Las Vegas

Las Vegas, officially the City of Las Vegas and often known as simply V.egas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County.

Las Vegas is the 31st-most populous city in the United States, with a population at the 2010 census of 583,756. The 2010 population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area was 1,951,269.

The city is one of the top three leading destinations in the United States for conventions, business and meetings.Today, Las Vegas is one of the top tourist destinations in the world.

Established in 1905, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, Las Vegas was the most populous American city founded in that century (a distinction held by Chicago in the 19th century). The city's tolerance for various forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for films and television programs.

Economy

The primary drivers of the Las Vegas economy are tourism, gaming and conventions, which in turn feed the retail and restaurant industries.

The Strip

A whopping 20 of the 31 strip casinos are owned by just two companies. Bye-bye, competition!

MGM Mirage

1. Aria
2. Bellagio
3. Circus Circus
4. Excalibur
5. Luxor
6. Mandalay Bay
7. MGM Grand
8. The Mirage
9. Monte Carlo
10. New York New York

In 2005 the MGM & Mandalay companies merged, creating the largest gaming company in the world at that time, with 28 properties in five states, annual revenues of $6 billion, and control of 40% of the slots, 44% of the table games, and 36,000 of the 73,000 rooms on the Las Vegas Strip.

Treasure Island used to be part of this group, but MGM Mirage sold it to Phil Ruffin in March 2009.

Cosmpolitan, next to Aria, is actually not part of MGM's CityCenter, and is in fact owned by Deutsche Bank.

Caesar's Entertainment

1. Bally's
2. Bill's Gamblin' Hall
   
3. Caesars Palace
4. Flamingo
5. Harrah's
6. Imperial Palace
7. O'Sheas
8. Paris
9. Planet Hollywood
   
10. Rio
11. Harrah's (Laughlin)

The 2005 merger between Caesars & Harrah's surpassed MGM/Mandalay to create the largest gaming company in the world, with 40 properties over 100,000 employees.  The merged company was initially known as Harrah's Entertainment, then in Nov. 2010 the name changed to Caesar's Entertainment Corp


Steve Wynn

Stephen Alan "Steve" Wynn (born January 27, 1942) is an American business magnate. He played a pivotal role in the 1990s resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip. His companies refurbished or built what are now widely recognized resorts in Las Vegas, including the Golden Nugget, The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore.

Now, as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Wynn Resorts, Limited, Wynn has developed Wynn Las Vegas, which opened on April 28, 2005; Wynn Macau, which opened in September 2006; Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, which opened December 22, 2008; and Encore at Wynn Macau, which opened on April 21, 2010.

As of March 2012, Wynn is the 491st richest man in the world with a net worth of $2.9 billion.

Wynn was born Stephen Alan Weinberg in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Michael, who ran a string of bingo parlors in the eastern United States, changed the family's last name in 1946 from "Weinberg" to "Wynn" when Steve was six months old "to avoid anti-Jewish discrimination"

In 1963, his father died of complications from open heart surgery in Minneapolis, leaving $350,000 of gaming debts, shortly before Wynn graduated from Penn with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

Wynn had previously acquired interests in various existing casinos. His first major Strip casino was The Mirage, which opened in November 1989. The hotel, with its erupting volcano and South Seas theme, ignited a $12 billion building boom on the Strip

The Mirage was the first project in which he was involved in the design and construction of a casino. The $630 million cost to build the facility was financed largely with junk bonds issued by Michael Milken. The property was considered a high-risk venture by the standards then prevailing in Las Vegas because of its high cost and emphasis on luxury. However, it became enormously lucrative and made Wynn a major part of Las Vegas history.

In 1991, Golden Nugget, Incorporated was renamed Mirage Resorts, Incorporated.

Wynn's next project was Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, which opened in October 1993 at a cost of $450 million. At the front corner of the resort, the Battle of Buccaneer Bay was acted out on a full-sized pirate ship. Inside the Four-Diamond property is a casino resort with a romantic tropical theme. The Cirque du Soleil show at the Treasure Island was the first permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas.
In October 1998, Wynn opened the even more opulent Bellagio, a $1.6 billion resort considered among the world’s most spectacular hotels.

The architect was Jon Jerde of The Jerde Partnerships. When built, Bellagio was the most expensive hotel in the world. Today, visitors line the street in front of the hotel to watch the “Fountains of Bellagio”—shooting fountains choreographed to music that “dance” on the hotel’s 8.5 acre man-made lake. The Bellagio is credited with starting a new spree of luxurious developments in Las Vegas.Among these developments include The Venetian, Mandalay Bay, and Paris Las Vegas.

Mirage Resorts was sold to MGM Grand Inc. for $6.6 billion ($21 a share) in June 2000 to form MGM Mirage. Five weeks before the deal was closed (April 27, 2000) Wynn purchased the Desert Inn for $270 million. He closed the Inn in only 18 weeks, and with the money he made on that deal, and with his ability to secure ever-greater financing, Wynn took Wynn Resorts Limited public in 2002. Wynn became a billionaire in 2004, when his net worth doubled to $1.3 billion. On April 28, 2005 he opened his most expensive resort to that date, the Wynn Las Vegas, on the site of the former Desert Inn.