Tropicana Las Vegas | |
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Location | Paradise, Nevada |
Address | 3801 Las Vegas Blvd South |
Opening date | April 4, 1957 |
Theme | Tropical |
No. of rooms | 1,467 |
Total gaming space | 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) |
Permanent shows | Laugh Factory Comedy Club Murray Celebrity Magician |
Signature attractions | Sky Beach Club |
Casino type | Land-based |
Owner | Penn National Gaming |
Renovated in | 1979, 1986, 2011 |
Coordinates | 36°05′59″N 115°10′17″W / 36.09972°N 115.17139°WCoordinates: 36°05′59″N 115°10′17″W / 36.09972°N 115.17139°W |
Website | troplv |
Tropicana Las Vegas is a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Penn National Gaming and is a franchise of Hilton's DoubleTree chain. It offers 1,467 rooms and a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) gaming floor. Tropicana Las Vegas also has 72,000 sq ft (6,700 m2) of convention and exhibit space.
This location, Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection, has the most hotel rooms of any intersection in the world and is extremely busy. Pedestrians are not allowed to cross at street level. Instead, the Tropicana is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to its neighboring casinos: to the north across Tropicana Avenue, the MGM Grand Las Vegas, and to the west across the Strip, the Excalibur.
In 1955, Ben Jaffe, an executive of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, came to Las Vegas and bought a 40-acre parcel at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Bond Road (now Tropicana Avenue). Jaffe aimed to build the finest hotel in Las Vegas, featuring a Cuban ambience, with four room themes for guests to choose from: French Provincial, Far East, Italian Renaissance, and Drexel.
Construction ran over schedule and over budget, due in part to competition for labor with the under-construction Stardust down the road. Jaffe had to sell his interest in the Fontainebleau to complete the project, which finally opened in April 1957.
Jaffe first leased the property to his associate, Phil Kastel. The Gaming Control Board raised suspicions over Kastel's links to organized crime, which were confirmed in May when a note bearing a Tropicana earnings figure was found in the possession of mobster Frank Costello. Jaffe next turned to J. Kell Housells, owner of the Las Vegas Club. By 1959, Housells bought out Jaffe's interest, gaining a majority share in the Tropicana.