Excalibur Hotel and Casino

Image & source

Done

Excalibur’s castle frontage and hotel towers on April 23, 2018. The gold Mandalay Bay tower at left is a separate resort.

Excalibur Hotel and Casino opened on June 19, 1990, bringing a brightly colored castle to the southwest corner of Tropicana Avenue and the Strip. Circus Circus Enterprises built the resort around an imagined Camelot: towers, turrets, courtly characters and jousting made the theme visible before guests reached the casino.

Opening the castle

The opening was a public spectacle in its own right. Contemporary UPI reporting describes Governor Bob Miller and Circus Circus chairman William Bennett cutting the symbolic ribbon with a replica sword, followed by crowds entering amid balloons, musicians and costumed performers. With more than 4,000 rooms, Excalibur was then presented as the world’s largest hotel. That was an opening-era distinction, not a claim about today’s rankings.

A resort for a broad audience

The business behind the fantasy was deliberately broad in appeal. The opening resort combined gaming with arcade games, themed restaurants, motion theaters and a dinner arena. Company executives told the reporter that middle-income travelers were their main market. The castle therefore offered both a memorable image and a way to bring several kinds of entertainment into one large resort.

The unbuilt Xanadu

There had been a different idea for this corner. In the 1970s, developers proposed Xanadu, with designs by Martin Stern Jr. UNLV’s architectural history identifies the proposed location as the later Excalibur site and explains that financing never materialized. Xanadu remained on the drawing board; it was not an earlier operating casino that Excalibur demolished or renamed.

Changes in the company

Circus Circus Enterprises became Mandalay Resort Group in 1999. MGM Mirage acquired that company in 2005, bringing Excalibur into its resort portfolio. Those corporate changes did not turn the castle into the neighboring Luxor or Mandalay Bay. The hotels remained distinct properties even as their owner promoted their connections.

The continuing castle

Excalibur’s rooms and amenities have continued to change behind the familiar frontage. MGM’s 2007 report records room remodeling, while its 2026 fact sheet records a further room refresh in 2016 and continues to identify the resort at 3850 South Las Vegas Boulevard. Tournament of Kings carries the medieval dinner-show idea into the current resort. The April 2018 photograph shows the castle and hotel towers; the gold Mandalay Bay tower visible at left belongs to a separate resort.

Read the full history ↗

Sources and context

1. The castle’s opening day

   Myram Borders, UPI, June 19, 1990: reporter describes crowds entering, Miller/Bennett ceremony, Circus Circus, 4032 rooms, early amenities and middle-income strategy. Indexed article body read; direct reader returned 403. Original rates and comparative hotel ranking are not current promises.

2. The unbuilt Xanadu proposal

   UNLV architectural history: southwest corner of Tropicana/Strip, later Excalibur site; 1975-era Martin Stern Jr. proposal did not secure finance and was never built. Not an earlier operating casino.

3. The connected but distinct resorts in 2004

   Mandalay Resort Group Form 10-K, year ended January 31, 2004: Business property descriptions distinguish Luxor and Excalibur; Properties describes their shared larger landholding. Note 1 gives June 18, 1999 company rename from Circus Circus Enterprises. A corporate rename or common landholding is not evidence that one operating resort replaced the other.

4. From Circus Circus to MGM’s portfolio

   MGM Mirage 2007 Form 10-K: management discussion, Acquisitions, closes Mandalay acquisition April 25, 2005; property tables and Note 3 identify Luxor/Excalibur among acquired properties. Capital investments identify 2007 Excalibur room work and new Luxor nightlife venues; these are historical examples, not current venue listings.

5. Excalibur in the operator’s 2026 fact sheet

   Current linked operator DOCX, retrieved October 20, 2026; document paragraphs read from saved word/document.xml. Fast Facts: June 19, 1990 opening, MGM operation, 3850 South Las Vegas Boulevard and 2016 room refresh. Tournament of Kings section supports ongoing medieval dinner-show identity. Specific schedules, prices and awards are not adopted.

6. The mapped property area

   Coordinates 36.099,-115.1753, fresh source read October 20, 2026; existing qualified Place v1 reused unchanged. Representative property/building area, not an entrance, full footprint, original attraction position or verified walking route.

7. The dated exterior photograph

   Own-work Commons photograph, capture date and CC BY-SA 4.0 verified October 20, 2026. Exact 4541 × 3398 original inspected and retained. Dated exterior context; not current signage or visitor-access evidence.

Xanadu was proposed for this site but never built. It is not treated as an operating predecessor casino.

Circus Circus’s 1999 corporate rename and MGM’s 2005 acquisition changed the company behind the resort, not the identity of Excalibur into a neighboring hotel.

The representative map point is not an entrance, complete property boundary or verified walking route.

The photograph shows April 23, 2018 architecture and signs. Mandalay Bay at left is a separate resort.