La Mirage Casino, Las Vegas, Bella Ladies V-Neck Tee

Description

La Mirage Casino was a short-lived but fascinating chapter in the off-Strip gaming corridor just east of Las Vegas Boulevard. Operating at 377 E. Flamingo Road (in Paradise, about a mile east of the Strip), La Mirage emerged from a property that had already cycled through multiple identities: the Ambassador Inn opened in 1974, and the Ambassador Casino was added in 1978. The Ambassador Casino struggled in the early 1980s, filing for bankruptcy and closing in 1982 amid weak tourism and a poor local economy. After several years of uncertainty, the casino portion finally returned under a new name. In January 1986, the gaming operation reopened as La Mirage Casino, run by Nicholas Robone and his family under a temporary gaming license while regulators investigated allegations tied to earlier employment across the street at the Continental. The reopening brought casino action back to the building and signaled yet another reinvention attempt for the Flamingo Road property. La Mirage wasn’t a mega-resort; it was a compact, practical casino attached to an established hotel footprint—an example of the era’s “value” properties that catered to budget-minded visitors and repeat local play. It offered the familiar essentials—slots and table games—without the themed spectacle exploding on the Strip in the late 1980s. Its most famous moment came from a name collision. As Steve Wynn’s company prepared to open The Mirage on the Strip in 1989, it acquired rights to the “Mirage” name from existing local businesses—La Mirage among them. After YESCO removed La Mirage signage in mid-1989, the property dropped the name and shifted into its next identity, commonly cited as Anthony’s Club & Casino (and later Quality Inn/Key Largo in the site’s longer timeline). Though La Mirage’s run was brief—1986 to mid-1989—it remains a perfect snapshot of Las Vegas reinvention: a mid-market property trying to survive between downtown tradition and Strip-scale transformation, remembered today through photos, ads, and gaming memorabilia from one of Flamingo Road’s most identity-shifting addresses. Today the property sits vacant, but has been rumored—though not verified or validated—for mixed commercial and housing redevelopment.