What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right? Sadly, the same can’t be said for the hotels and casinos in the Entertainment Capital of the World – as soon as old, tired properties are deemed to have no future in Sin City, they don’t stay for long and are often imploded or razed to the ground to make way for shiny new ones.
Read on as we take a walk down memory lane to look back on some of the iconic Las Vegas hotels that were demolished, as well as a small selection that were given another chance by getting a revamp and reopening under a new name...
Formerly known as the Tallyho and the King's Crown, the Aladdin opened in 1966, eventually encompassing 36 acres, with a 17-storey tower and 1,100 rooms. However, the Arabian-themed hotel and casino paid the price for financial troubles, legal problems and mob involvement. After various ownership changes, the old Aladdin closed in 1997 before being demolished the following year to make way for the new Aladdin resort which opened in 2000. However, that suffered similar issues before it was purchased by Caesars Entertainment and became the Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort and Casino seven years later.
This Arabian/Persian-themed hotel opened on the Strip in 1953 as a 110-room sister property to the adjacent Thunderbird Hotel and Casino. With its ‘vintage’ Las Vegas appearance, the Algiers was featured in 1990s films Leaving Las Vegas and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Located directly north of the eventual site for the Riviera and across the street from Circus Circus, it closed on 31 August 2004, before being demolished a year later. In 2006, construction began on the Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort, which eventually opened in 2023.
While its 1995 multimillion-dollar renovation added another tower to this Coney Island-style resort, the Boardwalk’s tackiness, with its faux-Ferris wheel facade, still stuck out like a sore thumb next to glitzy new neighbours, the MGM Grand, Monte Carlo and New York-New York. The Boardwalk began life in 1966 as a Holiday Inn, before MGM acquired the site in 2000. It stayed open for six years before being imploded and making way for MGM's Las Vegas CityCenter project that includes the high-end Aria, Waldorf Astoria and Vdara resorts, as well as upscale shopping mall Shops at Crystals.
Originally named the Shenandoah (after the Las Vegas estate of singer and minority investor Wayne Newton), this doomed-to-fail resort opened in 1980 and was plagued with financial and gaming-licence issues from the get-go. After just four years, the property filed for bankruptcy without ever opening the casino. In 1985, a Canadian-based company reopened the property with the New Orleans theme of Bourbon Street, before it was ultimately acquired by Harrah's in 2005 and demolished. The space it occupied is now a parking lot located next to the Westin Las Vegas.
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Sitting on Las Vegas Boulevard, between the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and McCarran International Airport (now Harry Reid International), the Klondike was the southernmost hotel on the Strip. It began life as the Kona Kai Motel in 1962, before it was renamed the Klondike Inn in 1976, with a casino eventually added. It was closed in June 2006 and demolished two years later. A Harley-Davidson dealership opened on the site in 2014. The Klondike appears in the 1997 film Vegas Vacation, in which Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) plays unusual gambling games to win his money back.
Designed by architect Hugh Taylor with interior design by Jac Lessman, Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn (DI to the locals) was the fifth resort to open on the Strip in 1950. The popular destination had an 18-hole golf course and a showroom that featured entertainment’s biggest names, including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Tina Turner. It was purchased by billionaire Howard Hughes in 1967 after the hotel's management unsuccessfully tried to eject him from their penthouse suites. Eventually, the famous resort was purchased in 2000 by developer Steve Wynn, who closed it to make way for his gleaming £2.12 billion ($2.7bn) mega-resort Wynn Las Vegas.
Not only was the pyrotechnics show worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, the implosion of the Dunes on 22 October 1993, marked the end of an era. Meanwhile, the opening of its replacement, the £1.25 billion ($1.6bn) Bellagio resort four years later, was the dawn of the next. One of Vegas' most classic establishments, the Dunes opened in 1955, heralded by a 35-foot-tall (11m) sultan that straddled its main entrance. By the time of its closing, the sultan was long gone, as were its 1960s glory days when several notable couples were married there, including Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker, and Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon.
When it opened in 1941, El Rancho Vegas was the first resort on the Strip, known then as part of Highway 91. It was conceived by Thomas Hull, who wanted to target motorists travelling from LA to Vegas, and is widely credited with introducing the all-you-can-eat buffet in the city. On 17 June 1960, a fire destroyed the El Rancho's casino, restaurants and showroom, with the cause of the blaze never determined. Howard Hughes bought the property in 1970, and a Hilton Grand Vacations Club timeshare resort eventually opened on the southern edge of the property in 2004. MGM Mirage purchased the remaining acreage three years later, and eventually opened its Festival Grounds in 2015.
Gem Gaming announced The Reserve project in 1995, with an opening planned for July the following year. However, it wasn’t until 10 February 1998 when Ameristar Casinos ultimately opened The Reserve, with an African safari/jungle theme. The resort failed to generate a substantial profit, and in 2001, it was purchased by Station Casinos, who renovated and rebranded the hotel-casino as the southwestern party-themed Fiesta Henderson. After Nevada’s casinos were temporarily closed on 17 March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fiesta’s closures would become permanent with the hotel’s demolition beginning in September 2022, and a multi-use, indoor community sports facility built in its place.
The Sundance Hotel opened in 1980 on land owned by a mobster named Moe Dalitz. It became Fitzgeralds Hotel and Casino and later The D Las Vegas. The second tallest building in Downtown Las Vegas, Fitzgeralds had an Irish theme, complete with shamrocks and a leprechaun. However, in autumn 2012, brothers Derek and Greg Stevens, majority owners of the Golden Gate casino also in Vegas, completed a £17.2 million ($22m) property-wide renovation and rebranding, with the D standing for Downtown, Derek’s nickname and his hometown of Detroit.
This 22-room motel, located on the southern end of the Strip, initially opened as the Mirage Motel in 1952. An above-ground swimming pool was added in 1955, and included large porthole windows that allowed outsiders to peer inside. The motel became well known for its pool, which was used in numerous films, including Las Vegas Shakedown, Indecent Proposal, Casino and Leaving Las Vegas. In 1988, the Mirage Motel was renamed as the Glass Pool Inn to avoid confusion with Steve Wynn's new Mirage resort. The motel was demolished in 2004, although its sign was left intact and donated to the city's Neon Museum, before going missing in 2012.
This ‘gatekeeper into Vegas’ began as a 256-room motor lodge on the outskirts of town. The first resort to be seen by tourists driving up from California, the Hacienda grew to a 1,200-room family-friendly resort, and included a miniature golf course and a go-kart track. In its later years, it succumbed to age and a loss in footfall as new gleaming mega-resorts popped up on the Strip. It was demolished on New Year's Eve in 1996 following a spectacular televised fireworks show. Its planned replacement was a secret project known as ‘Project Paradise’, with the land now home to Mandalay Bay hotel.
Dubbed ‘the world's first rock and roll-themed hotel’ when it opened in 1995, the Hard Rock included 1,506 rooms across several hotel towers, as well as music memorabilia, concert venue The Joint and weekly pool party Rehab. Virgin Hotels purchased the Hard Rock in 2018, and while catering to a younger demographic, it was a frequent source of controversy, especially during the 2000s. Hard Rock chained its doors on 3 February 2020 following a four-day celebration labelled The Last Great Party. Virgin Hotels Las Vegas opened in its place in March 2021.
The New Frontier certainly had its share of historic moments. This was the hotel where Elvis Presley made his critically panned Vegas debut in 1956, and it was also the starting place for other Sin City icons Liberace and Siegfried and Roy. Until its implosion on 13 November 2007, the property was the last operating hotel that was owned by Howard Hughes. The lot between the Fashion Show Mall and Resorts World was purchased by Steve Wynn in 2017, and his company had plans to build new casino resort Wynn West, which were later shelved. The site still sits unused.
The first hotel-casino in North Las Vegas, the Fiesta opened its doors on 14 December 1994. The resort was popular among locals, so much so that two expansions including a drive-through sportsbook, a remodelled buffet and a larger casino were added. Station Casinos purchased the Fiesta in 2001 and renamed it as Fiesta Rancho. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 signalled the end of Fiesta Rancho, with Station announcing that it would demolish the Fiesta properties and sell the land. After demolition in April 2023, plans were announced to redevelop the land as a mixed-use project known as Hylo Park.
The ‘Riv’ was the first skyscraper in the Las Vegas Valley, and the area's tallest building until 1956. In its heyday, Liberace was paid £39,000 ($50,000) a week to perform there, while several other entertainers made their Vegas debut at the Riviera, including Orson Welles in 1956, Barbra Streisand in 1963, and Engelbert Humperdinck in 1969. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) purchased the 26-acre Riviera site in February 2015, at a cost of £149 million ($191m), with plans to expand the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Riviera was imploded in June and August 2016, with the new convention space built on the Riviera’s eastern portion.
The epitome of cool, the Sands is synonymous with the Rat Pack who regularly performed in its nightclub, the Copa Room, and its seemingly close ties to The Mob. Frank Sinatra began staying and performing at the hotel in the 1950s, while classic movie Ocean’s 11 was shot there in 1960. Despite being renovated, the Sands’ appeal began to wane, and the hotel went through multiple owners, including billionaire Howard Hughes, who bought it in 1967 and proposed to add 4,000 rooms, but never actually did. The Sands staggered on for another two decades until it was eventually demolished in November 1996, making way for the Italian-influenced The Venetian and Palazzo.
The first resort hotel within the city limits, the Mississippi riverboat-themed Showboat was built in 1954, and after the addition of a huge bowling alley in 1959, it became well-known for high-level competitions, along with wrestling and roller derby events. The hotel was sold to Harrah’s Entertainment in 1998 and became Castaways. This new hotel didn't last long, filing for bankruptcy only three years later before ultimately closing in 2004. The hotel tower was demolished in 2006, with the aim of turning it into a casino-restaurant, but the plans were quickly abandoned. Today, the site is home to the Showboat Park Apartments, which opened in 2021.
Once host to celebrities, criminals and Sean Connery’s 007, the now defunct Tropicana is being replaced by a £1.18 billion ($1.5bn) stadium that will house the Oakland Athletics baseball team. When the lavish 1,500-room hotel and casino opened in 1957 it was dubbed the ‘Tiffany of the Strip’ with more than 12,500 people attending the gala first night. In the intervening years, it popped up in many movies and TV shows, including The Godfather and Diamonds Are Forever, and formed the backdrop to Robbie Knievel’s record-breaking motorcycle jump in 1998. Demolition is slated for October 2024.
The ultra-cheap Western was part of Jackie Gaughan’s casino empire that also included the Las Vegas Club, The Plaza, the Gold Spike and El Cortez. At the time of its opening on Fremont Street in Downtown in 1970, it housed the world's largest bingo parlour with 1,020 seats. After being sold to internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist Tony Hsieh, the hotel portion was demolished in 2013, but the shuttered casino section remains standing.
While the Monte Carlo offered a good value price point and great location on the Strip, it never quite had a cohesive theme to compete with the other big casino resorts. However, its owners MGM had other plans for it that didn’t involve demolition. Following the opening of The Park, an urban oasis and pedestrian pathway to the T-Mobile Arena in the heart of Las Vegas Boulevard in 2016, they decided to splash out £352 million ($450m) on transforming the Monte Carlo into a new eco-friendly and smoke-free resort Park MGM, which opened in 2018.
Another hotel that was given a new name and lease of life is Bally’s. The site on the Strip was first occupied by Three Coins Motel, before Bonanza Hotel and Casino and the original MGM Grand. In 1986, Bally Manufacturing purchased the resort and renamed it Bally's Las Vegas, with a sister property, Paris Las Vegas, opening next door in 1999, and incorporating shopping mall Grand Bazaar 14 years later. Caesars Entertainment decided to rebrand the property as Horseshoe Las Vegas in December 2022, naming it after the original Binion's Horseshoe casino in Downtown.
Dwarfed by the Strip’s huge super casinos, Bill’s offered an old-time Vegas feel with cheap rooms and steak breakfasts. It was originally opened as the Barbary Coast in 1979, before rebranding in March 2007, as Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon, named after Harrah's Hotel and Casinos founder Bill Harrah. It was closed by Caesars Entertainment in 2013 but saved from demolition after reopening as The Cromwell a year later. The renovated property now includes a restaurant by chef Giada De Laurentiis, a rooftop pool, and a nightclub operated by film producer Victor Drai.
The Landmark’s explosive demolition will forever be immortalised as the Martian-destroyed Galaxy Hotel in Tim Burton's 1996 film Mars Attacks! Before being cleared away to accommodate 2,000 new parking spaces for the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Landmark was known for its performances by country music artists, and in its heyday, it played host to Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. The space-age hotel was one of the last of six casinos owned by billionaire Howard Hughes, before eventually falling into financial trouble and struggling to stay open.
With 1,065 rooms, the Stardust was the largest hotel in the world when it opened on 2 July 1958. Its colourful past and mob ties meant it was a major inspiration for Martin Scorsese’s 1995 movie Casino. Boyd Gaming closed the doors on the 48-year-old resort in November 2006, in anticipation of the implosion that cleared the way for Echelon Place, a planned complex that would never come to fruition due to the 2008 economic collapse. Instead, the space changed hands in 2013 and would eventually be home to Resorts World, which opened in 2021. You can see the original Stardust marquee at the Neon Museum.
The Lady Luck was a staple of Downtown Las Vegas for over 40 years. But the economic downturn that hit many gaming establishments finally forced it to close. The original business was a news stand and barber shop called Honest John's which became a full-time casino in 1964. It reopened as Lady Luck four years later, before expanding the gambling element in 1979. After closing in 2006, several investors tried to remodel and reopen the iconic building, but it sat vacant until 2013 when it was rechristened as the Downtown Grand following a £78 million ($100m) renovation.
Once upon a time, the Westward Ho was the last large motel-style property on the Strip and was a financial success for decades. In 1988, the Hot Lava dance show debuted at the Westward Ho and the casino interior was featured in the 1996 film, Leaving Las Vegas. However, following a series of financial struggles and much legal wrangling, the Western-themed hotel closed nine years later and was demolished to make way for redevelopment plans, which failed to materialise. Instead, a branch of McDonald's opened on part of the old hotel's land in 2008.
When it opened with a fireworks show in the presence of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in 1995, Texas Station was the largest hotel-casino in North Las Vegas. Original owner and Lone Star native Frank Fertitta Jr chose the theme to appeal to customers from his home state. When casinos began reopening after the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Texas Station (originally called Texas Gambling Hall and Hotel) remained closed, and most of its customer base relocated to the company's nearby Santa Fe Station. In July 2022, Station Casinos announced that it would demolish Texas Station, with the land being used for the new Hylo Park mixed-use neighbourhood.
The Ambassador Inn was sold to new owners in 1981, seven years after opening. Despite being renovated in 1982, it later filed for bankruptcy, closing and reopening as the La Mirage Casino in January 1986. Eleven years later, the property was given another £5.49 million ($7m) renovation and reopened with a south Florida theme and a new name – Key Largo. Although its low prices appealed to tourists and local residents, it closed in January 2005. Having stood empty for years, a fire broke out in March 2013 and Clark County ordered the property's owners to demolish Key Largo's remaining structures. The land is now an overflow parking lot.
Designed by prominent African American architect Paul Williams, La Concha Motel was considered one of the best-preserved examples of 1950s Googie architecture. After opening in 1961, it was one of the larger properties on the Strip, and welcomed the likes of Ronald Reagan, Ann-Margret, Flip Wilson, Muhammad Ali and The Carpenters. Despite maintaining a high occupancy rate, the owners planned to replace it with the Majestic/Conrad project which included a boutique hotel, condominiums and shopping in the early 2000s. Demolition of the site took place in 2003/04, and the La Concha Motel lobby is now restored in the Neon Museum. The Majestic/Conrad never took place.
Now take another trip back in time and discover vintage photos of Las Vegas