GAMING AMERICA | OLIVER LOVAT
ONLY A MIRAGE Gaming America regular, Denstone Group CEO Oliver Lovat, provides a final appreciation of the resort that made modern Las Vegas. In case you missed it, Hard Rock has announced its return to Las Vegas. This is good news, as one of the world’s most recognizable brands returns to the home of gaming and entertainment. However, the property that it acquired was The Mirage, and Hard Rock’s return will see the demise of the most important casino ever built. The current owner, MGM Resorts, acquired the property in its $6.4bn merger with Mirage Resorts in 2000. The sale of the operations contract by MGM Resorts was inevitable, and indeed good business. With exposure across the Strip and having extracted value by selling the real estate of the asset (as part of a $4bn+ deal), the fee of over $1bn for the operating contract proves Kerkorian’s acquisition two decades ago was one of the greatest deals ever done in corporate America. It is easy to forget that, when it opened, it had been over 15 years since a new resort had opened on the Strip. Reno, Atlantic City and even Laughlin had seen significantly more resort development than ‘moribund’ Las Vegas. On opening on November 22 1989, The Mirage transformed what was possible in a casino resort, starting the development boom in Las Vegas; which in turn led to national and global attention, enabling 22 | GAMINGAMERICA
casino expansion in Asia and influenced resort development across the globe.
CONCEPTION Back then, Steve Wynn took a huge gamble. He had success in operating The Golden Nugget properties in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Laughlin. But his Las Vegas venture had to be much bigger, better and compete at the highest level, taking on Caesars Palace, which stood alone as the Strip’s gambling behemoth. In terms of scale, Caesars, The Desert Inn, Sands, Sahara, Circus Circus, Flamingo, Stardust, Hilton and Riviera had added rooms and facilities over decades to become mega-resorts. The Mirage was the first resort to open fully formed, with over 3,000 rooms ready to go on day one. It set the template for opening strategies for all future properties. Wynn assembled the finest team of casino architects and designers ever seen, before or after, for this project. The project was driven by Steve, with Kenny and Elaine Wynn, Joel Bergman, Paul Steelman, Scott Walls, Brad Friedmutter, Henry “Bud” Conversano, DeRuyter Butler, Roger Thomas and Don Brinkerhoff all contributing to various aspects.
All worked on many other notable projects, but never together again. Although the “Y-shape” was used before, the property modified the design to attract all the customer groups, from high-end gamers, conventioneers and leisure travelers. The design was not based on building the most rooms possible, but the optimal rooms to service guests properly. The property was set back from the street, offering a postcard-perfect photograph, featuring lush landscapes and an exploding volcano. The signature attraction became iconic on day one, and over the next 20 years new resorts featured large-scale, external design aspects as a matter of course. Wynn understood the importance of framing visuals a generation before the advent of Instagram and social media. Indeed, we know the customer journey was strategized at The Mirage before it became design parlance, with the tropical atrium and aquarium in the world occupying guests on arrival and a planned flow evident throughout.
ESCAPIST EXPERIENCE Of course, the casino was important, but it was unlike other properties: The Mirage was not all about the casino;
