“The buffet filled a need for the casino, which wanted to keep its late-night gamblers happy, but didn’t want the expense of keeping a full restaurant open all night. As UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research writes, “quantity was usually emphasized over quality.” El Rancho Vegas, the Strip’s first resort, came up with the chuck wagon, the earliest version of the modern-day buffet to turn up in Las Vegas.

Culinary trailblazers back in the 1940s found a way to keep gamblers inside the resorts with cheap food, and lots of it.