The Las Vegas Strip: How a 1950 Annexation Fight Kept It Out of Las Vegas

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The 4.2-mile Las Vegas Strip, home to the Bellagio and Caesars Palace, lies outside the city of Las Vegas in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester. In the early 1930s Las Vegas Boulevard South was Highway 91, the Arrowhead Highway, leading to downtown and Fremont Street. The Paradise Club opened on it in 1931, and in April 1941 the El Rancho Vegas, with 63 bungalow rooms, began catching Los Angeles drivers before they reached town. Former Los Angeles police officer Guy McAfee named the road after the Sunset Strip, and Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo opened in 1946. In 1950 Mayor Ernie Cragin, facing rising municipal debt, moved to annex the casinos. A group led by Gus Greenbaum of the Flamingo persuaded Clark County commissioners to grant town status, and because a city could not annex a town without its residents' consent, the Strip stayed under county control.

County rule left developers free to build big. Kirk Kerkorian opened the International Hotel in 1969 with over 1,500 rooms, and Steve Wynn's Mirage, built for about $630 million in 1989, needed over a million dollars a day to break even, so its volcano, gardens and restaurants all had to earn money. The themed 1990s of the Luxor and Excalibur gave way to the Bellagio, the Wynn and the $8.5 billion CityCenter. The Mirage closed in July 2024 to become a Hard Rock, and the 67-year-old Tropicana was imploded in October 2024, its site set for the Athletics' ballpark in 2028. UNLV data shows blackjack fell from 77 percent of tables in 1985 to 50 percent in 2019 and from half of table revenue to 11 percent, while baccarat rose from 13 to 37 percent.

• Big Strip casinos took in more than $6 billion in gaming revenue in 2019.
• The Golden Knights, Raiders, Aces and a Formula One race on Las Vegas Boulevard reflect a shift toward sports as younger visitors play fewer slots.
• A planned bypass called Diamond Arena Drive near Russell Road would be the Strip's first new intersection in 60 years, built to serve a proposed NBA arena.
• Nearly all indoor water on the Strip is treated and returned to Lake Mead, and the Bellagio fountains run on a private well.
• MGM Resorts put more than 26,000 solar panels across 28 acres on the Mandalay Bay Convention Center roof.