 29-year-old aunt and wife of a construction worker employed for more than a year in Laughlin, “People love it here. They have a chance to start over again. You can find anything you want on the other side of the river (where she lives, of course).

“This area is the land of opportunity for people who want to get ahead. Young people who want to be able to afford their own homes. You can buy a mobile home and the land it’s on for $19,000 in Bullhead City. I’ll bet you can see more pregnant young housewives over there than anyplace else in the country. And four new fast-food places have opened in the last month.

“We’ve made a ton of friends. Because everyone who is here is new, everyone is anxious to make friends.”

Despite the summer’s fierce heat, these winter days in Laughlin are appealing. The weather is dry and temperatures range from a low at night in the 40s and into the 60s and even 70s during the day.

The recreational vehicle lots maintained by casinos are packed bumper to bumper, and charter buses zip in and out of parking lots disgorging and scooping up their cargoes. More affluent gamblers arrive aboard commuter airlines at the Bullhead City airport a few yards from the casinos’ Arizona-side parking lots; some even fly in aboard their own private aircraft.

But almost to the man and woman--this time of year--they have one thing in common: age and, in frequent instances, outright infirmity.

“It’s a different market (from Las Vegas) and a very interesting one. Our average age is much older this time of year. We get retired people from Southern California, Palm Springs, San Bernardino and Phoenix and Sun City in Arizona. And from nearby, Kingman and Lake Havasu. A lot of people from the Midwest who have retired to the Sun Belt,” said the Edgewater’s Paulos.

The Riverside Hotel is currently offering a lecture series on the “latest trends in medical and surgical treatment” of arthritis.

Charter Bus Runs

Casino operators contend that residents of the Phoenix-Sun City area in Arizona and travelers from Southern California account for about 80% of the Laughlin visitors, with the number evenly split. Where the remainder originate is anyone’s guess.

Sam Lewis, owner of the Fullerton-based Orange Blossom Lines, which operates charter buses to destinations throughout the West, said that three years ago when he began runs to Laughlin “people didn’t know it was on the map.”

But he said that in those three years his business “has increased hugely.” And where originally Laughlin was the destination of only 1% to 2% of his traffic, today the figure has rocketed to 15%.

Most of his customers are not big gamblers. “Some seniors who are on a fixed income,” he said, “go to Laughlin just to get away from their humdrum lives at home.” And to eat. Because the the casino’s buffets offer attractive prices and unlimited quantity--a Sunday-through-Thursday “all you can eat” chicken buffet at one casino goes for 90 cents--his customers “do an awful lot of eating,” he said.