Stardust

The Stardust was our hotel room of choice for the inaugural LV trip. This one would have been LV '98. Other trips were thusly named LV '99. LV '00. LV '00b. And so on and so forth. Sadly, the casino no longer stands, imploded a little more than a year ago.

The Stardust had a lot of things going for it in 1998. It was the site for some scenes from the movie Swingers, and home to a lot of lower stakes tables we could all be comfortable at. The movie Casino was about the days Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal ran the 'dust (which was called the Tangiers in the movie). Robert DeNiro played Rosenthal's character (renamed Sam "Ace" Rothstein in the movie). Siegfried and Roy got their start at the Stardust. Gay tiger-handlers were finally dealt a blackjack with that move. It was also really close to Slots-A-Fun, which sold the world's best 99cent half-pound hot dog. I preferred to put nacho cheese on mine, but some went with the traditional ketchup and mustard. The Stardust also made it a point to serve beer to people as they waited in line to check-in. A nice touch. It never dawned on me at the time that if they are giving you a drink in line, you are probably going to be there for a while. Live and learn.

I didn't get this chip on that trip, but since then I've added a couple other Stardust chips to my collection... buying them online. And there won't be any more... as Echelon Place is being erected on that site. It's supposed to be open late in 2010.