LAS VEGAS — The Mirage is about to vanish from the Las Vegas Strip.
Gambling ended and the doors closed Wednesday 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 $1.6 million in slot machine progressive jackpot winnings that state regulations say had to be disbursed before the lights go out and a massive transformation of the property begins. Guest rooms are empty. The Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show “Love” ended its 18-year run earlier this month at former casino mogul Steve Wynn’s hotel that revolutionized the casino resort industry.
“Las Vegas always reinvents itself,” said Michael Green, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor. “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. Renderings depict guitar stringlike beams spiking into the night sky from a purplish 660-foot tower.
There won’t be a demolition spectacle like the now-shuttered Tropicana casino-hotel several blocks down the Strip. That 22-story property is scheduled to be dynamited later this year, to be replaced before 2028 by a baseball stadium to serve as the home field of the relocated Oakland A’s.