The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

and

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

located in

downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming Las Vegas, Downtown Gaming Area was the primary gambl ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is owned and operated by Landry's, Inc. It has 2,419 hotel rooms.

History

The Golden Nugget was originally built in 1946, making it one of the oldest casinos in Las Vegas. Jackie Gaughan at one time owned a stake in the hotel as part of his many downtown properties. Steve Wynn bought a stake in the Nugget, which he increased so that, in 1973, he became the majority shareholder, and the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas and purchased the neighboring California Club in 1973 and combined the two properties under the former’s banner. In 1977, he opened the first hotel tower and the resort earned its first four-diamond rating from Mobil Travel Guide. It was the foundation for Wynn's rise to prominence in the casino industry.

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

periodically headlined at the Golden Nugget. The second hotel tower opened in 1984 along with the showroom, and the third tower was opened in 1989. In 2000, the Golden Nugget (and all of Mirage Resorts' other properties) was sold to MGM Grand, Inc. (later named

MGM Mirage MGM Resorts International is an American multinational hospitality, sports and entertainment company. It operates resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Macau, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and San ...

). Although the Golden Nugget was profitable, it was not part of the master expansion plan of the corporation which was focused on consolidating a long stretch of the Strip by acquiring Mandalay Resort Group, building City Center, and beginning construction in Macau. Gaming revenue on Fremont Street had peaked in fiscal year 1993. The Golden Nugget was sold in 2003, for $215 million to Poster Financial Group, owned by Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling. When Poster Financial assumed control of the Golden Nugget, they began to upgrade the gambling operation by installing new cashless

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

s and by increasing the maximum bet available at table games to $15,000. Their story became the basis for '' The Casino'', a television series on Fox that premiered on June 14, 2004. Hand of faith1

On February 4, 2005,

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

–based Landry's, Inc announced its intent to purchase the property and the Golden Nugget Laughlin. The sale closed on September 27, 2005. After the purchase, the Golden Nugget embarked on a 14-month, $100 million renovation project, which was completed in November 2006. In December 2007, the Golden Nugget completed its $70 million Phase II project, which expanded the resort west onto First Street and introduced additional entertainment, event and dining venues. Phase III was the opening of the 500-room, $150 million Rush hotel Tower on November 20, 2009, along with the Chart House restaurant.

Media history

Onscreen

; Films * In the opening credits of the Elvis Presley film, '' Viva Las Vegas'' * In the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

film '' Diamonds Are Forever'' (1971), the casino can be continually seen in the police chase scene. * Briefly in the Chevy Chase comedy film, '' Vegas Vacation'' * The casino can be seen in the beginning of the film '' Smokin' Aces'' (2006), in which the antagonist cuts the ribbons for the casino's grand opening. * In the film ''

Next NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...

'' (2007), Nicolas Cage is briefly seen entering the Golden Nugget through the Fremont Street entrance. * The Golden Nugget features prominently in the poker mockumentary '' The Grand'' (2008). * In the music video for " Night Fever" by the

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry Gibb, Barry, Robin Gibb, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in ...

; Television * The 1959 ''

Alfred Hitchcock Presents ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, airing on CBS and NBC, alternately, between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. Between 1962 ...

'' episode "Man from the South", the opening shot shows the Casino and Fremont St. * The Golden Nugget and Fremont Street are in the opening scene of "The Night Stalker" (1972) with reporter Carl Kolchak investigating a series of vampire murders in Las Vegas. * '' Vega$'' (1978-1981) showed exterior shots of the Golden Nugget in the opening and closing slots and in the pilot episode *In the episode ''Honky Tonk Woman'' of the anime series

Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese neo-noir space Western anime television series that aired on TV Tokyo and Wowow from 1998 to 1999. It was created and animated by Sunrise (company), Sunrise, led by a production team of director Shinichirō Watanabe, ...

, the logo of the Golden Nugget can be briefly seen as they escape from the casino, insinuating it will still exist in the distant future. *'' The Casino'' (2004), a Fox reality television series, is based on the story of the Golden Nugget's acquisition by Poster Financial Group. *In 2010, the casino's pool and shark aquarium were featured throughout an episode of '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''. *The casino was a recurring property in Billion Dollar Buyer on

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

In games

*In all ''

Street Fighter II is a 1991 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for arcade game, arcades. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter (video game), Street Fighter''. Designed by Yoshiki O ...

'' games (except '' HD Remix''), Balrog's (M. Bison in Japanese) stage is set in front of the Golden Nugget, with the sign clearly seen in the back. In ''HD Remix'', it has been changed to the "Crazy Buffalo", presumably in reference to the name of Balrog's original Super Combo. The updated version of the scenario that appears in '' Street Fighter V'' changes the name of the casino to the "Golden Bullion", most likely to avoid legal issues. *The name ''Golden Nugget'' also designates several casino games: '' Golden Nugget'' (1997), '' Golden Nugget 64'' (1998), ''Golden Nugget Casino'' (2004;

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

), and '' Golden Nugget Casino DS'' (2006). * In '' Fallout: New Vegas'', the logo of the "Silver Rush", formerly a gambling hall, shows a similarity to the logo of the Golden Nugget. * The Golden Nugget appears as a Safehouse for players in '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas''. The safehouse appears as a hotel room.

Attractions

The world's largest gold nugget on display, the Hand of Faith, is still shown today in the Golden Nugget lobby. Weighing and in length, the Hand of Faith was found near Kingower, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and put on display at the casino in 1981 amid a number of other gold nuggets. The casino's large hotel sign at its entrance off Fremont and Casino Center was removed in 1984 when the casino underwent renovations. The old sign presently sits at the YESCO signage yard. The expanded resort is built around two aquariums. The larger faces the swimming pool and incorporates a slide through the tank containing full-grown sharks. The smaller aquarium is in the lobby of the Rush Tower. Golden Nugget Haifischrutsche

A total of five specialty restaurants were added: Vic & Anthony's Steakhouse, Grotto Ristorante, Lillie's Asian Cuisine, Red Sushi and Chart House. The Chart House has a view of one of the aquariums. The pool is a $30 million unique three-level adventure with an enclosed slide through a shark tank, hidden grottos, swim-up bars, jacuzzis and multi-depth areas.

Golden Nugget and Poster Financial group

Tom Breitling and Tim Poster were the highest profile successful entrepreneurs who profited in the downtown market during the last crisis. As recounted in Tom Breitling's book, ''Double or Nothing'', the partners agreed to buy the Golden Nugget and had an agreement to sell the property after operating it for only one year. The partners made $113 million in profit, called the highest rate of return in such a short time in the gaming industry. However, the partners had a negative income for the year and the fortune was made while total revenue for downtown was still basically flat.

References

External links

*
Gordie Brown website
{{Authority control Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas Skyscraper hotels in Las Vegas Hotels established in 1946 1946 establishments in Nevada 2005 mergers and acquisitions Casino hotels in the Las Vegas Valley