In the 1920s during Prohibition, while serving as captain of the vice squad, he took hush payments from bootleggers. Born in Kansas in 1888, he joined the Los Angeles Police force in his twenties. In the 1930s, he owned the Clover Club, a nightclub and illegal casino on Sunset Boulevard – the “Sunset Strip.” The Clover Club was popular with the Hollywood set.

The Flamingo would debut on December 26.įew in Las Vegas knew or cared about how McAfee earned his way to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. Meanwhile, McAfee’s old associates from Los Angeles, Billy Wilkerson and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, were constructing what would become a more famous casino, the Flamingo, several miles to the south on Highway 91 – latest known as the Las Vegas Strip.

Located on downtown’s Fremont Street, the Golden Nugget was the largest gambling house in town. McAfee, 58, had spent more than $1 million to open the Golden Nugget casino on August 30. Photo Courtesy of Las Vegas News Bureau.īy the late summer of 1946, Guy McAfee was the best-known big shot in Las Vegas.