Donald “Don” J. Laughlin, a resort owner and namesake of the southern Nevada town he turned into a tourist attraction, dies . He is 92 years old.
Laughlin died Sunday in his penthouse at the Laughlin Riverfront Resort & Casino, Laughlin Riverfront Resort & Casino marketing director Diana Fox said Monday. He died of natural causes.
Family and other relatives were by Laughlin’s side in the days leading up to his death.
“Don … in true Don Laughlin spirit, still tried to make them laugh with his jokes,” Fox said in an email to The Associated Press.
Laughlin is credited as the architect who transformed an area of dirt and weeds 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Las Vegas into a thriving alternative to Sin City.
“When we came here, there was a dirt road and you had to come in from the dam,” Laughlin was interviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2016 Also celebrating the resort’s 50th anniversary. “If it rains, you can’t get here.”
Laughlin, located on the lower Colorado River along the Nevada-Arizona border, is home to eight casino resorts. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau, nearly 2 million tourists travel there every year.
Laughlin was born in Owatonna, Minnesota. As a teenager, he started a gambling business. He used the proceeds from his mink hunt to buy and install slot machines at local bars, according to the Riverside Resort website.
When Laughlin was in ninth grade, his principal gave him an ultimatum to stay in school or stay in the slot machine industry, where he was making $500 a week.
“I said, ‘I make three times as much as you do, so I’m out,'” Laughlin recalled to the Review-Journal.
In 1964, 10 years after purchasing the North Las Vegas gambling operation, Laughlin sold it for $165,000, according to a biography of Laughlin posted on the resort’s website. He visited the Mojave Desert and saw an uninhabited land called the Tri-States. Laughlin bought a boarded-up motel and 6 acres (2.4 hectares) of land along the river.
Riverside Resort opened in 1966.
Two years later, the area became Laughlin. A U.S. Postal Service inspector told a casino owner he needed a name to receive mail. According to the Riverside Resort website, it was an inspector who suggested his last name.
His influence in the region has since grown.
In 1986, Laughlin funded the construction of the Laughlin Bridge connecting Nevada and Arizona. In 1991, he donated land and funds for the Laughlin/Bullhead City International Airport. Many of his employees are Arizona residents.
Laughlin became a respected figure who would greet employees and guests as he strolled through hotels and casinos.
Laughlin is survived by a sister, three children, five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his wife Betty died in January 2022 at the age of 89.
Plans for a memorial service are still being determined.
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