The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931, but the first full service casino-resort on what is currently called the Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened with 63 bungalow hotel rooms on April 3, 1941. Its success spawned a second nearby hotel, the Hotel Last Frontier in 1942. Organized crime figures such as Bugsy Siegel took an intense interest in the growing Las Vegas gaming center and funded another resort; financing the completion of the Flamingo construction with mob money. The Flamingo casino opened in December 1946, and the hotel opened in March 1947. Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn resort opened in 1950. The funding for many Las Vegas projects was provided through the American National Insurance Company, which was based in the then-notorious gambling empire of Galveston, Texas.

Las Vegas Boulevard South was previously called Hwy 91, or the Arrowhead Highway, or Los Angeles Highway. The Strip was named by Los Angeles police officer and businessman Guy McAfee, after his hometown's Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
In 1950, Mayor Ernie Cragin of the City of Las Vegas sought to annex the Las Vegas Strip, which ran through unincorporated Clark County territory, in order to expand the city's tax base to fund his ambitious building agenda and pay down the city's rising debt. Instead, Gus Greenbaum of the Flamingo led a group of casino executives to lobby the Clark County commissioners for town status. Two unincorporated towns were eventually created, Paradise and Winchester. More than two decades later, the Supreme Court of Nevada struck down a 1975 Nevada state law that would have folded the Strip and the rest of the urban areas of Clark County into the City of Las Vegas.

Caesars Palace was established in 1966. Opening in 1969, the International Hotel, with 1,512 rooms, began the era of mega-resorts. The International is known as Westgate Las Vegas today.

The first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino opened in 1973 with 2,084 rooms. On November 21, 1980, MGM Grand suffered the worst resort fire in the history of Las Vegas as a result of electrical problems, killing 87 people. It reopened eight months later. In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand to Bally Manufacturing, and it was renamed Bally's.
The opening of The Mirage in 1989 set a new level to the Las Vegas experience, as smaller hotels and casinos made way for the larger mega-resorts. In the 1990s, more than 12 new hotels opened, including themed hotels like the Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay. At $1.7B, the most expensive hotel in the world at the time, The Bellagio, was built in the 1990s. In 1993, the launch of the Mystère show at the new Treasure Island hotel by Cirque du Soleil marked a key point in transforming Las Vega…

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RTC Transit (previously Citizens Area Transit, or CAT) provides bus service on the Strip with double decker buses known as The Deuce. The Deuce runs between the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and South Strip Transfer Terminal to the Bonneville Transit Center (BTC) and the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas, with stops near every casino.
Several free trams operate between properties on the west side of the Strip:
• Mandalay Bay Tram connecting the Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur
• Aria Express connecting Park MGM, Crystals (also stop for Aria), and Bellagio)
• Mirage-Treasure Island Tram runs between Treasure Island and The Mirage
While not on the Strip itself, the Las Vegas Monorail runs a 3.9-mile route on the east side of the Strip corridor from Tropicana Avenue to Sahara Avenue, with stops every 4 to 8 minutes at several on-Strip properties including the MGM Grand and the Sahara at each end of the route. The stations include:
• SAHARA Las Vegas Station
• Westgate Station
• Las Vegas Convention Center Station
• Harrah's/The LINQ Station
• Flamingo/Caesars Palace Station
• Horseshoe/Paris Station
• MGM Grand Station
The monorail began operating in 1995 with two trains from Walt Disney World. In 2020, the monorail was acquired by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
Tens of thousands of pedestrians are walking along the Strip at any given time. As of 2019, about 50,000 pedestrians walked the Strip on an average day.

In the 1990s, several pedestrian footbridges were erected over Las Vegas Boulevard to increase pedestrian safety and alleviate traffic congestion at popular intersections. The first was the Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard footbridge. Some mimic the theme of nearby resorts. . The footbridges include:
199 Veer Towers: Connects Veer Towers, Waldorf Astoria, and Crystals Shopping Center
299 Park MGM and T-Mobile Arena Park: Connects MGM and Showcase Mall
399 Planet Hollywood: Connects Planet Hollywood, CityCenter, Crystals Shopping Center, and The Cosmopolitan.
499 Spring Mountain Road and Las Vegas Blvd. Corner: Connects Treasure Island, the Wynn, Fashion Show Mall, and The Venetian

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In 2019, about eight in ten (81%) visitors said they gambled while in Las Vegas, the highest proportion in the past five years. The average time spent gambling, 2.7 hours, represents an increase over the past three years. Also, the average trip gambling budget, $591.06, was increased from 2018. About nine in ten (89%) visitors who gambled did so on the Strip Corridor. UNLV reported that in 2019, Big Las Vegas Strip Casinos (defined as Strip casinos with more than $72M in annual gaming revenues) had more than $6B in annual gaming revenues, corresponding to about 26% of total annual revenues.

From the time period spanning 1985 to 2019, there have been some changes in the mix of table games in casinos on the Strip:
• Blackjack: The number of tables decreased from 77% in 1985 to 50% in 2019. Revenue decreased from 50% in 1985 to 11% in 2019.
• Craps: Revenue decreased from 28% in 1985 to 11% in 2019.
• Roulette: Both the number of tables and revenue increased by 50%.
• Baccarat: About 2% of tables and 13% revenue in 1985 to 13% of tables and 37% of revenue in 2019.
• Additional games: Games such as pai gow poker, three-card poker, and mini-baccarat have increased in popularity, number of tables, and revenue.
Casino operators have been expanding sports betting facilities and products, as well as renovating and upgrading equipment and facilities. Although sports betting has a relatively low margin, the high-end sportsbooks can generate significant amounts of revenue in other areas, such as food and drink. As a result, sportsbooks have been expanding and upgrading food and drink offerings. High-end sportsbooks include features such as single-seat stadium-style seating, large high-definition screens, a dedicated broadcast booth, and the ability to watch up to 15 sporting events at once. The sports network ESPN is broadcasting sports betting shows from a dedicated studio at The Linq. Some sportsbooks are now offering self-service betting kiosks.
The Las Vegas Strip is known for its lounges, showrooms, theaters and nightclubs, most on the hotel casino properties. Some of the more popular free attractions visible from the Strip include the water fountains at Bellagio, the volcano at The Mirage (now shuttered with the closing of The Mirage), and the Fall of Atlantis and Festival Fountain at Caesars Palace. There are several Cirque du Soleil shows, such as Kà at the MGM Grand, O at Bellagio, Mystère at Treasure Island, and Michael Jackson: One at Mandalay Bay.

Many …

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