NEVADA LANDING PAGE: Casino Fan Digitally Reboots His Memories
Posted on: February 9, 2026, 09:00h.
Last updated on: February 9, 2026, 09:26h.
- A fan of Nevada Landing used AI and old home movies to recreate his favorite casino’s 1999 website
- The digital project honors the demolished Jean, Nev. property where Tibor Szekely from Canada spent life-defining milestones
- Visitors can pretend to book rooms at 1999 prices
Tibor Szekeley, the 44-year-old manager of a Canadian electronics recycling company, has fond childhood memories of a low-budget, smoke-filled Nevada casino that he thinks was unfairly forgotten by time. So he decided to give Nevada Landing the internet presence it deserves — its old website back.
“As a little boy, I would stay there every summer with my family,” Szekeley told Casino.org.. “My parents would give me $50, a room key, and leave me in the nickel arcade for the entire day, then pick me up for the buffet at night.
“I was so happy.”
Re-Landing Page
Actually, nvlanding.com is a much better website. Its photos are digitally enhanced versions of the low-res .GIF images Szekeley discovered on the “Wayback Machine” internet archive and from marketing materials. He also added screen grabs from videos he recorded himself.
“I always felt the need to document things with my camcorder,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I thank God I did because I grabbed photos from some of those VHS tapes.”
While AI still hasn’t mastered deblurring human faces, what it can do with fuzzy old images of objects — such as hotel rooms and amenities — is beyond impressive.
“I honestly teared up when I uploaded a screen grab from my old 1996 videotape and saw it come to life,” Szekely said.
Szekely’s tribute site even allows you to pretend to book the rooms and suites it advertises — all of which offer “comfortable bedding, climate control, cable television” and … wait for it … “direct-dial telephone.”
A romantic Valentine’s Day pretend stay for two from Feb. 13-15, 2026, for instance, will run you $90 (from real early-2000s prices). Pressing the “book now” button gets you a booking confirmation and a “Thanks for playing along!”
Lay of the Landing
Nevada Landing (there was no “the”) opened in March 1989 in Jean, Nev., a zero-population highway outpost 30 miles southwest of the Strip. It was one of two sister casinos — the Gold Strike across Interstate 15 was the other — developed by Gold Strike Resorts. Led by the Herbst and Whittemore families, the company specialized in mid‑market casinos positioned outside major urban centers.
Built to mimic a riverboat casino — complete with Mississippi steamer paddle‑wheel — the property operated as a low‑budget stopover, offering slot machines, table games, a buffet, and modest hotel rooms.
It relied on three revenue streams:
1) drive‑in gamblers from Vegas
2) long‑haul truckers and
3) day‑trip charter buses from Los Angeles — particularly from Downtown L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley, where tour operators marketed inexpensive same‑day gambling excursions.
Szekeley made more memories by returning to Nevada Landing with Tahlia, the woman who is now his wife.
“We met we were just 19 and ran away together,” he said. “And where can two teenagers afford to hide out? Nevada Landing and Gold Strike!
“We sat by the pool plotting our future, and when the buffets felt expensive, we walked to the Shell station for cheap hot dogs and ice cream,” he recalls fondly.
But it was more than the budget prices that moved Szekeley.
“Nevada Landing had a soul to it,” he explained. “It was freedom. It was in the middle of the desert, quiet and away from everything. When I was out there, it was just peace.”
To this day, Szekely says, a smoke-filled room gives him goosebumps: “I don’t smoke but it’s like I need that smell to bring the good memories back.”
The Desert Repossesses its Loan
In 1995, Gold Strike Resorts was acquired by Circus Circus Enterprises, which later rebranded as Mandalay Resort Group. Nevada Landing continued to operate under Mandalay’s ownership until 2005, when Mandalay itself was purchased by MGM Mirage (now MGM Resorts International). MGM inherited both Jean properties and immediately began reevaluating their long‑term viability.
On March 20, 2007, MGM closed Nevada Landing, announcing plans to redevelop the site into a large mixed use project — plans that were ultimately scrapped. The casino’s buildings were demolished in 2008.
“It hurt to see the photos of that,” Szekeley said. “It was so heartbreaking because I planned on going back with my wife. We were always like, ‘We gotta go back, we gotta go back.’
“And then we look it up and it’s gone.”
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