Seven years after Christopher LaPorte closed Insert Coin(s), people still recognize the owner when they see him.

“That’s why I love Las Vegas. We didn’t forget about a f*cking bar,” says LaPorte, who opened the video game bar and lounge on Fremont Street in 2011. “It touched a lot of people, and that means a lot to me. I attribute all of that to the fact that we were proud of ourselves for being video gamers.”

LaPorte, who grew up playing arcade games in a New York laundromat with his mother, began conceptualizing Insert Coin(s) well before he jumped into nightlife. The Rutgers University graduate moved to Las Vegas as a medical device sales representative, and part of that gig included taking doctors around the city, especially to bars.

“I would take my clients to these different places, and there was always a video poker machine,” LaPorte says. “I was like, ‘Why don’t we have a video gaming machine?’”

New York’s Barcade and Portland’s Ground Kontrol inspired LaPorte to bring a similar video game bar concept to Vegas, but with a very specific caveat: “Don’t typecast this venue where it’s just a nerd bar.”

Insert Coin(s) proved to be anything but. DJs pumped through the hits nightly. Dynamic artwork from local muralists adorned the walls. Guests brought pocket change to play retro arcade cabinet games. Clubbers ordered bottle service with their pick of a video game system (Atari, Xbox, PlayStation, ColecoVision) at their table. And at the bar, servers passed patrons controllers to play video games on the overhead TVs—always two, because no one should have to call “next.”

“I’m all about Tron and Donkey Kong and the old cabinet games. I’m talking, like, an Atari 2600; that’s what I grew up on. And to see this type of nostalgia, it just brought the kid out in you,” says Colin Fukunaga, owner of the beloved Fukuburger food truck, which supplied the eats for Insert Coin(s) visitors. “I wish I could make kids understand how Insert Coin(s) really hit your soul for the old-school guys.”

Insert Coin(s) drew people in by way of what LaPorte calls his “mouse trap.” The owner purposely left the lounge doors open to capture wanderers off the street.

“[It was an] inclusivity space, where a stripper from Sapphire could be playing Mortal Kombat with some lawyer from an office down the block Downtown,” LaPorte says. “The joke I would make was, ‘How many gamers can I get out of the closet?’ How many people would I see and be like holy sh*t, you’re a hardcore gamer?”

Even UFC President Dana White was. “He would come in and be like, ‘All right, I want that video game system, and hey DJ, play the Beastie Boys,’” LaPorte recalls with a smile.

It might not have seemed like it at the time, but Insert Coins(s)—along with Fremont East staples like the Beat coffeehouse, Downtown Cocktail Room and Beauty Bar—stood on the front lines of the Downtown revival. The impact of Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project, along with the debuts of the Smith Center, Mob Museum and Neon Museum, were still a year away. And frankly, the area was still rough and overrun with questionable activity.

“The early east Fremont days were a Wild West,” Fukunaga remembers. “There used to be a fire lane right in front of Insert Coin(s), and we’d park right in front. Not one person said anything, because they’d rather see that than whatever else was going on.”

Insert Coin(s) closed in July 2015, though LaPorte has been working toward a similar concept for when cannabis lounges begin opening around town later this year. Meanwhile, more video game bars have popped up across the Valley, following in LaPorte’s footsteps (see Page 18).

If you see LaPorte on the street, don’t be shy about shouting out a friendly “hadouken.” The longtime gamer might be a serious businessman these days, but make no mistake: “I can kick your ass in Street Fighter,” he assures.

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