Bye bye, Bally’s: This iconic casino is returning to Las Vegas in its place

The Las Vegas Strip is changing yet again, as Caesars Entertainment announced it’s transforming Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino into the Horseshoe Las Vegas.

Set to be completed by the end of the year, Bally’s will undergo a transformation that includes a new exterior, new food and entertainment options — including a venture called Ole Red from country star and “The Voice” judge Blake Shelton — and a “reimagined” casino floor and public areas. The hotel portion of the resort will stay the same.

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When work on the project begins this spring, the updates will bring a western feel to the Strip, replacing the Bally’s motif with “handcrafted feeling” signature elements of the Horseshoe brand. Details like horseshoe iconography, tooled leather and big bouts of dramatic color will be on display throughout the property, Caesars Entertainment said in a statement.

Dating back to the early 1950s, the Horseshoe brand found its original home in downtown Las Vegas on Fremont Street. It was helmed by Benny Binion, a passionate gambler who, along with his two sons and wife, incorporated high-limits gaming into the original property.

Binion is famous for being a key player in creating the World of Series of Poker, which was first hosted at Binion’s Horseshoe back in 1970 and will return to the Horseshoe and the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino from May 31 through July 19 after spending the last few decades west of the Strip at the Rio All-Suite Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. This will be the first time the World Series of Poker is held on the Strip.

While the original Horseshoe closed its doors in 2004 after years of stewardship by Binion’s family, Caesar’s currently operates six other Horseshoe-branded casinos around the country in places like Baltimore and Tunica, Mississippi.

“At Horseshoe, it’s all about the gambler,” Jason Gregorec, senior vice president and general manager of the property, said in the statement. “Since 1951, Horseshoe Casinos have been home to the best odds, highest limits and biggest jackpots. So, it’s fitting that we bring Horseshoe back to Las Vegas, and right on the Las Vegas Strip. Holding to the Horseshoe tradition of providing impeccable service, our guests will see the property transform over time, ensuring we aren’t disrupting the excitement while we make the transition.”

Bally’s switch to the Horseshoe is just one of a handful of announcements coming out of Las Vegas in recent months.

Last year, MGM announced it had sold The Mirage, a resort that changed the entire idea of the Las Vegas Strip, to Hard Rock International in a $1.075 billion deal expected to close in the first half of 2022. The Mirage will become the Hard Rock Las Vegas, and the resort’s iconic volcano will be torn down to make space for a massive guitar-shaped tower.

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The Cosmpolitan, which is currently an Autograph Collection hotel and a member of Marriott Bonvoy, was sold for $1.625 billion to MGM. (We’re still waiting to hear if the hotel will remain part of Marriott Bonvoy.) Meanwhile, Marriott pulled out of the city’s Fontainebleau project, which would’ve seen new JW Marriott and Edition properties open inside the long-halted tower on the north side of the Strip.

Not all of the recent news is about hotels selling or rebranding, though. Last summer, the Strip welcomed its first new property in more than a decade when Hilton’s Resorts World opened to the public. Home to three different hotels (Las Vegas Hilton, Conrad Las Vegas and Crockfords Las Vegas), this massive resort changed the landscape of the otherwise stagnant section of the Strip.

Featured photo by JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock.