Flamingo Las Vegas Getting Facelift for 80th Birthday

One of the Las Vegas Strip’s oldest casino resorts is getting a facelift to look younger. The Flamingo announced on Monday that it will completely redesign its lobby in time  for the property’s 80th birthday celebration next year.

The new lobby will feature a pod-style front desk and bronze flamingo statues, a brand new bar with tabletop gaming and TV screens, and an upgraded VIP check-in area.

“We’re introducing fresh designs that complement the recent additions to the property, creating spaces that feel modern yet unmistakably Flamingo,” said Dan Walsh, senior VP and GM of the property, in a statement. “The resort has always been an icon on the Strip, and these renovations ensure it remains a vibrant, must-visit destination for years to come.”

The renovation is part of an ongoing transformation at the center-Strip property, which in 2024 introduced Pinky’s by Vanderpump, Gordon Ramsay Burger and Havana 1957, and this May opened its Go Pool.

The additions the resort will welcome next year include the Salt & Straw ice cream shop and Category 10, an entertainment experience inspired by Luke Combs.

On the casino floor, Bugsy’s Bar will also receive a refresh.

A Desert Gamble

The Flamingo was opened in 1946 by mobster Bugsy Siegel, who forcibly took control after Billy Wilkerson, the property’s true founder and visionary, couldn’t pay back a loan he took out from the mob to finish construction due to a gambling problem.

That’s only one important fact that the 1991 movie “Bugsy” got wrong. Another is that the Flamingo was not the first casino resort built on Highway 91 (today’s Las Vegas Strip). It was, in fact, the third — beaten by El Rancho Vegas (1941) and the Last Frontier (1942).

Siegel was assassinated in June 1947, allegedly because the Flamingo ran massively over budget and initially failed to turn the profit he promised his mafia associates. His murder remains unsolved.

Unfortunately, though the El Rancho Vegas and the Last Frontier are long gone, the Flamingo can no longer be called the oldest still-standing casino resort on the Strip, since its last existing original buildings were demolished in 1993 by the Hilton Corporation, which owned it at the time.

That includes the remains of the Oregon building, which contained Siegel’s office and a secret escape tunnel.