I first visited Laughlin around 1970. The road to the river was
a two lane snake trail with some pretty dangerous curves. You
had to drive to Davis Dam and turn off on a narrow road that
led to what was then called Southpoint. The Riverside, that
opened in 1966 by Don Laughlin who had sold his 101 Club in
North Las Vegas, was on the left. The Monte Carlo was across
the road. I remember it had a long bar along two walls and had
recently opened. I played on the 21 game to get some of the
chips. Farther down the road was a fork that went right to Needles
and Odie Lopp’s Nevada Club to the left. It too had just opened
having been the location of the Bobcat bar from 1967-69. Things were
pretty stagnant for a long time. The arial shot shows the Edgewater
Hotel that Fuller says opened the 1981. You can see construction on the
Riverside and Davis Adam in the distance.