SPARKS, Nev. (AP) â John Ascuaga, the son of Basque sheepherders who became a northern Nevada gambling icon after he bought a small coffee shop with a few slot machines in Sparks in 1960 and turned it into a major hotel-casino he operated for more than a half century, has died. He was 96.
Ascuaga was known for roaming the casino floor and greeting patrons personally at the Nugget that bore his name along U.S. Interstate 80 just east of Reno until it first was sold in 2013.
Anthony Marnell III, CEO of Marnell Gaming which acquired the property now called the Nugget Casino Resort in 2016, said Ascuagaâs family notified them of his death on Monday. The cause of death was not disclosed.
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