Katy Perry Gets Key To Las Vegas Strip, As Resorts World Celebrates Anniversary
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Pop singer Katy Perry received a ceremonial key to the Las Vegas Strip in June, highlighting her headliner appearance at Southern Nevada's newest megaresort.
The key ceremony also can be seen as symbolically unlocking the one-year anniversary of Resorts World Las Vegas, the most expensive hotel-casino in Nevada history at $4.3 billion.
Perry is appearing at the Resorts World Theatre through Aug. 13, with a return engagement over eight days in the fall, beginning Oct. 5.
The red-tinted Resorts World Las Vegas, owned by the Malaysia-based Genting Group, opened June 24, 2021, with Paris Hilton and other celebrities in attendance.
At the time, it boasted a store selling used clothing worn by members of the Kardashian-Jenner family, a separate outlet with trained sexologists on duty and a vegan ice cream shop based in Los Angeles.
The resort continues to add to its health-oriented food choices. The newest addition is Crossroads Kitchen, a “fully plant-based” Italian-Mediterranean restaurant billed as the first vegan fine-dining establishment on the Strip. Among the menu options are stuffed zucchini blossoms and chestnut foie gras.
North Strip Revival
Resorts World Las Vegas was the first new major hotel-casino on the Strip since late 2010, when the Cosmopolitan opened its doors. The center-Strip Cosmopolitan towers over the older Jockey Club near the Bellagio.
Resorts World’s grand opening one year ago also signaled a revival of the north end of the Strip.
This revival includes upgrades at two other hotel-casinos, the Sahara at the northeast end of the Strip and Circus Circus on the opposite side of the highway.
Mob-Linked Casinos
Resorts World was built where the Stardust Casino once stood just south of Circus Circus and the smaller Slots-A-Fun. A replica of the Stardust sign is located inside Resorts World.
The Stardust was demolished in 2007 but once was a Mob-connected casino.
Decades ago, the Stardust was illegally overseen by oddsmaker Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, a Chicago Outfit associate.
Rosenthal ran the Stardust and other Argent Corp. properties, including the Fremont in downtown Las Vegas, during an era when untaxed gaming revenue was skimmed from casino count rooms and sent to Midwestern Mafia bosses.
This period was depicted in the 1995 Las Vegas Mafia movie “Casino,” with Robert De Niro portraying a character based on Rosenthal. In the movie, the name of the Stardust was changed to the Tangiers for legal reasons and placed at a fictitious location on the Strip.
Other Las Vegas Strip hotel-casinos once linked to the Mafia, including the Riviera, Sands and Dunes, also have been demolished.
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