Little Chester Stupak remained a big man on the streets of the South Side from just after World War II to the early 1980s. When he wasn’t hustling a buck or hanging out on the street corner, taking in movies or getting kicked out of school, Bob Stupak watched his father’s every move. From the time he was in knee pants, Bob began to appreciate the importance of making friends and influencing people. Chester was the reigning king of the South Side gambling rackets at a time the mob muscled the action and for a relatively few bucks most of the cops and politicians looked the other way. It would serve him well throughout his rocky travels.īob Stupak was born April 6, 1942, in Pittsburgh to Florence and Chester Stupak. Somehow, he managed to maintain his sense of humor. He lost the trust of hundreds of investors. On the way down, Stupak lost more than $100 million in stock value. For the first time in his life, it seemed that everyone agreed Bob Stupak had a winner in the 1,049-foot tower with the rooftop roller-coaster and the NASAlike rocket ride. He emerged from his coma and over the following months struggled to regain his health.įinally, here is a man who constructed his dream project - the Stratosphere Tower - and at last won over his many critics.

Even if he did, he’d remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his days. Emergency room physicians were sure he would not live.

Here is a man who, on March 31, 1995, crashed his Harley Davidson motorcycle going more than 60 mph, breaking every bone in his face. As gaudy as it was, Bob Stupak’s Vegas World was a big-time moneymaker. Here is a man who took the worst piece of real estate on Las Vegas Boulevard, a site fit only for a car lot, and, against conventional wisdom, developed a successful casino there. Leave it to Bob Stupak, perhaps the greatest huckster in Las Vegas history, to defy the odds.

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