Value · October 15

Downtown Las Vegas resort fees range from zero to $50 a night

Six of nine Fremont Street hotels charge a mandatory nightly fee of $39 or more. Two charge nothing. The fee can exceed the advertised room rate on a midweek night.

Stories

RSS
Value

Downtown Las Vegas resort fees range from zero to $50 a night

Six of nine Fremont Street hotels charge a mandatory nightly fee of $39 or more. Two charge nothing. The fee can exceed the advertised room rate on a midweek night.

Value

Eight events set the price of a downtown Las Vegas room

CES, the National Finals Rodeo, Formula 1, and five other dates push downtown rates to several times their off-week levels. The rest of the year, midweek rooms are among the cheapest in the city.

History

At Binion's, the room where the World Series of Poker began

Benny Binion opened the Horseshoe at 128 Fremont Street in 1951 and started the World Series of Poker there in 1970. The tournament left in 2005. The building did not.

Downtown

Fremont Street, block by block

Nine casinos on five blocks, built between 1906 and 2020, from the railroad depot at Main Street to the El Cortez at Sixth.

Downtown

Seven owners control downtown Las Vegas's casino hotels

Boyd Gaming holds three properties, Derek Stevens three, and the rest are single-asset owners. A map of who controls what on and around Fremont Street.

Value

Downtown's edge over the Strip is at the tables, not the rooms

Lower minimum bets and better blackjack rules remain downtown Las Vegas's clearest advantage over the Strip. What the casinos actually offer.

Value

Downtown's players clubs run on six separate systems

A card from the Golden Nugget earns nothing at Circa. The seven ownership groups downtown each run their own loyalty program; what they are and where each works.

Value

Downtown Las Vegas has about 8,500 hotel rooms. The Golden Nugget has a quarter of them.

Room counts for the twelve downtown casino hotels, from the Golden Nugget's roughly 2,400 to Binion's 81, and what the inventory means for rates.

Events

The National Finals Rodeo is downtown's biggest week

Ten days in December bring the rodeo's crowd to Fremont Street, where the casinos have built an event schedule around it. How the week works and what it does to rates.

History

The Golden Gate has been on the same corner since 1906

Las Vegas's oldest hotel opened as the Hotel Nevada a year after the town was founded. It has had three names, one address, and the city's first telephone.

History

El Cortez, 85 years on the same corner

The casino at Sixth and Fremont opened in 1941, had Bugsy Siegel as a part-owner for a year, and was Jackie Gaughan's home for decades. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Downtown

The canopy over Fremont Street turns thirty

The Fremont Street Experience opened in December 1995 as a rescue plan for a declining downtown. What it was built to do, who paid for it, and how it has changed.

History

Vegas Vic is still waving. Most of his neighbors are in a museum.

The cowboy sign over the former Pioneer Club has stood since 1951. The neon that surrounded it is mostly gone from the street, and some of it is on display a mile north.

Eat & Drink

Six steakhouses within four blocks

Downtown Las Vegas has more old-line steakhouses per block than anywhere else in the city. Where each one is, when it opened, and what each is known for.