History of Hotels in Las Vegas

The El Rancho Vegas opened on the Strip while the El Cortez Hotel opened in downtown Las Vegas in 1940, making them the first hotels. In 1942, the Last Frontier Hotel opened and later was renamed New Frontier and Frontier. Bugsy Siegal opened the famous Flamingo Hotel, which caused the state to levy gaming taxes. The Mafia got involved in Las Vegas casinos. In 1948, the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino opened.

The Strip continued to expand in the next decade. Both the Desert Inn Hotel and the Silver Slipper Casino opened in 1950. The following year, Vegas Vic was erected. The Sands Hotel and the Sahara Hotel opened in 1952. In 1955, the biggest expansion of the decade occurred with the additions of the Royal Nevada Hotel, the Dunes and the Moulin Rouge. The next year, the Hacienda opened. The Tropicana, one of Las Vegas' most famous hotels, opened in 1957. The Stardust and the Convention Center were added over the next two years.

New casinos followed through the next two decades. Starting in 1962, both the Tally Ho and the La Concha Motel opened; Paul Revere Williams, who was a famous architect, designed the La Concha. The Westward Ho Motel opened in 1963. The Aladdin came along in 1966, then Caesars Palace. Circus Circus opened its casino in 1968 and the hotel four years later. The MGM Grand, the largest hotel, opened in 1973. Nine years later, the Mirage opened with more than 3,000 rooms.

The Mirage bought the Dunes in 1993 and imploded the north tower and sign of the Dunes. In 2004, Park Place Entertainment, which owned Caesars Palace, changed its name to Caesars Entertainment. The next year, MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resorts (Circus Circus) merged. In 2005, Harrah's completed a buyout of Caesars and eventually changed the name of its company to Caesars Entertainment Corp.

Many fires took down casinos, including the El Rancho Vegas in 1960 and the MGM and the Hilton in 1980. Many memorable casinos were also imploded as new and bigger casinos were built; the Landmark Hotel and the Hacienda were destroyed in 1995. A year later, the Sands closed after 44 years. In 1997, Aladdin's closed and was torn down. In 2006, The Showboat imploded followed by the Frontier in 2007. Of the remaining historic casinos, many had anniversaries in the 1990s. The Flamingo turned 50 in 1996 and the Tropicana turned 40 in 1997.

The largest resort casino opens under the MGM Grand name in 1993; the Luxor and Treasure Island open the same year. The first Hard Rock Hotel opens in 1995 and the first Hooters Hotel opens in 2006. Planet Hollywood arrives in 2007. The first hotel in North Las Vegas arrives in 1994 as The Fiesta. The Four Seasons Hotel opened in 1999 with only 424 rooms. The most expensive hotel to be built to date was the Wynn Las Vegas in 2005 at a cost of $2.7 billion.