Final Cards Dealt at Iconic Las Vegas Casino

A final blast from the Mirage’s signature volcano marked the passage Wednesday of an aging Las Vegas resort that wowed crowds when it opened in 1989 and went on to revolutionize the casino resort industry and reshape Las Vegas as a tourist destination. “What would the Mirage be without one last volcano eruption?” asked Joe Lupo, property president of the Mirage, as he ended a closing ceremony that drew hundreds of onlookers, including 137 employees who worked at the 3,044-room resort from the beginning, the AP reports.

Jim Allen, head of the property’s new owner, Florida-based Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming, said work would “literally start tomorrow” to raze the volcano, which rumbled and gushed nightly for nearly 35 years. Plans call for a 600-room hotel in the shape of a guitar that renderings depict with guitar string-like beams spiking into the night sky from a purplish 660-foot tower. Lupo, who remains the property president following the change of hands, said the new Hard Rock Las Vegas will open in 2027.

Elaine Wynn, billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of casino mogul Steve Wynn, who built the property, recalled that two performing tigers belonging to resort headliners Siegfried & Roy were the first “guests” through the door in November 1989. Its last week drew a frenzy of standing-room crowds wagering to win a total of $1.6 million in slot machine progressive jackpot winnings that state regulations said had to be disbursed to clear the books before the doors closed. Slot players lucky enough to get a seat vied for daily prize pots totaling up to $250,000 per day. (More Las Vegas Strip stories.)