History
After Idaho outlawed all forms of casino gaming in 1954, "Cactus Pete" Piersanti moved his slot machine operations from Idaho to the Jackpot town site less than 1 mile (0.6 km) from the Idaho/Nevada border on U.S. Route 93. Piersanti's gaming establishment was named Cactus Pete's Desert Lodge. The establishment of Cactus Pete's and the nearby Horseshu Club in the same year is considered the founding of the town of Jackpot. Today the Horseshu property is also owned by Ameristar.
In 1991 Cactus Pete's completed a $22 million hotel and casino expansion making the property became one of the largest gaming facilities in northeast Nevada. The expansion included enlarging the casino to over 26,000 sq ft (2,400 m2), adding a 10 story hotel tower, restaurants, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Although located in Elko County, Nevada, Cactus Pete's is one of the largest employers in southern Idaho.
In 1993 Ameristar Casinos, Inc. was founded as the parent company of Cactus Petes and Ameristar Casinos Vicksburg.
Read more about this topic: Cactus Pete's
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)