The life of Bob Stupak was a strange one

Originally Published: October 30, 2019

I’d be willing to wager that you’ve never heard the name ‘Bob Stupak’ before. If you have, then my entire point here has gone down the drain.

Unless you haven’t brushed up on your Stupak history either. If you’ve done that too, then I’m not sure what to tell you. Still, stick around because we’re about to learn about the life of

Bob Stupak

The story of Robert Edward Stupak begins on the 6th of April, 1942. Born in Pittsburgh, the guy seems to have had some form of gambling around for his entire life ah his father, Chester Stupak, ran a dice game in town called the Lotus Club.

Despite this, Bob was more into motorcycles, once raking as the third fastest driver in the world. We can all see where that went.

Alas, the gambling comes to us all and, as a young adult, Bob moved to Vegas where he started a scam wherein he’d sell fake coupon books. This being Vegas he was rather successful and could afford to move to Queensland and try his hand ad the scam there.

Why he thought Australia to be a good target for this scam is a question I have yet to be able to answer.

Of course, the Australians being smarter than the average Vegas tourist didn’t fall for it and he was deported back to the U.S., continuing work in Vegas.

He went back to Vegas in 1971 and bought the Vault casino downtown. He could afford to buy a casino via selling fake coupons.

He renamed the Vault to Glitter Gulch for some reason and created a massive Neon Sign of a cowgirl named ‘Vegas Vicki’ in 1980 since “Vegas Vic’ was at the Pioneer Club nearby.

As of June 2017, Vegas Vickie is no longer on Fremont Street.

After he renamed the Vault he went on to buy 1.5 acres of land just north of Sahara Avenue, opening, and this really was its name, Bob Stupak’s World Famous Historic Gambling Museum in March of 1974. The sign that showcased the name for the building was longer than the building itself.

In May of the same year, a faulty air conditioning unit would burn the building down.

But all was not lost, for in 1976 he was given a loan from Perry Thomas so he could rebuild on the site of the old museum.

Bob Stupak’s Vegas World.

The casino would include not only the world’s largest free-standing sign, but also unique ways to lose your money and the first quarter-million jackpot. And later the first million-dollar jackpot ever won. The casino would earn over $100 million annually in the 1980s, and its sign would be blown down in a windstorm.

At the same time that Vegas world was having its peak, Stupak also donated $100k for a chance to play with the Harlem Globetrotters. It worked and he downed a Globetrotter uniform and went on court shooting hoops. The event apparently also made international news.

On top of making international news via playing basketball, Stupak also took notes from Donald Trump and made Stupak, a board game in the same vein as Trump: The Game. Apparently, he made it after Trump declined a million-dollar charity offer to play trump’s board game.

And just a few years after this, he was added to the Gambling Hall of Fame. I’ll give it to them, this guy’s worthy of the spot. He’s certainly left a legacy.

The guy, on top of all this, ran the ‘Vegas Vacation Club’ which was a mail-promoted, nearly free vacation club that included rooms, meals, and some complimentary casino play. As time went on, participants returned year after year, spreading word of mouth about the club until Vegas World eventually reached 100% occupancy all year.

Stupak was added as the chairman of the Committee for Olympics in Nevada in 1988 and advocated that the summer Olympics being held in Las Vegas in either 1996 or 2000.

After winning several wagers against people, one of the most popular was a million-dollar wager on Super Bowl XXIII, Stupak paid a daredevil a million dollars to do a stunt wherein he would make a jump off the top of Vegas World.

Upon landing, Stupak fined him a $990,000 ‘landing fee,’ essentially paying a 10th of the promised price.

I said the guy was legendary I never mentioned how actually nice of a person he was.

In 1990, Stupak approached the mayor and city council with plans to construct the largest free-standing sign in the world, standing at 1,800 feet tall being a large neon sign that would tower of Vegas.

However, councilman and instructor pilot, Steve Miller convinced Stupak to add an observation deck at the top, taking him on a plane ride at 2,000 feet and watching the sunset over Vegas, convincing Stupak that to keep the sight only to flights like this would be a sin. He immediately began reworking ‘Stupak Tower’ to include the Observation Deck, a restaurant and amusement rides.

With the new designs, Stupak claimed that his new tower would be the new icon of Vegas and that the Mirage would be two miles from him, not the other way around. By 1991, construction had begun.

And in 1995, Stupak would get into a severe motorcycle accident, breaking every bone in his face and being sent into a coma.

It was initially claimed that he would not survive, but his son, Nevada Stupak, (What a wonderful name) had a non-FDA approved drug given to his father in order to reduce the swelling in his head and brain, leading to Stupak’s successful recovery, albeit with lingering health issues.

At the time of his crash, Stupak had developed the name ‘Stratosphere’ for his tower and had invited Lyle Berman, a fellow poker player, and his company, Grand Casinos in to be investors on the project, as it was slated to cost over $550 million to construct the tower.

Grand Casinos agreed due to the now overwhelming success of gambling in the area, though it had been prevalent for the past 60 years by this point.

Stupak called this the most difficult decision he had ever made, as he was always the sole owner of any of his projects. By late April of 1996, the tower was completed. Being the third most expensive casino ever made at the time. And even though we now know the Stratosphere as what it was intended to be, the icon of the Las Vegas Strip, Stupak had left the board within the year, no longer being the Chairman, and the Tower was a personal financial failure, costing Stupak over $200 million. But after this he would still attempt to make more Vegas Projects, such as attempting to buy the Moulin Rouge Hotel, and, as one of his now most famous projects, he attempted to have a grand-scale hotel built in the shape of the RMS titanic, though none of the projects would ever come to fruition.

And, on September 25, 2009, Robert Stupak would pass away due to Leukemia.

Though his legacy would live on, as in 2016, the city would rename one block of Baltimore Avenue to Bob Stupak Avenue on April 6, Stupak’s Birthday. It was a part of the 20th anniversary of the Stratosphere, which was held on the south side of the property, where Stupak Avenue sits.

In 1992, a community center and park opened near the Stratosphere named after Stupak. While the Community Center would close in 2010 and be replaces by New Stupak Park, a larger one would open that same year, which cost $7.5 million to construct and is over 34 thousand square feet large and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017.

Bob Stupak’s time in Vegas lead to the construction of Its icon. It may not be as luxurious as the Aria or Mandalay Bay, and it may not be as old as Fremont Street, but it’s certainly iconic. And even outside of it, Stupak’s career is among the more interesting I’ve learned of to date.