Hawaii Unveiled

The Strip

The first casino on what is currently the Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened on April 3, 1941, with 63 rooms. The El Rancho Vegas casino stood for almost 20 years before being destroyed by a fire in 1960. Its success spawned a second hotel called the Hotel Last Frontier, in 1942. Organized crime figures such as New York's Bugsy Siegel took interest in the growing gaming center leading to other resorts such as the Flamingo, which opened in 1946, and the Desert Inn, which opened in 1950. The rest is history…