Jackie had a knack for sports books and handicapping. He bought a small 3% of the Boulder Club and 3% of the Flamingo with partner Eddie Barrick. He moved his wife Roberta and two sons, Michael and Jackie, jr to Las Vegas in 1951. In 1963, young Jackie Gaughan, who had come to Las Vegas in 1943 when he was stationed at the old Air Base (that would become Nellis). Houssels bought in famed Los Angeles architect, Wayne McAllister, to do a remodel on the hotel. They sold it back to Houssels in 1946 for $766,000. They didn't hang on to it for long as Siegel was already working on his dream project on the Las Vegas Strip, the Flamingo. Ben Siegel came to town to muscle in on the race wire at the hotel and with M eyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum and Moe Sedway bought the casino from Houssels in the mid-1940s for $600,000. But from the beginning it was successful. Opened by J.Kell Houssels in 1941, it was considered to be too far down Fremont Street. Hard to believe that the El Cortez is 70 years old but the venerable hotel/casino is still going strong and celebrating all year long.
