People’s Choice Casino, Las Vegas, Triblend Tee

Description

The People’s Choice Casino was a small but meaningful Westside gaming hall located at 805 West Owens Avenue, part of the historic corridor where Black-owned businesses, lounges, and social clubs helped define everyday life in mid-century and post-civil-rights Las Vegas. Best known for its community-first vibe, the People’s Choice represented a different side of Vegas—local, familiar, and rooted in neighborhood regulars rather than Strip spectacle. The venue is closely tied to Sarann Knight-Preddy, a trailblazing entrepreneur and gaming figure. After her 1979 run for Las Vegas City Council, Knight-Preddy and her husband Joe purchased a business operating as Woody’s Supper Club and renamed it Sarann’s Supper Club, originally intending to create an upscale dining venue. But the space—and especially the small kitchen—made that plan difficult to sustain. Knight-Preddy pivoted, converting the operation into a licensed gaming property and renaming it The People’s Choice Casino. As a licensed neighborhood casino, People’s Choice offered a straightforward mix of gambling: blackjack and poker tables plus slot machines, packaged in a more intimate setting than Fremont Street’s larger casinos. In the Westside tradition, it functioned as much as a social hub as a gaming room—an accessible place to meet friends, share news, and play low-stress games with people you knew. Knight-Preddy owned/operated the casino for roughly six to seven years, though exact opening and closure dates vary by reference. Notably, the property still appeared in a 1989 phone book listing, and an oral-history interview recalls it as still open around 1991, suggesting it may have operated longer (or maintained some form of business presence) beyond the commonly cited early run. While it never aimed to be a glittering destination resort, the People’s Choice Casino remains historically significant for what it represents: Black entrepreneurship in Nevada gaming, a Westside gathering place, and the persistence of neighborhood Las Vegas in an industry often narrated only through the Strip.