Most Southern Nevadans know of Jim Marsh from his silly car dealership commercials in which he is tormented by his daughter, Stacy.
But Marsh, 92, is much more than just a car dealer.
He’s also a gaming industry entrepreneur in rural Nevada, recently licensed again for a small property in Goldfield, population 231.
Born in Denver, Marsh delighted gaming regulators in May with his knowledge of the history of the rural communities in which he has opened businesses. He delighted regulators with his storytelling before being approved for the licensing of 12 slot machines for the Occidental Saloon in Goldfield, owned by Humbug LLC, named for a Colorado mining operation.
Marsh was also the first — and possibly the only — person who was ever licensed to operate slot machines in one of his car dealerships.
Those slots are no longer active, but Marsh’s Kia dealership is filled with old gaming devices, artifacts and displays from a bygone era.
Marsh talked about his gaming experience with the Review-Journal at the dealership. Comments are edited for brevity and clarity.
Review-Journal: How long have you been in the gaming industry in the state?
Marsh: Approximately 50 years. I first got involved when I talked to Louie Weiner, an attorney here in town. I was new in town and went to an antique sale and bought some slot machines. I applied to put them in the dealership, not knowing that dealerships were not allowed to have them. And Louie says, “Well, let’s give it a shot,” so we actually applied. This was when we were at Eastern and Sahara. And we went in front of the (Clark) County Commission and they said, “You want what, where?” I said, well, I want my slot machines in the dealership. They said, “We never had slot machines in a dealership.” So I said, “Well, how about a first?” So they said, “What if we put a provision that they had to be antique machines?” I said, “That’s fine.” So I got licensed at the dealership. That was about 1975 or ‘76 and that was my first experience. So, I had those up until we moved here (northwest Las Vegas) in 2001. We were the only dealership in the world that I knew of that had legalized gaming.
RJ: What rural gaming properties do you oversee?
Marsh: I’ve got the Longstreet Inn and Casino in Amargosa Valley, which is a 60-room hotel and casino. It’s built right on the California-Nevada border, about 35 miles from Furnace Creek (in Death Valley National Park.) And we’ve had that since, oh, almost 25 years now. We get an awful lot of European visitors from there. We have a little pond out in front with ducks and geese and so forth. We have a cat that’s been there for years named Jackpot. That cat lives in the casino and once got up and was laying on one of the slot machines. The cat must have punched one of the play buttons and she won, I don’t know, $15 or $20 or something. Now, that cat is world famous. I built the Longstreet from scratch. The rest of them I pretty much acquired. At one time, I had the games at the Mizpah in Tonopah. And then when the bank closed up there, I gave up the Mizpah and I moved down to what was the Bank of the West, I think it was. And converted that into the Banc Club bar. And since then, I acquired what was the Tonopah Stagecoach and turned it into Tonopah Station. I’ve had that for probably 35 years. And then I built another one in Goldfield at the old Jim Butler mine that sits on the tailings of the mines, right off Main Street. I name my places after mining properties. It happened that there’s a Humbug Mine in Colorado, so I named it the Humbug Bar. It’s a beautiful little bar. And then I bought the Manhattan Bar in Manhattan, Nevada. I also had a place called the Alamo Club in Pioche. The fellow that owned it was a friend of mine and he died. His widow ended up taking over and she did not like the bar business. And I bought it from her and ran it for probably 12, 15 years. One of the problems with these little bars is people have a tendency to steal from you. And I had three women that I had hired over the period of time, and each one invested money. And I finally got a lady to run it, and she did a very nice job. And she called me and she said, “My husband just died, and I’m going to leave Pioche.” And I said, “God, I’m sorry to hear that. Would you like to buy it?” She says, “I don’t have any money,” so I said, “Would a dollar be too much?” She says, “No, I can afford that.” The building, originally from the 1800s, was a Wells Fargo building where they stored the bullion and so forth. It’s got the old walk-in safe in the back, in the bar there, and there’s an apartment overhead. She’s done very well and has the majority of the business in town. She’s bought the building next door, added a little restaurant to it. I’m really proud of what she’s done on that and it’s still running today.
RJ: Tell me about your newest venture in Goldfield.
Marsh: I’m a history buff. And there’s a bar in Goldfield that’s been there since 1905, one of the oldest operating bars in Nevada. And a fellow by the name of Jim Grogan had it. Jim was a friend of mine, very colorful guy, big pot belly on him, he looked like (former boxer) John L. Sullivan. But Grogan was kind of a nonconformist. And if he could do things the right way or the wrong way, he usually chose the wrong way. So, he had the Santa Fe Sloan. The reason it’s there is because in 1922 or ‘23, Goldfield had a disastrous fire that cleared out the whole downtown area, almost 40 square blocks. But Santa Fe was out on the edge of town toward the mines and the fire didn’t get to it, so it’s been there since 1905. The first owner was a guy by the name of Goddard, and he got killed in a shootout at the bar. Well, several owners have had it since then. When Grogan had it, he called me one day and he says, “Hey Marsh, I want you to buy my bar.” I said, “How come you want me to buy it?” “Well,” he says, “the sheriff just came and pulled my license off the wall.” I said, “No kidding. What happened?” “Oh,” he said, “myself and a couple of my cronies were sitting out on the bench out front, we were shooting insulators off the telephone poles. The sheriff took offense to that.” But he says, “I want you to buy it.” And he says, “When I get my license back, I’ll lease it back.” So, I bought it from him. And I asked him what he wanted for it and he said he wanted $12,000. So I said, “Okay.” So it included the 20 lots that went with it. That’s how I first got involved in Goldfield. That was about 1976. And it’s done very well over the years.
RJ: What do you think is the biggest difference between the rural gaming customer and those who enjoy playing in Las Vegas?
Marsh: We don’t, with the exception of the Longstreet, get a whole lot of visitors. So the customers in Goldfield are about 90 percent locals. Goldfield is a town of 300 people so maybe 20 or 25 of them keep us going. We’ll get some European visitors at the Longstreet wanting to go to Death Valley. So we set up a petting zoo there. We’ve got a couple of sheep and a couple of burros. And we have the water buffalo, the only water buffalo I know to be in the state of Nevada.
RJ: You have some burros here at the dealership. What’s their story?
Marsh: Last fall, a lady who I know from Goldfield came in and she had a baby burro. It was about a month old and had a broken leg. She took it to a vet and the vet said, “I think we ought to just put it down.” So I asked if we could adopt the little guy if we paid the vet bills. So, I paid the vet bills north of $3,000. I went down to the city and the city was very gracious. They let me have an exemption, so I could have the burro here. It was named Prunes after a donkey who worked the mines in Fairplay, Colorado, and lived until he was 62 years old. I’m telling anybody that he’s an ancestor of the famous burro Prunes. But you can’t just have one burro, you have to have at least two, because they’re buddies. So we got the other one and he’s named Sunday because he was born on a Sunday. The two of them are inseparable. When my daughter Stacy’s mother passed away, she was low, but began bonding with those burros. She told me, “Dad, she’s been such a good thing for me. I’m starting to get my head straight.” Now, Stacy gets up at 4 o’clock every morning, comes over and lets them out of the corral. They run the whole outside dealership and play hide and seek. And then when it’s time to go to work, they go back in the corral and people come in all day and look at them and feed them. They’ve been great for her with some kind of healing powers in those animals.
RJ: How about those ads?
Marsh: We get lots of comments, lots of people come in and say, “Mr. Marsh, can’t you have Stacy be a little bit kinder to you?” And I said, “You know, I’ve tried that for years, it hasn’t worked. Maybe you could help me with it.” But everybody takes it with a great sense of humor and we try to keep it light and like I say we’ve been doing it for years and years.
RJ: What gaming industry personality do you admire most?
Marsh: I have a lot of respect for the Gaughan family. Jackie Gaughn was a friend of mine and I once bought a piece of property from him on a gentleman’s handshake. Not a question at all, it worked out beautifully. I have nothing but respect for that man. He passed away a few years ago. And Michael Gaughan, I think, runs the best casino in Las Vegas (the South Point). I have a lot of respect for Mike. He’s a really good guy.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
