These Vegas spots may be long gone, but they live on through our memories (well, what we can remember of them.)
One of the best things about Las Vegas is that the city is always evolving. New restaurants are always opening, new hotels are seemingly always under construction, and new shows and concerts get fresh billings every month. In the last decade alone, Sin City has added professional football, hockey, women’s basketball, and Formula One. A pro baseball team will start playing in the desert in 2028.
While all this change keeps things exciting, it also can elicit nostalgia. As new things open, old things close—gone forever, or at least until someone tries to bring them back in new-and-improved fashion.
Dr. David Schwartz, a professor and gaming historian at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, has studied Las Vegas for the better part of three decades, and described recent changes in Vegas as part of a larger trend.
“It’s a shift from more niche or idiosyncratic places to more broadly palatable spaces,” Schwartz wrote in an email. “Part of this is due to the economics of building in Las Vegas. Committing $2 billion to building something like Sphere, for example, requires as broad an audience as possible, so operators need to focus on what is going to resonate with the most members of the paying public.”
Whatever the reason, some iconic establishments left behind cult followings around town and across the world. Here are 12 of the Vegas places from yesteryear we miss most.