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Associated Press

The Mirage is about to vanish from the Las Vegas Strip.
Gambling ended and the doors closed on July 17 at the iconic, tropical-island-themed hotel-casino that opened in 1989 with a fire-spewing volcano outside, and Siegfried & Roy’s lions and dolphins inside.
Frenzied final days have seen standing-room crowds wagering to win US$1.6 million in slot machine progressive jackpot winnings that state regulations say have to be disbursed before the lights go out and a massive transformation of the property begins.
The Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show Love ended its 18-year run earlier this month. With gamblers gone, only memories will remain of former casino mogul Steve Wynn’s hotel that revolutionised the casino resort industry.

“Las Vegas always reinvents itself,” said Michael Green, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor whose father dealt blackjack for decades at casinos, including the now-closed Stardust and Showboat. “The Mirage is no longer state-of-the-art.”
New operators Hard Rock International and Florida-based Seminole Gaming plan to add 600 rooms to an existing 3,044 in a bright new guitar-shaped hotel where the pavement-side volcano rumbled and gushed nightly.
Renderings depict guitar-string-like beams spiking into the night sky from a purplish 201-metre (660ft) tower.
“The Mirage was a transcendent property, changing the landscape of Las Vegas,” said Joe Lupo, president of The Mirage who will stay on at the new resort. “We are confident that Hard Rock Las Vegas will do the same in 2027.”
There will not be a demolition spectacle like the now-closed Tropicana casino-hotel several blocks down the Strip. That 22-storey property is slated to be dynamited sometime later this year, to be replaced before 2028 by a baseball stadium.

“The doors opened to a crush of humanity and it stayed like that for days,” says Alan Feldman, a long-time MGM Resorts casino executive who is now a fellow at the gambling institute at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Feldman was Wynn’s first publicist at the new resort.
“It’s hard to capture what The Mirage changed. One of the things was that Las Vegas became more than Elvis, showgirls, round beds and gambling.”
Costing US$630 million, it was no simple gambling hall. It was the world’s largest hotel at the time.

Guests were met by a faint piña colada scent and two bronze mermaid statues on the way to check in at a desk with a huge shark and reef fish tank behind it.
It had glitzy shops, celebrity chef restaurants and theatre-sized showrooms featuring headliners like Johnny Mathis, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.
“Instead of neon, a garden of dozens of rich Canary Island palm trees and a cool refreshing waterfall,” Wynn recalled in a statement released through his Las Vegas lawyer.
To call The Mirage a catalyst would be an understatement
Steve Wynn, its founder
Amid competition from casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the expansion of tribal gambling in California, Wynn noted that The Mirage was the first new hotel to be built in Las Vegas in years.
Its completion ushered in a virtual doubling of the resort capacity over the next decade – more than 30,000 hotel rooms – making Las Vegas one of the fastest growing cities in America.
“To call The Mirage a catalyst would be an understatement,” Wynn wrote.

By 2000, new resorts included Excalibur, Luxor, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, New York-New York, Monte Carlo, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Venetian and Paris Las Vegas. Many were funded by Wall Street bonds. Wynn bought and demolished the 50-year-old Desert Inn to build and open his eponymous Wynn Resort in 2005.
Wynn, now 82 and living in Florida, paid a US$10 million fine to Nevada gambling regulators last year and cut ties with the industry he helped shape to end a years-long legal fight stemming from media reports in 2018 that he sexually harassed or assaulted several women at his hotels. He has always denied the allegations against him.
Feldman recalled that the design of The Mirage made it “an unusual and unexpected place, where people wondered, ‘How do you have all this in the middle of the desert’?”
Bo Bernhard, director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Gaming Institute, studies the emergence of what he terms the “fun economy” around the world.
He said The Mirage gave Las Vegas an exportable product, like cars from Detroit, and set a standard for resort development in places like Singapore and Sydney.


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Luxury & Gaming

The volcano attraction in front of The Mirage Hotel & Casino erupts in Las Vegas erupts for the second-to-last time on July 16, 2024. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Casino The Mirage, which changed Las Vegas with its dolphins, volcano and tropical island theme, has shut its doors for good. In its place will come the guitar-shaped Hard Rock Las Vegas in 2027. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

The Mirage’s volcano feature erupts for almost the last time on July 16, not long after the casino-resort’s Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show Love closed after an 18-year run. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

A graphic rendering of Hard Rock Casino’s planned guitar-shaped building which will open on the Las Vegas Strip in 2027. Photo: AP

Magicians Siegfried (left) and Roy were a fixture at the now-closed Mirage casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: AP 

When the Mirage opened in 1989, it spurred a building frenzy in Las Vegas. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

He stays at Asia’s finest boutique hotels, from China to Japan – it’s part of his job

Mark Wong at Art Paradiso, a Small Luxury Hotels of the World property in Incheon, South Korea. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Qiushui Villa, in Hangzhou, China was built by high-profile Chinese journalist Shi Liangcai for his wife. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Else Kuala Lumpur is a wellness-focused hotel in the Malaysian capital. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

A room at the Nagoya Kanko Hotel. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Wong at Art Paradiso, an SLH property in Incheon, South Korea Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Wong at Yanbai Villa, an SLH property in Beijing. “The Asian customer has gone from flashy luxury to private luxury,” Wong says. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

With over 200 rooms, The Sukhothai Bangkok Hotel is one of the larger Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Huvafen Fushi Maldives, a Small Luxury Hotel of the World in a stunning setting. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Huvafen Fushi Maldives has an under-the-sea spa. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

The exterior of one of the villas at The Dawn Luxury Hotel, which stands within Yunnan’s Weishan Ancient City. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

One of the 15 rooms at The Dawn Luxury Hotel. Photo: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Summer 2024 fun in Hong Kong – 6 events, from an anime convention to a pop-up water park

Want to turn up the fun in Hong Kong this summer? We have you covered, including an anime convention and the Abba musical Mamma Mia! Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Jin Yucheng (above), author of Blossoms, and novelist Kim Ho-yeon will conduct seminars on writing at the Hong Kong Book Fair. 

Fans at the Ani-com and Games 2023. This year, the convention runs from July 26 to 30 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Mamma Mia! returns to the city at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in Wan Chai. Photo: Winson Wong

5 locations from Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai that are now tourist hotspots

Tai Sheng Yuan Restaurant in Shanghai, China. Photo: Xinhua

Tai Sheng Yuan Restaurant in Shanghai was the inspiration for the fictitious Zhi Zhen Yuan restaurant featured in Blossoms Shanghai, directed by Hong Kong-based filmmaker Wong Kar-wai and filmed on location in the Chinese city. Photo: Xinhua

A person takes a photo of The Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai – formerly the Cathay Hotel featured in Blossoms Shanghai – together with a phone image of Hu Ge, who plays Ah Bao in the series. Photo: AFP

Huanghe Road in 2024. Photo: Xinhua

The exterior of the Zhi Zhen Yuan restaurant in Blossoms Shanghai. Photo: Xinhua

Nanjing Road on May 1, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

The Jardine Matheson Building on the Bund. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Travel & Leisure

Steve Wynn’s iconic casino, which changed Las Vegas when it opened, has shut, and will re-emerge as the guitar-shaped Hard Rock Las Vegas


Las Vegas casino The Mirage, opened in 1989 and famous for its dolphins, volcano and tropical island theme, has shut its doors. It will be turned into the guitar-shaped Hard Rock Las Vegas, opening in 2027.


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