In stepped Steve Wynn, then the young owner of the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, who came up with an audacious idea for a themed tropical resort, whose then-monumental cost (planned at $565 million, but which topped out at $630 million) was financed by junk bonds issued by American financier Michael Milken. The last new resort to have been built, MGM Grand, was then 16 years old.
Downtown Las Vegas was in a downturn, and the Strip was anchored by resorts-Desert Inn, Tropicana, The Dunes, Caesars (pre-expansion), Sahara-that were no longer new. Its entertainment stalwarts like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley were aging or gone. The Strip’s tourism numbers began to decline in the 1970s and ‘80s as other gaming destinations like Atlantic City opened up, and the razzle-dazzle of the golden era of Vegas was over.
