How old is circus circus las vegas

But two other ideas introduced at Circus Circus showed incredible foresight. The best circus performers from all over the world came to Las Vegas to work year-round, laying the groundwork for the extravagant Cirque du Soleil shows that later came to dominate Strip showrooms.

Advancing technology was already making more lively games possible. His creditors were restless, and the Nevada Gaming Commission was threatening to pull his license. Faced with the real possibly of Circus Circus shutting down, Sarno agreed to resign as president of Circus Circus and put his ownership interest in a trust.

Several months later, the Nevada Gaming Commission, believing Sarno had reformed his ways, allowed him to return to the helm of Circus Circus. He pursued a loan from the Teamsters Union. With his old friend Jimmy Hoffa in prison, he did not have a direct contact with the union, so he went to see Nick Civella, the Kansas City Mafia boss.

But as Schwartz explains, Sarno had made a deal with the devil: Circus Circus was now beholden to Mob interests. Spilotro operated the jewelry and gift shop under the name Anthony Stuart.

Enter Bill Bennett and Bill Pennington, two up-and-coming casino managers who signed a five-year lease to run the property in May Although Sarno was not completely out of the picture — he was still the landlord, and in the lease he got to keep his 14th floor suite — Circus Circus under Bennett and Pennington became a very different place.

They remodeled the casino to separate the gamblers from the circus acts, retired Tanya the elephant from roaming the casino floor, and cleaned up the carnival games, some of which had been cheating customers. They focused on bargain travelers with affordable room rates and the latest slot machine innovations. One of the first things they did was to evict Sarno from his suite. Bennett and Pennington built a casino empire that eventually included the Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay hotel-casinos on the Strip.

Designed by Rissman and Rissman Associates and opened in , Circus Circus was intended for grown-ups. The casino had cocktail waitresses dressed in sexy majorette outfits, blackjack dealers in polka-dot shirts and even had a slide for tipsy gamblers to ride from the midway to the gaming floor.

In , the property opened its first hotel tower — with a loan that led to mob entanglements. Two years later, Jay Sarno sold Circus Circus to William Bennett, who got rid of some of the bawdier shows and continued the hotel expansion.

No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Circus Circus was one of the first casino properties to court families, and it remains their modus operandi. Chief among the draws for those with little ones is the Adventuredome, an indoor amusement park that opened in and has expanded since then with dozens of rides and roller coasters. Few may have thought Circus Circus would last 50 years, but it seems unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon. We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements.

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