Stardust Las Vegas Casino Goes Dark on Halloween
November first. Day of the Dead in Mexico, death day at Stardust Las Vegas Resort & Casino.
This is the day some observe All Souls’ Day, others, Día de los Muertos. In Las Vegas, it is the day Stardust sees its dreariest, gloomiest Halloween: the calendar date when the casino hotel, after operating for close to 60 years, is scheduled to stop taking all reservations, carrying on with prior commitments until imploded early next year. Stardust is ghost-like from here; it’s the beginning of the end.
Was that name doomed from the start? What games of chance will be lost to us, now that owner Boyd Gaming is gambling away this Las Vegas institution in favor of a new $4 billion megaresort befitting the Strip?
Bustling and spread out across the ground floor, Stardust Casino is no doubt the highest-traffic area at the hotel. Other than convention spaces bringing equally steady business, the gaming spaces teem with the most customers. People saunter nonstop on the red carpet, and you wonder how, within 85,000 sqft; the new Echelon Place replacing Stardust will offer a 140,000 sqft casino.
A thing of note about Stardust Casino is, many say, its gamblers look more Downtown than Strip. As far back as I can remember, the most I see here are over-45 geezers flocking together for tournaments, cheering on in khaki shorts or sweats. Stardust Casino awards over $2 million to winners in blackjack, keno and slot tournaments yearly, including $100,000 first place prizes.
Slots, Video Poker, Keno. It’s hard for me to imagine the Stardust interior without picturing machines. Practically, the slot floor is the ground floor, the armed bandits’ cacophony of sounds being the first thing to hear upon entering the hotel, and its flashing lights, the first things to see. There are some 1,600 slot, video poker, and keno machines, from $1 to $100 bets, from 1 coin to 125 coins per play, and car jackpots. There are penny slots you won’t find anymore at the Las Vegas Strip megaresorts.
Table Games. There are 35 tables for blackjack, not surprisingly the casino’s most popular table game. Catch the Hit Me Tuesdays blackjack tournaments from 10 am to 5 pm before they cease, with a $20 buy-in for $500 chips, and a $500 first prize. There are 5 craps tables and 5 roulette wheels; baccarat with $10,000 maximum bets, and mini-baccarat; pai gow poker, Caribbean stud poker, let it ride poker, and three card poker.
Poker. Ten poker tables offer Texas hold’em and seven card stud. Get your final dose of Stardust poker tournaments at 10 am Mondays to Wednesdays, and noon Thursdays and Fridays.
Sports & Race Book. This venue’s been a big deal in the state’s sports and horse race betting, known to be frequented by serious Las Vegas bettors. Dubbed Home of the Official Las Vegas Line, it set odds and point spreads for the entire Nevada. It has 300 seats, 97 television sets, and six big screens; in comparison, the 171,500 sqft MGM Grand Casino, the largest in Las Vegas, is half the size at 153 seats, albeit with 99 TV sets and 44 big screens.
Customers of Stardust Casino, often appraised as real gamblers instead of gawkers, have not stopped coming and are more like celebrating instead of mourning the hotel’s last goodbye. Not to end on a sullen note either, fun things did happen on past November firsts…
The Sistine Chapel and both William Shakespeare’s Othello and The Tempest were presented for the first time; Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from the UK; Jenny McCarthy was born; and Seabiscuit defeated War Admiral in an upset victory in 1938, in what was deemed horse racing’s ‘match of the century’.
November 29th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
[…] To give you a clear example, we all know that the legendary Stardust Hotel Casino will turn to a big chunk of dust in 2007 to make way for a newer, bigger structure. But you can revisit the nostalgia when the hotel’s neon sign — the giant cloud-like marquee and base support that is currently seen in front of the property on the Strip is turned over to the Neon Museum. […]
December 16th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
The Star Dust will be missed… Ive got many memorys here at this casino from being arrested for a idiot friend stalking someone too hiting some nice jack pots…. R. I. P. Stardust!
December 29th, 2006 at 4:36 am
was you friend stalking for money or some hanky panky lol.
for yrs ive gone to Stardust to play slots. it will be missed …RIP Stardust!