Chat GPT is little long winded here. But the bottom line is that there was a lease of the casino to the Big Nickel which then collapsed.

Happy digging!

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RENDEZVOUS AND BIG NICKEL

400 East Ogden Avenue, Las Vegas • Focus: 1977–1979
Independent research revised October 6, 2026

This report was rebuilt without using information from over50vegas.com, chipguide.themogh.org, themogh.org or dickbartleychips.com. It replaces the earlier report’s conclusions. Every supporting reference is printed in full directly below the paragraph using it. The profile includes the facts that could be established and identifies the remaining gaps; it does not supply unsupported dates or ownership claims.

Answer to the name-change question

A clean, exclusive switch from Rendezvous to Big Nickel has not been established. A federal court identifies Big Nickel, Inc. as the Rendezvous casino’s operator. This connects a company name with a property name; it does not prove that customers saw both names together on signs or advertisements.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/492/238/2308697/
Federal court opinion, findings at printed pages 240–241

There is independent evidence for a second Rendezvous operating period in 1978–1979. The academic study The Naming of Gaming lists the Rendezvous Hotel & Casino twice: 1977–1978 and 1978–1979. This weighs against assuming that all use of “Rendezvous” ended when Big Nickel became involved. However, the compilation does not explain the two periods or prove what appeared on the building.

https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/download/1610/1609/3222
Raento and Douglass, The Naming of Gaming, pages 3 and 29

The defensible answer is therefore: an operating transition can be dated, but an exclusive public name change cannot. The available evidence neither proves simultaneous public branding nor proves a clean switch. No exact switch-over day should be assigned from these sources.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/492/238/2308697/
Federal court opinion, findings at printed pages 240–241

https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/download/1610/1609/3222
Raento and Douglass, The Naming of Gaming, pages 3 and 29

The property and its identity

UNLV’s edited transcript of Ralph Vandersnick’s October 18, 1997 oral-history interview identifies the Rendezvous Hotel Casino as the later Gold Spike at 400 E. Ogden Street. The address appears in editorial note 47. This independently connects the historical Rendezvous to the property in the question; the source uses “Street” rather than “Avenue.”

https://special.library.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/OH_01871_book_o_0.pdf
UNLV, Ralph Vandersnick oral-history transcript, editorial note 47

https://special.library.unlv.edu/ark:/62930/d1v98024k
UNLV transcript catalog record

A later Las Vegas Sun property description says the hotel opened in 1976 as the Rendezvous. This is retrospective reporting, while the contemporary casino references below date from 1977. A hotel opening before its casino is one possible explanation for the different years, but it has not been demonstrated here. The same later description gives 162 rooms and seven floors for the Gold Spike; those figures should not be treated as verified specifications of the original 1977 Rendezvous.

https://lasvegassun.com/places/gold-spike/
Las Vegas Sun, later Gold Spike property description

Rendezvous: the original casino operation

Billboard’s June 25, 1977 issue reports that Lee Fisher, formerly of the Aladdin Hotel, was handling public relations for the new Rendezvous Casino. This is contemporary evidence that the casino was being presented as a new establishment by that date. It identifies a public-relations representative, not an owner, and does not give its opening day.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/70s/1977/Billboard%201977-06-25.pdf
Billboard, June 25, 1977, item concerning Lee Fisher

The Las Vegas Sun’s August 17, 1977 report on Elvis Presley’s death identifies Roger Mennie as casino host at the downtown Rendezvous Casino and Hotel. Mennie had previously been an Elvis bodyguard. This provides another contemporary identification of the casino and a named member of its staff. It does not establish that Elvis performed or gambled at the Rendezvous.

https://lasvegassun.com/news/1977/aug/17/lv-remembersking-rock/
Wade Cavanaugh, Las Vegas Sun, August 17, 1977

An advertisement by James Campiglia in Casino Chip and Token News, volume 9, issue 1, illustrates a Rendezvous $1 chip and assigns the dates April 1977–January 1978. This is useful collector evidence for the first operating period, but it is a later sales advertisement, not a contemporaneous license or opening announcement. It supports month-level dates only provisionally; it cannot establish April 1 as the opening day or a particular January closing day.

https://www.ccgtcc-ccn.com/vol9_1.pdf
Casino Chip and Token News, advertisement headed “OBSOLETE CHIPS FOR SALE!!!”

A photograph of surviving promotional material shows an ashtray bearing the Rendezvous Hotel & Casino name and advertising keno, slots, craps and blackjack. It also shows Rendezvous-branded playing cards. These inscriptions provide physical evidence of the casino’s advertised games and branding. The objects do not establish table counts, slot counts, operating dates or whether those items remained in use under the later operator. The seller’s historical narrative was not used as evidence.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/771511509/wow-vintage-mcm-rendezvous-hotel-casino
Photographed Rendezvous promotional items

https://i.etsystatic.com/7012373/r/il/64e675/2157363158/il_794xN.2157363158_9arh.jpg
Direct photograph showing advertised games and playing cards

Ownership and the failed sale

Stearns’ Properties, whose general partner was Phillip Stearns, agreed to sell on February 1, 1978 for $4,573,613.66. Buyer Trans-World was chaired and majority-owned by William Butters, who proposed television production. The sale failed to close, so it was not a completed ownership transfer.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/492/238/2308697/
Federal court opinion, findings at printed pages 240–241

Big Nickel: the later operator

Stearns leased the property to Big Nickel, Inc. in April 1978. The court states: “Big Nickel, Inc., opened the Rendezvous casino in June or July of 1978”. It does not identify that company’s shareholders or individual gaming licensees.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/492/238/2308697/
Federal court opinion, findings at printed pages 240–241

A separately located eBay listing describes a matchcover as “BIG NICKEL HOTEL CASINO (LAS VEGAS, NEVADA).” This is a useful lead to a potentially surviving promotional object. The listing’s actual image could not be retrieved for examination, so its title alone is not used to establish the address, simultaneous Rendezvous wording, a printing date or a rename date. It does not resolve the public-branding question.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/178098682340
Big Nickel matchcover listing, item 178098682340

No independently verified source in this research establishes a separate Big Nickel gaming floor, its own game inventory, or a new chip issue. The photographed Rendezvous objects cannot automatically be assigned to Big Nickel’s operating period. Likewise, “Big Nickel, Inc.” in the court record should not automatically be expanded into a proven licensed trade name of “Big Nickel Hotel and Casino.”

End of the operation and later identity

The court describes Big Nickel’s operation as unsuccessful and its lease as eventually terminated, without a termination date. Home Savings Association foreclosed in January 1980.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/492/238/2308697/
Federal court opinion, findings at printed pages 240–241

The academic appendix lists Gold Spike Hotel and Casino beginning in 1979. Its authors explain that their casino-name dataset drew on Nevada Gaming Control Board information, supplemented by other historical sources. This is a credible later compilation, but it is not the underlying license file and gives no exact reopening or renaming day. Nick Christenson’s older historical downtown map instead dates Gold Spike from 1981. That disagreement remains unresolved; neither year supplies an exact end date for Big Nickel.

https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/download/1610/1609/3222
Raento and Douglass, The Naming of Gaming, pages 3 and 29

https://www.jetcafe.org/~npc/gambling/dtmap/
Nick Christenson, historical downtown casino map and chronology

What remains unresolved

The present evidence does not establish the original casino’s exact opening and closing days; the exact public adoption or retirement of the Big Nickel name; whether both names appeared together on advertising or exterior signs; Big Nickel’s shareholders and licensed principals; its exact closing day; the original room count and casino size; or a documented schedule of restaurants, entertainment and gaming equipment. The January 1978 collector date is not a substitute for a license surrender date, and a corporate lease date is not a substitute for a public rename date.

The records most likely to settle these questions are the 1977–1979 Nevada Gaming Commission and Gaming Control Board license files and meeting minutes; Las Vegas city business-license records for the address and both names; dated telephone directories and newspaper advertisements; and a legible, independently sourced matchcover or photograph bearing both names. These are identified as the next records to obtain, not as records already examined. A licensing record could establish legal names and dates; a dated advertisement or sign photograph would be needed to establish public branding.

Evidence and access limitations

The core court opinion and academic article were read directly. The Rendezvous promotional photograph was downloaded and visually examined. Billboard, the two Las Vegas Sun references, the collector advertisement and UNLV note 47 were available through indexed text; full-file or direct-page access was blocked or limited during this research. Their precise supported statements are retained, with those limitations made explicit. The eBay matchcover is reported only as an unverified lead. No source from the four excluded websites was used, and no derivative seller narrative was accepted to replace missing primary documentation.