"El Cortez Hotel and Casino is the longest continuously running hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Opened in 1941, it was so successful that it attracted the attention of Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum, and Moe Sedway, all whom purchased it in 1945.

In 1963 El Cortez was purchased by Jackie Gaughan, and it has been run as a family business ever since, even through its sale to Ike Gaming in 2008.

Augustus Bertrand "Gus" Greenbaum (1894-1958) was a Las Vegas, Nevada casino executive with ties to organized crime. A longtime associate of Meyer Lansky, Greenbaum moved to Las Vegas in the early 1940s as an investor in the El Cortez and the race wire. In 1946, he became involved in the Flamingo, and after the June 1947 murder of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, he assumed control of the property along with Morris Rosen and Moe Sedway. Greenbaum turned Siegel's financial losses into a $4 million profit within a year.