Castaways Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Triblend Tee

Venue Description

Ben Jaffe, a Las Vegas investor and then-owner of the Tropicana Hotel and Casino, bought the financially struggling Sans Souci Hotel in bankruptcy. Shortly after buying the property, Jaffe announced plans to rename it as the Polynesian-themed Castaways and to add more rooms while remodeling the existing ones. Construction of new rooms began in 1963. The property reopened as the Castaways on September 1, 1963, with a casino run by Ike P. LaRue and Everett Eugene McCarlie. However, the casino closed on December 3, 1964, due to financial issues, although the hotel continued to operate. Howard Hughes agreed to buy the Castaways, with the sale approved in October 1967 for $3.3 million. Hughes added a larger showroom stage in 1969 and renovated the casino in 1971 and again in 1981. In October 1986, the Castaways was sold for $50 million to Steve Wynn, who planned to build a new resort. The Castaways closed on July 20, 1987, with 228 rooms and 650 employees. It was demolished to make way for Wynn’s new resort, The Mirage, the Strip’s first mega-resort, which opened on November 22, 1989, changing the face of the Strip forever.