Las Vegas Strip


The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, but is often referred to simply as "Las Vegas".
Many of the largest hotel casino and resort properties in the world are on the Strip. Its hotels, casinos, restaurants, residential high-rises, entertainment offerings, and skyline have established the Strip as one of the most popular and iconic tourist destinations in the world and is one of the driving forces for Las Vegas's economy. Most of the Strip has been designated as an All-American Road, and the North and South Las Vegas Strip routes are classified as Nevada Scenic Byways and National Scenic Byways.

Boundaries

Historically, casinos that were not in Downtown Las Vegas along Fremont Street sat outside the city limits on Las Vegas Boulevard. In 1959, the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was built exactly outside the city limits. The sign is currently located in the median just south of Russell Road which is from The Sahara, about south of the southernmost entrance to Mandalay Bay, which is the Strip's southernmost casino.
In the strictest sense, the Strip refers only to the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that is roughly between Sahara Avenue and the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. Clark County uses the phrase Resort Corridor to describe the area including Las Vegas Boulevard between 215 Beltway and Sahara Avenue and surrounding areas.
The Sahara is considered the Strip's northern terminus by Clark County, though travel guides typically extend it to the Strat to the north. Mandalay Bay, just north of Russell Road is the southernmost resort considered to be on the Strip. According to Clark County, the southern end of the Strip is the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign; the county acknowledges that some argue for Russell Road at the southernmost terminus.

History

Early years (1930s–1990s)

The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931, but the first full service casino-resort on what is currently called the Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened with 63 bungalow hotel rooms on April 3, 1941. Its success spawned a second nearby hotel, the Hotel Last Frontier in 1942. Organized crime figures such as Bugsy Siegel took an intense interest in the growing Las Vegas gaming center and funded another resort; financing the completion of the Flamingo construction with mob money. The Flamingo casino opened in December 1946, and the hotel opened in March 1947. Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn resort opened in 1950. The funding for many Las Vegas projects was provided through the American National Insurance Company, which was based in the then-notorious gambling empire of Galveston, Texas.
Las Vegas Boulevard South was previously called Hwy 91, or the Arrowhead Highway, or Los Angeles Highway. The Strip was named by Los Angeles police officer and businessman Guy McAfee, after his hometown's Sunset Strip in Hollywood.

Unincorporated town

In 1950, Mayor Ernie Cragin of the City of Las Vegas sought to annex the Las Vegas Strip, which ran through unincorporated Clark County territory, in order to expand the city's tax base to fund his ambitious building agenda and pay down the city's rising debt. Instead, Gus Greenbaum of the Flamingo led a group of casino executives to lobby the Clark County commissioners for town status. Two unincorporated towns were eventually created, Paradise and Winchester. More than two decades later, the Supreme Court of Nevada struck down a 1975 Nevada state law that would have folded the Strip and the rest of the urban areas of Clark County into the City of Las Vegas.
Caesars Palace was established in 1966. Opening in 1969, the International Hotel, with 1,512 rooms, began the era of mega-resorts. The International is known as Westgate Las Vegas today.
The first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino opened in 1973 with 2,084 rooms. On November 21, 1980, MGM Grand suffered the worst resort fire in the history of Las Vegas as a result of electrical problems, killing 87 people. It reopened eight months later. In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand to Bally Manufacturing, and it was renamed Bally's.

Mega-resorts

The opening of The Mirage in 1989 set a new level to the Las Vegas experience, as smaller hotels and casinos made way for the larger mega-resorts. In the 1990s, more than 12 new hotels opened, including themed hotels like the Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay. At $1.7B, the most expensive hotel in the world at the time, The Bellagio, was built in the 1990s. In 1993, the launch of the Mystère show at the new Treasure Island hotel by Cirque du Soleil marked a key point in transforming Las Vegas Strip entertainment.
In an effort to attract families, resorts offered more attractions geared toward youth, but had limited success. The current MGM Grand opened in 1993.
In addition to the large hotels, casinos and resorts, the Strip is home to many attractions, such as M&M's World, Adventuredome and the Fashion Show Mall.

2000–present

With the opening of the Bellagio, Venetian, Wynn, Palazzo, and Encore resorts, the Strip trended towards the luxurious high-end segment through most of the 2000s, while some older resorts added major expansions and renovations, including some de-theming of the earlier themed hotels.
Announced in 2004 and built between 2006 and 2009, CityCenter, a, $8.5 billion multi-use project on the former site of the Boardwalk hotel and adjoining land. Most elements of the project opened in late 2009.
In 2012, the High Roller Ferris wheel and a retail district called The Linq Promenade broke ground in an attempt to diversify attractions beyond that of casino resorts. Renovations and rebrandings such as The Cromwell Las Vegas and the SLS Las Vegas continued to transform the Strip in 2014. The Las Vegas Festival Grounds opened in 2015. In 2016, T-Mobile Arena, The Park, and the Park Theater opened. On October 1, 2017, a gunman inside the Mandalay Bay hotel opened fire upon a nearby concert, killing 60 and himself. The incident remains the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
In 2021, the Pinball Hall of Fame moved near the "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign at the south end of the Strip. Later that year, Resorts World Las Vegas opened in June on the site of the former Stardust Resort and Casino.
The Sphere opened in September 2023. Also, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened on the site of the former El Rancho Hotel and Casino and Algiers Hotel in December 2023.
BLVD, a three-story shopping center, opened in November 2024 with several additional tenants opened and others set to debut in 2026.

Future developments

The Tropicana was demolished in October 2024. It will be replaced with a new Bally's Las Vegas resort and New Las Vegas Stadium which will become the home of the Athletics after they relocate to Las Vegas from their temporary home in Sacramento. The stadium and hotel are set to open in 2028 for the 2028 MLB season. The Mirage also closed in July 2024, but will reopen as the Hard Rock Las Vegas in 2027.

Transportation

Buses

provides bus service on the Strip with double decker buses known as The Deuce. The Deuce runs between the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and South Strip Transfer Terminal to the Bonneville Transit Center and the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas, with stops near every casino.

Trams

Several free trams operate between properties on the west side of the Strip:

Monorail

While not on the Strip itself, the Las Vegas Monorail runs a 3.9-mile route on the east side of the Strip corridor from Tropicana Avenue to Sahara Avenue, with stops every 4 to 8 minutes at several on-Strip properties including the MGM Grand and the Sahara at each end of the route. The stations include:
Image:LVStriptraffic.JPG|thumb|right|The Strip traffic during the day, looking north from the MGM Grand. The strip has a number of pedestrian footbridges.The monorail began operating in 1995 with two trains from Walt Disney World. In 2020, the monorail was acquired by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Pedestrian traffic

Tens of thousands of pedestrians are walking along the Strip at any given time. As of 2019, about 50,000 pedestrians walked the Strip on an average day.
In the 1990s, several pedestrian footbridges were erected over Las Vegas Boulevard to increase pedestrian safety and alleviate traffic congestion at popular intersections. The first was the Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard footbridge. Some mimic the theme of nearby resorts.. The footbridges include:
  1. Veer Towers: Connects Veer Towers, Waldorf Astoria, and Crystals Shopping Center
  2. Park MGM and T-Mobile Arena Park: Connects MGM and Showcase Mall
  3. Planet Hollywood: Connects Planet Hollywood, CityCenter, Crystals Shopping Center, and The Cosmopolitan.
  4. Spring Mountain Road and Las Vegas Blvd. Corner: Connects Treasure Island, the Wynn, Fashion Show Mall, and The Venetian
  5. Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Blvd. Corner: Connects Bally's, Flamingo, Bellagio, and Caesars Palace
  6. Las Vegas Blvd and Tropicana Ave Corner. Connects the MGM Grand, New York-New York, Excalibur, and Tropicana

    Taxis

Taxis are available at resorts, shopping centers, attractions, and for scheduled pickups. The Nevada Taxicab Authority provides information about taxi fares and fare zones.

Attractions on the Strip

Gambling

In 2019, about eight in ten visitors said they gambled while in Las Vegas, the highest proportion in the past five years. The average time spent gambling, 2.7 hours, represents an increase over the past three years. Also, the average trip gambling budget, $591.06, was increased from 2018. About nine in ten visitors who gambled did so on the Strip Corridor. UNLV reported that in 2019, Big Las Vegas Strip Casinos had more than $6B in annual gaming revenues, corresponding to about 26% of total annual revenues.
From the time period spanning 1985 to 2019, there have been some changes in the mix of table games in casinos on the Strip:
  • Blackjack: The number of tables decreased from 77% in 1985 to 50% in 2019. Revenue decreased from 50% in 1985 to 11% in 2019.
  • Craps: Revenue decreased from 28% in 1985 to 11% in 2019.
  • Roulette: Both the number of tables and revenue increased by 50%.
  • Baccarat: About 2% of tables and 13% revenue in 1985 to 13% of tables and 37% of revenue in 2019.
  • Additional games: Games such as pai gow poker, three-card poker, and mini-baccarat have increased in popularity, number of tables, and revenue.
Casino operators have been expanding sports betting facilities and products, as well as renovating and upgrading equipment and facilities. Although sports betting has a relatively low margin, the high-end sportsbooks can generate significant amounts of revenue in other areas, such as food and drink. As a result, sportsbooks have been expanding and upgrading food and drink offerings. High-end sportsbooks include features such as single-seat stadium-style seating, large high-definition screens, a dedicated broadcast booth, and the ability to watch up to 15 sporting events at once. The sports network ESPN is broadcasting sports betting shows from a dedicated studio at The Linq. Some sportsbooks are now offering self-service betting kiosks.