BUNNY's BAR (By Steven Cutler)
Bunny's Bar was literally located on the edge of North Las Vegas with nothing but desert beyond. It opened in 1951 boasting one blackjack table, four one armed bandits and a small bar. It was a one man show in terms of employees. The bartender was also the blackjack dealer and would bounce back and forth as demand dictated.
In 1974 Marvin "Mickey" Coleman purchased the small bar and casino and continued operating it under the original name for a couple years. They has signage outside advertising "Live Girl Dealers", 25 cent hot dogs and 10 cent draft beer. He only hired female dealers, while most casinos in Las Vegas were predominantly male at the time. His customer base was primarily servicemen and their wives , from Nellis Air Force Base which was very close by. He changed the name to Mickey's for a very short time, still operating as a very small bar and casino. The table limits were 50 cents to $10 making it affordable to his clientele. He soon started accumulating adjacent property and expanded the size of the casino. He changed the name to the poker palace and continued buying up land as he could afford it. Today the Poker Palace is a full size Casino offering hundreds of slot machines, poker, bingo and blackjack. In addition there are several restaurants and an event center.
Mickey grew up on the streets of Chicago with a fascination for gaming. He moved to Las Vegas in the late 1960's and went to work at the Golden Gate and later moved to the Riviera. His vision was to own a casino of his own. He was focused and that vision became a reality. We live in the same community and I had the pleasure of meeting Mickey and his lovely wife Laura, two of our closest friends and we have vacationed with them on several occasions. It was on one of these trips I asked him if he had any of the old Bunny's Bar chips. To my surprise he said he did have some along with a few Mickey's chips. I was shocked as these chips were all considered extremely rare and I assumed they were all destroyed years ago. There were 96 chips in total for both casinos, in nine different denominations, still rare by any definition. These are still some of the most sought after chips in the hobby and missing from most collections.
Steven Cutler/DCM
