One of Las Vegas’s first mega resorts and a former in style poker spot is about to shut. Although authentic plans referred to as for renovation whereas the property remained open, the choice has been made that The Mirage can be shuttered on July 17 as the brand new homeowners, the Seminole tribe of Florida, transition the on line casino into Hard Rock Las Vegas.
“We really are encouraged about not only the future of Las Vegas, but how Hard Rock and Seminole Tribe can play a role in helping to develop that and grow the market,” on line casino President Dan Lupo informed the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “But today is a tough day for a lot of people. Our priority is the wellbeing of those individuals.”
Historic Mega Resort
The property is expected to reopen in July 2027. In the meantime, about 3,300 workers are being laid off. The firm is offering a useful resource heart to assist workers discover jobs together with the provision of transferring to different Seminole properties across the nation.
Union representatives have mentioned they’re additionally working with workers to search out new alternatives. The firm is paying out about $80 million in severance funds to these let go.
The Seminoles acquired the Mirage in December 2022 for about $1 billion. Plans name for the brand new resort to incorporate a guitar-shaped lodge tower, as seen on the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, in addition to 25 eating places and a 5,000-seat theater.
The Mirage ushered within the mega resort pattern on the Las Vegas Strip after opening in 1989. The brainchild of on line casino impresario Steve Wynn, the on line casino was the costliest resort ever constructed on the time at a price ticket of $630 million.
Guests have been handled to points of interest that have been sudden for a on line casino on the time together with dolphin and tiger habitats, an indoor tropical forest, a 20,000-gallon aquarium of unique fish, and a synthetic volcano that erupted nightly alongside the Strip for guests passing by. The property was additionally dwelling to the famed Siegfried & Roy magic present for 14 years and was additionally dwelling to Cirque du Soleil’s first Las Vegas present.
Popular Poker Venue
The property additionally hosted many huge names within the poker site and was even talked about within the film Rounders as “the center of the poker universe.” Poker gamers like Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and others have been regulars on the property within the ‘90s before the city’s greater motion shifted to properties just like the Bellagio and Aria.
Negreanu took to Twitter to precise his recollections of the on line casino.
This one hits arduous
I’ve so many nostalgic recollections within the late 90’s strolling into this place, listening to Steve Wynn’s voice, seeing the Tigers, and the odor is imprinted in my mind
This was poker Mecca earlier than Bellagio opened
RIP Mirage
You can be missed https://t.co/kiNIOBz7uR
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) May 15, 2024
The poker site closed in 2020 through the pandemic and by no means reopened. The Seminoles haven’t introduced whether or not a poker site could be a part of the redeveloped property, however the sport is a serious a part of the corporate’s different operations in Florida, so there may be at the least a chance that Vegas might even see one other poker venue sooner or later.
This isn’t the one property on the Strip to shut. The Tropicana was shuttered in April to make manner for the brand new baseball stadium for the Oakland Athletics. There have been reviews that Casino Royale may very well be imploded this yr to make manner for a bigger venue.
The oldest on line casino on the Las Vegas Strip stays the Flamingo, which opened in December of 1946, adopted by the Sahara, which opened in October of 1952.
