Haunted hotel guide · Las Vegas, Nevada
The Haunted El Cortez Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas: Mob Ghosts on Fremont Street
The oldest continuously operating casino in Las Vegas, once owned by Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, where you can still sleep in the 1941 rooms.
Most of Las Vegas has been knocked down and rebuilt several times over. The El Cortez has not. It opened on Fremont Street on November 7, 1941, and it is the oldest continuously operating casino in the city, still wearing its Spanish ranch-style front and the neon roof sign that went up in 1952. In 2013 it became the first hotel-casino listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It also has the mob in its past. Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky and their partners owned it in 1945 and 1946, before Siegel went off to build the Flamingo, and Jackie Gaughan ran it for 45 years. The ghost stories here are about that world: a Siegel henchman still guarding a briefcase of cash, pale hands reaching from the dark, knocking on doors in empty halls. You can stay in the Original 47, the hotel’s renovated rooms from 1941. Note that El Cortez has been 21 and over only since 2022.
El Cortez at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 600 E Fremont St, Las Vegas, NV 89101 (Fremont East)
- Opened November 7, 1941; National Register of Historic Places 2013
- Most haunted spots The Original 47 rooms above the casino, the Cabana Suites, the basement, the old hallways
- Best-known ghosts “Fat Irish” Green, disembodied hands, knocking and shadow figures
- Booking the haunted room Book an Original 47 room on the hotel’s website or by phone (702-385-5200).
- Good to know 364 rooms in all; adults 21 and over only; Siegel’s 1941 restaurant on site
The ghosts of the El Cortez
"Fat Irish" Green and the briefcase
The El Cortez’s best-known ghost story belongs to one of Bugsy Siegel’s associates, a man remembered as “Fat Irish” Green. The legend says Green looked after a briefcase full of Siegel’s cash, and that after Siegel’s murder he kept it safe and was rewarded with free room and board for life. After he died, the story goes, he simply stayed. Guests and staff blame him for activity in the hotel’s old wing, the original rooms above the casino.
It is a story with mob-era color rather than a documented history, and no records of Green’s room or death at the hotel have been published. But it is the tale people come to the El Cortez to hear.
Hands in the dark
Ghost tour companies say employees have seen transparent white hands reach out from the darkness in empty rooms. It is the most unusual report at the hotel, and the one most often repeated, though no staff member has been named in print.
Knocking in the Cabana Suites
The Cabana Suites, in the former Ogden House apartments, became Downtown’s first boutique hotel in 2009. Guests there report loud, repeated knocking on their doors when nobody else is on the floor, and still, silent shadow figures that vanish when they look straight at them.
The basement legend
The darkest El Cortez legend is about the basement. Local stories say the cremated remains of several people were once kept down there, supposedly former employees who had no family to claim them and, in the more lurid versions, some “rivals”. The story is usually told about the Jackie Gaughan years. It has never been confirmed, and it should be read as Las Vegas folklore, but employees are said to avoid parts of the basement.
Mob ghosts on the casino floor
Other stories are looser. Tour guides talk of phantom mobsters still doing business on the casino floor, a woman in red waiting in the lounge for a lover who never came back, and Siegel’s own presence in the space said to have been his office. In 2025 the hotel’s haunted reputation was the theme of a widely reported $5,000 weekend ghost hunt challenge in the older, dimly lit parts of the building.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- The Original 47: The 1941 rooms and hallways above the casino, remodeled in 2022. The “vintage wing” where Fat Irish Green is said to linger.
- The Cabana Suites: The former Ogden House, where guests report knocking and shadow figures.
- The Jackie Gaughan Suite: The 2,700-square-foot penthouse where Gaughan and his wife Bertie lived for more than 30 years, now bookable. No ghost reported, but a piece of Vegas history.
- The casino floor and lounge: Where the mob-era stories are set.
History of El Cortez Hotel & Casino
El Cortez was opened in 1941 by J. Kell Houssels, an early Las Vegas casino operator, with builders Marion Hicks and J.C. Grayson. It cost $245,000 and had 59 rooms, and it was Downtown’s first upscale hotel-casino, designed in a Spanish Colonial Revival style with a Western ranch feel.
In 1945 Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Moe Sedway and Gus Greenbaum bought it from Houssels for about $600,000. Architect Wayne McAllister remodeled the interior and kept the 1941 exterior. The partners sold it back to Houssels in 1946 for about $766,000, and Siegel turned his attention to the Flamingo on the Strip. Houssels added a pool, a nightclub and a four-story wing, and a 1952 renovation brought the neon arrow marquee and the roof sign that are still Fremont Street landmarks. In the 1950s the hotel even tried a pirate theme, with a dinner theater called The Pirate’s Den.
In 1963 Jackie Gaughan bought El Cortez, and it became the center of his Downtown casino empire. In 1980 he added a 15-story tower, and he and his wife Bertie lived on its top floor for more than 30 years. Gaughan sold the hotel in 2008 to his longtime friend and partner Kenny Epstein but stayed on in the penthouse, playing poker in the casino until his death on March 12, 2014. His penthouse is now the bookable Jackie Gaughan Suite.
Epstein has spent heavily on the old building. In 2009 the Ogden House apartments became the Cabana Suites, bringing the total to 364 rooms. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 22, 2013. In 2022 it became 21 and over only, and the 1941 rooms and hallways were fully remodeled as the Original 47. A 2024 to 2025 expansion added about 10,000 square feet of casino space. In November 2026 El Cortez celebrates its 85th anniversary.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Book an Original 47 room if you want the 1941 building. They are reached by a short staircase above the casino floor.
- Everyone on the property must be 21 or over, so this is not a family stay.
- Ask the dealers and bartenders who have been there longest for their stories. The hotel does not market its ghosts, but staff often know them.
- Look for the history hallway inside the hotel, with photos from the Siegel and Gaughan years.
- Book direct on the hotel’s website for its member discounts, or compare prices through our link.
- Fremont Street ghost walks pass this way; see our guide to haunted places in Las Vegas.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Flamingo Las Vegas: Bugsy Siegel’s next project, said to be haunted by Siegel himself
- Luxor, Las Vegas: the pyramid and the Luxor curse
- Bally's Las Vegas: site of the deadly 1980 MGM Grand fire
- Haunted hotels in Nevada
- Haunted hotels in Las Vegas
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Frequently asked questions
Is the El Cortez in Las Vegas haunted?
It is one of Las Vegas’s best-known haunted hotels. Stories include a Siegel henchman called Fat Irish Green, pale hands in empty rooms, and knocking in the Cabana Suites.
Did Bugsy Siegel own the El Cortez?
Yes. Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Moe Sedway and Gus Greenbaum bought it in 1945 and sold it back to J. Kell Houssels in 1946.
What is the oldest casino in Las Vegas?
El Cortez, opened November 7, 1941, is the oldest continuously operating casino in Las Vegas.
Can you stay in the original 1941 rooms at El Cortez?
Yes. The Original 47 are the hotel’s 1941 rooms, remodeled in 2022, and can be booked on its website.
Is El Cortez adults only?
Yes. Since April 1, 2022, the whole property, including the hotel and restaurants, is 21 and over.
Are there ashes in the El Cortez basement?
That is a local legend about cremated remains kept in the basement. It has never been confirmed.
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.
- El Cortez: Timeline
- El Cortez: Original 47 rooms
- El Cortez (official site)
- Wikipedia: El Cortez (Las Vegas)
- Ghost City Tours: The Cortez Hotel and Casino
- Only In Your State: What's buried under this classic Nevada hotel
- The Nevada Globe: El Cortez offers $5,000 for weekend ghost hunt
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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