The famous Sahara Hotel and Casino, a fixture on the Las Vegas strip for nearly sixty years has finally closed its doors for good.
The Sahara opened in 1952, and being only the 6th casino to be built on the Strip, it soon attracted high profile celebrities such as Tina Turner, Dean Martin, Johnny Carson and Don Rickles to its glittering stage. The casino went from strength to strength as Las Vegas began to grow as a gambling mecca.
It was the Sahara who brought The Beatles to Las Vegas back in 1964 for the princely sum of $25,000, although they had to perform at the Las Vegas Convention Centre as the Sahara’s 600 seat showroom couldn’t handle the huge crowd.
John Law who worked as a dealer at the Sahara 31 years ago stated “It would be nothing to go to work and make 300, 500, 2,700 (dollars) in four hours.”
Times have changed though and as bigger and better came along on the Strip, the Sahara just couldn’t keep up. It became well known for its dollar deals; “dollar blackjack, dollar craps, dollar beer, dollar everything” one local described it as, and for this reason owners SBE Entertainment of Los Angeles and private equity firm Stockbridge Real Estate of San Francisco decided it was ‘no longer economically viable’ and agreed to close the doors.
The hotels website has stated that all reservations would be transferred to its partner hotel Circus Circus.