Stardust Casino Imploded

[Gerk]

If you never got a chance to go there, you missed out on one of my favorite sports books out there. Not alot of nostaglia left out in Vegas


LAS VEGAS -- From Stardust to just dust. The Las Vegas Strip's first mass-market casino-hotel was imploded early Tuesday in a hail of fireworks to make way for Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4.4 billion megaresort Echelon.
Hundreds of people partied beneath tents and on makeshift patios before Boyd chairman Bill Boyd's four grandsons pushed a plunger to detonate the former Stardust casino. The blast generated a massive dust cloud that chased the revelers into cars, buses and nearby casinos.
"It hurts. We cried," said Sheila Navarro, 51, a school supplies buyer from Oxnard, Calif., who took shelter in the nearby Frontier casino-hotel. She came with three sisters, her mother, an aunt and a brother-in-law to say farewell to the casino she's gambled at for more than 30 years.
"It's very hard for me to find another casino to go to," she said. "Maybe in two years, three years, I'll have different feelings, but right now, my heart is broken."
The casino opened July 2, 1958, billing itself as the world's largest resort hotel with 1,032 rooms. It was credited with being Las Vegas' first mass-market casino, thanks to cheap rates and loss-leading food and drinks.
Bob Boughner, Echelon Resorts' chief executive, said while the Stardust was a favorite of the nostalgia crowd, it was missing out on younger patrons and those who come to Las Vegas for conventions.
For many, the Stardust represented the most accessible place to stay in a city that gives VIP treatment to the biggest gamblers. But the concept of discounting rates to keep people coming is rapidly fading from the Las Vegas Strip as many casinos nowadays make more revenue from hotel rooms, clubs, shows and cuisine than from gambling.

[The Judge]

Farewell, old friend.

[pwherr]

The Stardust was great.That's where I met Jim Brown.Memories.

[jonnyblaze]

First real win in Vegas was there.

I was 19 and I won $460 in $5 hands over about 3 hours in BJ. It was unreal.

Miss that one right there, thats where the real gamblers used to get down. Sportsbook had some infomrative cats hanging out there.

[Gerk]

Originally Posted by jonnyblaze

First real win in Vegas was there.

I was 19 and I won $460 in $5 hands over about 3 hours in BJ. It was unreal.

Miss that one right there, thats where the real gamblers used to get down. Sportsbook had some infomrative cats hanging out there.

You are right. Got alot of information from some of the "regulars" there, Would see the same faces almost every time I went there

[ATXDazed]

I saw it last night, it was awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbuW2cKZTyA

[cyhugogreen]

My dad was an rfb player at the dust for many years and it's the place I liked the best even years later when I had moved on to the newer mega resorts. In the old day my dad and his partner (we had a produce market at santa monica and la brea in hollywood) would bring craps pit boss Lorenzo Grillette a lug cherries and they were on . It was a good deal for the casino and good deal for all of us. The Stardust, an atompshere for real gambling which the newer joints can't replicate.

[upinya83]

RIP Stardust

[OldMan]

Bets sportsbook in Sin City IMO

RIP

OldMan

[bill2266]

i was there i very sad thing to see the star going down a great book

[Bobtheicon]

Wife won 10 Large there day after getting married. I was walking around looking for a pencil to track the horses in the Sportsbook when I heard her yelling for me halfway across the casino.