Golden Nugget Las Vegas

Casino infobox
casino=Golden Nugget Las Vegas
theme=N/A
address=129 Fremont Street
Las Vegas, Nevada 89109

The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a casino-hotel located in Las Vegas, Nevada on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is owned and operated by Landry's Restaurants.

It is the largest casino in the downtown area, with a total of 1,914 deluxe guest rooms and suites. It has also maintained AAA's Four Diamond rating consecutively since 1977, a Nevada record.

History

The Golden Nugget was originally built in 1946, making it one of the oldest casinos in the city.

Steve Wynn bought a stake in it, which he increased so that, in 1973, he became the majority shareholder, and the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. It was the foundation for Wynn's rise to prominence in the casino industry. It was owned by the Golden Nugget Companies, which became Mirage Resorts in 1989 under Wynn.

The property was sold to Poster Financial Group, owned by Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling in 2004. When Poster Financial assumed control of the Golden Nugget, they began to upgrade the gambling operation by installing new cashless slot machines 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.

On February 4, 2005, Houston, Texas-based Landry's Restaurants, 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.

The world's largest gold nugget on display, the Hand of Faith, is displayed in the Golden Nugget lobby. Weighing 27.2 kilograms and 46 centimeters in length, the Hand of Faith was found near the Golden Triangle in Australia, 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.

In popular culture

*"The Grand" is an improv comedy film written and directed by Zak Penn and filmed at the Golden Nugget.

*"The Casino", a Fox television series is based on the story of the Golden Nugget's acquisition by Poster Financial Group.

*The Golden Nugget Casino serves as the main theme to two Nintendo games: "Golden Nugget Casino DS" for the Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance.

*The Golden Nugget features prominently as a background in the Balrog stage in the "Street Fighter II" video game series.

*The cowboy that used to stand atop the gift-shop sign has been featured in the movie "Rock-A-Doodle" and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" video.

*In the episode of the animated television series "The Flintstones" titled "The Rock Vegas Caper", the hotel known as The Golden Cactus is a reference to The Golden Nugget.

*The Golden Nugget features prominently in the poker mockumentary "The Grand".

*In the game , The Golden Nugget is the only casino that is named by its original name. For example, The Luxor is called "The Camel's Toe."

Additional properties

* Golden Nugget Laughlin

External links

* [http://www.goldennugget.com/ Golden Nugget website]
* [http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/nevada/las-vegas/golden-nugget-hotel.php Virtual Tour of Golden Nugget hotel]