The first casino license in Las Vegas was issued to a woman The pioneers of the casino industry in Las Vegas were not only male gangsters: the first legal license was issued to a woman named Mayme Stocker in 1920 for the Northern Club. Stocker was a respectable wife and mother who was often written about in the pages of local newspapers. She opened the casino under her own name (her husband Harold did not want to be associated with it at first) and offered only five games legal in Las Vegas at the time: stadium poker, draw poker, lowball poker, 500, and bridge.