The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

located in

downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming area was the primary gambling district of Las Vegas prior to the St ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

on the

Fremont Street Experience The Fremont Street Experience (FSE) is a pedestrian mall and attraction in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. The FSE occupies the westernmost five blocks of Fremont Street, including the area known for years as "Glitter Gulch", and portions of some ot ...

. The property is owned and operated by

Landry's, Inc. Landry's, Inc., is an American, privately owned, multi-brand dining, hospitality, entertainment and gaming corporation headquartered in Houston, Texas. Landry's, Inc. owns and operates more than 600 restaurants, hotels, casinos and entertainme ...

It has 2,419 hotel rooms.

History

The Golden Nugget was originally built in 1946, making it one of the oldest casinos in the city. Jackie Gaughan at one time owned a stake in the hotel as part of his many downtown properties.Gaughan changeover leaves workers a little melancholy
''Las Vegas Sun'', March 25, 2004, accessed May 16, 2012.

Steve Wynn Stephen Alan Wynn (''né'' Weinberg; born January 27, 1942) is an American real estate developer and art collector. He is known for his involvement in the American luxury casino and hotel industry. Early in his career he oversaw the construction ...

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. In 1977 he opened the first hotel tower and the resort earned its first four-diamond rating from

Mobil Travel Guide Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide or Mobil Travel Guide) is a star rating service and online travel guide for hotels, restaurants and spas. In 2011, Forbes Travel Guide published its last set of guidebooks and on November 15, 201 ...

. It was the foundation for Wynn's rise to prominence in the casino industry. 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 Mirage Resorts (formerly Golden Nugget Companies) was an American company that owned and operated hotel-casinos. It was acquired by MGM Grand, Inc. in 2000, forming MGM Mirage (now MGM Resorts International). History Golden Nugget Companies Inc. ...

' other properties) was sold to

MGM Grand, Inc. MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is ...

(later named

MGM Mirage MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment company operating destination resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Detroit, Mississippi, Maryland, and New Jersey, including Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, and Par ...

). 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 Thomas Breitling (born June 19, 1969) is an American entrepreneur. Early life Breitling was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. His father became a pilot for Northwest Airlines after serving in the United States Air Force. His mother was a nurse. ...

. 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 (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s and by increasing the maximum bet available at

table game Table game may refer to: * Table game (casino), games of chance that are played against the casino and operated by one or more live dealers * Tables game, a class of board game that includes backgammon * Tabletop game, games that are normally play ...

s to $15,000. Their story became the basis for '' The Casino'', a television series on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

that premiered on June 14, 2004. Hand of faith1

On February 4, 2005,

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

-based Landry's, Inc announced its intent to purchase the property and the

Golden Nugget Laughlin The Golden Nugget Laughlin (formerly the Nevada Club) is a hotel and casino located on the banks of the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Landry's, Inc. It offers a number of restaurants, 300 guest rooms and suites, ...

. 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 Elvis Presley film, ''

Viva Las Vegas ''Viva Las Vegas'' is a 1964 American musical film directed by George Sidney and starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. The film is regarded by fans and film critics as one of Presley's best films, and it is noted for the on-screen chemistry bet ...

'' *In the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

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 ''Vegas Vacation'' is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Stephen Kessler in his feature directorial debut. It is the fourth installment in '' National Lampoon''’s ''Vacation'' film series, and was written by Elisa Bell, based on a story b ...

'' *The casino can be seen in the beginning of the film ''

Smokin' Aces ''Smokin' Aces'' is a 2006 American action comedy film written and directed by Joe Carnahan. The film centers on the chase for Las Vegas magician turned mafia informant Robert 'Buddy Aces' Israel (Jeremy Piven), on whom a one-million-dollar bounty ...

'' (2006), in which the antagonist cuts the ribbons for the casino's grand opening. *In the film ''

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

'' (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 The Grand may refer to: Buildings Official names * The Grand (Calgary), a theatre in Alberta, Canada *The Grand (Ellsworth, Maine), an arts center in Maine, U.S. * The Grand Doubletree, condominium and hotel skyscraper in Miami, U.S. * The Grand C ...

'' (2008). Was seen in the music video for "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees. ;Television *''

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

'' 1959 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$ ''Vegas'' (stylized as ''Vega$'') is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 20, 1978, to June 3, 1981, with the pilot episode airing April 25, 1978. ''Vegas'' was produced by Aaron Spelling and created by Mich ...

(1978-1981) showed exterior shots of The Golden Nugget in the opening and closing slots and in the pilot episode *'' The Casino'' (2004), a

reality television series is based on the story of the ''Golden Nuggets acquisition by Poster Financial Group. *In 2010, the casino's pool and shark aquarium were featured throughout an episode of ''

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...

''. *The casino was a recurring property in

Billion Dollar Buyer ''Billion Dollar Buyer'' is an American reality TV show starring American business owner, Tilman Fertitta, CEO and owner of Landry's, Inc. Each hour-long episode features Fertitta traveling the nation to sample new and innovative hospitality produ ...

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

In games

*In all ''

Street Fighter II is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...

'' 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 ''Street Fighter V'' is a fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps and published by Capcom for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, Windows in 2016. An Arcade game, arcade version exclusive to Japan was released by Taito in 2019. Similar to th ...

'' 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 developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

), 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.

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 Kingower is a rural locality in Victoria, Australia, located on Inglewood-Rheola Road, in the Shire of Loddon. History The Kingower goldfield was discovered in August 1853 by Captain John Mechosk and his party of 11 hired men. The discovery ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, 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 YESCO is a privately owned manufacturer of electric signs based in Salt Lake City, founded by Thomas Young in 1920. The company provides design, fabrication, installation and maintenance of signs. Many notable sign projects have been produce ...

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 Thomas Breitling (born June 19, 1969) is an American entrepreneur. Early life Breitling was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. His father became a pilot for Northwest Airlines after serving in the United States Air Force. His mother was a nurse. ...

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. Amazingly enough 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
{{Coord, 36, 10, 15, N, 115, 08, 41, W, region:US_type:landmark, display=title Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas Skyscraper hotels in Las Vegas Hotels established in 1946 1946 establishments in Nevada Casino hotels 2005 mergers and acquisitions