Dunes Hotel and Casino

On 23 May 1955 the Dunes Hotel and Casino opened – the 10th resort on the Strip, and Las Vegas was booming! Two other casinos had opened in the previous month, the Riviera and Royal Nevada, and the off-Strip Moulin Rouge was planned for the following day.
The Dunes was themed on the stories of the Arabian Nights, accompanied by the slogan “The Miracle in the Desert”. On opening it offered 200 rooms across a two story building with a central 90 ft. long V-shaped swimming pool and a 150 ft. lagoon. Towers were added later in 1961 and 1979, and the famous Casino de Paris show began in 1963 – a show that had been seen by more than 2 million people by 1969.
The Dunes was located on a significant large 85 acre plot where today the Bellagio stands. Sections of the Park MGM, New York-New York, CityCenter, and Cosmopolitan are now situated where the extensive Dunes golf course once was. The Dunes closed in 1993.