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Vegas Retold

The history of SAHARA Las Vegas

Opened October 7, 1952

Sahara’s sign, gold-domed canopy and palms in 2006, with roller-coaster track in front and the separate Stratosphere tower behind.
Sahara’s entrance and sign in May 2006, before the 2011 closure and SLS redevelopment. The Stratosphere tower behind is a separate property.

Johnwalton at English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Original source photograph retained without editorial alteration. Responsive displays may resize and crop the presentation.

SAHARA Las Vegas opened on October 7, 1952, under Milton Prell. Its site had previously held Club Bingo, a smaller casino dating to 1947. The Sahara grew into a hotel and entertainment resort, then passed through a closure and the SLS name before the Sahara name returned in 2019. Those later names describe a continuing, repeatedly remodeled property.

Before the Sahara

UNLV’s architectural history records Prell forming the Sahara-Nevada Corporation and building the resort on Club Bingo’s former site. Del Webb took over construction and later ownership. The predecessor casino and the larger hotel-resort should be distinguished, even though their histories share an owner and grounds.

An expanding entertainment resort

Hotel towers, convention facilities and signs changed the property over the following decades. Martin Stern’s work helped reshape it into a high-rise resort. UNLV highlights Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Louis Prima among its nightclub headliners. The Beatles stayed at the Sahara when they played the Las Vegas Convention Center; that stay does not make the Sahara their concert venue.

Closure and SLS

The later redevelopment involved a real interruption in operations. Stockbridge/SBE’s company filing records its acquisition in August 2007, followed by a suspended renovation plan in 2009. Casino and hotel operations stopped on May 16, 2011. After the conversion, SLS Las Vegas opened to the public on August 23, 2014. The closed years remain part of the story.

The Sahara name returns

On August 29, 2019, the resort officially returned to the Sahara name. Its announcement said Alex Meruelo had bought the property in April 2018. Room and casino changes were already complete, while exterior, entrance and pool work continued or remained planned. The name’s return was one milestone within a longer renovation, rather than proof that every part was finished that day.

Reading the earlier exterior

The resort’s seventieth-anniversary account in 2022 looked back across those changes and further renovations. Today’s SAHARA remains a hotel-casino at 2535 South Las Vegas Boulevard. The retained historical May 2006 photograph preserves an earlier entrance, signage and roller-coaster track. It predates both the closure and SLS redevelopment; the Stratosphere tower visible behind belongs to a separate property.

  1. Club Bingo and the Sahara’s growth

  2. The seventieth anniversary account

  3. The documented closure and SLS opening

  4. The actual 2019 return of the name

  5. The resort’s current identity and address

  6. The mapped resort area

  7. The dated photograph

What remains uncertain

  • The Sahara name returned to a remodeled resort; this does not imply uninterrupted operation or unchanged 1952 buildings.
  • UNLV labels an early high-rise expansion 1959 while the operator’s anniversary account gives 1960 for a tower. Exact completion dates and first-on-the-Strip superlatives are not asserted.
  • Club Bingo is the earlier casino on the grounds; it is distinct from the later SLS name period. The former Club Bingo walls are not located by the current resort marker.
  • The source photograph is described as taken in May 2006. Its May20 original upload date is not treated as an exact photography day. It shows the earlier entrance and a separate Stratosphere tower.

This site through time

Replaced Club Bingo (Las Vegas Strip)

1952

The Sahara hotel-casino replaced Club Bingo and the Bonanza Room on these grounds in 1952. This was the development of a larger resort, rather than simply a new name for Club Bingo. The precise extent of demolition or retained buildings has not been established. Later Sahara/SLS name changes belong to the successor resort.

Historical source — UNLV sky000140, date/address/description: Club Bingo and Bonanza Room, 1947–1952, 2535 Las Vegas Boulevard South, replaced by Sahara in 1952. UNLV Skyline Sahara narrative independently identifies the former site.

  • This relationship identifies redevelopment at the same site; it does not assert that every Club Bingo building was demolished or that the historical and current resort boundaries coincide.
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