The Mirage, one of the most iconic casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, will close its doors on July 17 to make way for a newer, more instrument-shaped hotel expected to open in 2027.
The megaresort, which was once home to the biggest poker games in Las Vegas, has been a staple of the Strip for decades. The fire-erupting volcano out front the hotel and Secret Garden tucked behind the property both made it one of the city’s top attractions.
Those attractions will soon be relics of a past Vegas. Two years after MGM Resorts International sold the Mirage to Hard Rock International for $1.08 billion in cash, the iconic hotel will shutter its doors to make way for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas.
Mirage team members first learned about the closure during a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday and later in a letter from Mirage President Joe Lupo, which was shared on social media.
“We look forward to the beginning of an exciting journey as Hard Rock Las Vegas will ignite the Strip with entertainment, innovation, and world-class hospitality; changing the landscape of the Las Vegas Strip, just as the Mirage did in 1989,” wrote Lupo.
Lupo told employees that they would be supported during the transition period “with several for eligible team members as well as assistance with unemployment benefits and exposure to other employment services.”
Losing an Iconic Poker Location
The closure of the Mirage is certainly a loss for poker players who find themselves oft quoting Rounders and daydreaming about “Vegas and the f***in’ Mirage.”
But the fabled Mirage poker room, where poker legends like Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Mori Eskandani were regulars in the 1990s, shut down years earlier in 2020, one of many Vegas poker rooms that stopped business during the COVID pandemic and never re-opened.
Since the pandemic, a number of Vegas properties have changed ownership, including the Hard Rock, which became Virgin Hotel when Richard Branson’s company purchased the resort.
The guitar-themed hotel will be the second of its kind after the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that was built in South Florida in 2019. The 700-foot-tall Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas is expected to open in the spring of 2027.
*Lead photo courtesy Freeimages.com.