WATCH: Top 3 Vintage Las Vegas Casinos

Several legendary Las Vegas casinos from the Golden Era are gone but still stir emotions.

In 1989, the opening of the Mirage hotel-casino sparked a boom in megaresort construction along the Las Vegas Strip, leading to the destruction of most of the resort corridor’s classic casinos. The vintage casinos that no longer exist include the Desert Inn, Riviera, Sands, Stardust, Dunes, Tropicana and Hacienda. The Mirage also has since closed and is being replaced by a Hard Rock resort.

Longtime visitors miss casinos such as the Sands, where the Copa Room hosted Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, among other top entertainers. Many people recall that most of these now-demolished resorts were part of area’s Mafia history, which continues to bring in visitors by the thousands to attractions such as The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas.

More than a few newcomers who never got to see these famous resorts are fascinated by Las Vegas' history and want to know more.

In this episode of “The Edge,” Gambling.com senior reporter Larry Henry and Joris Dekkers, author of "The Las Vegas Book," name their three favorite vintage casinos and discuss what the future holds for Las Vegas. 

Legendary Las Vegas Casinos

In the video, Dekkers names the Sands as one of his three favorite vintage Las Vegas casinos. The Sands was closed permanently in 1996. About three years later, the Venetian hotel-casino first opened at that location on the Strip. Dekkers' other favorites are the Stardust and Flamingo. The Flamingo still exists at the same location as when gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel first opened it in December 1946, but the last original building was demolished in 1993.

“My personal favorite is the Sands,” Dekkers said, "but I'm biased because I'm a Frank Sinatra, well, not even a fan. I idolize that man.”

Among Henry’s Top 3 vintage casinos is the Stardust, one of four Argent Corp. properties in Las Vegas overseen in the 1970s by Chicago oddsmaker Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal for Midwestern crime families. In the 1995 Las Vegas Mob movie “Casino,” Robert De Niro portrays a character based on Rosenthal. Henry's other favorite vintage Las Vegas casinos are the Sands and Tropicana. All three have been demolished.

With an eye toward the future, Dekkers said modern-day Las Vegas, which some critics say is on the verge of becoming too expensive for ordinary vacationers, must be careful not to scare off traditional gamblers.

“They have to make sure that they (are) attracting those casino players back in,” he said, “because that's the hardcore.”