How Many Casinos are on the Las Vegas Strip?

How many casinos are on the Las Vegas Strip? It sort of depends on your definition of the “Strip,” but basically, thirty-one casinos call the Strip home, up from 29 just a few years ago.

These 31 Strip casinos range from dinky little dives like the cheesy but classic Slots A Fun, to the glamorous (and expensive) Wynn and Encore resorts. All are located right on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Looking north at the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip
Looking north at the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip

The 31 casinos stretch from Mandalay Bay on the South, up to the Stratosphere to the North.

Many others casino/hotels, like the Rio, Palms, and new Virgin Hotel Las Vegas (formerly the Hard Rock), aren’t included in the thirty, as they are not located right on Las Vegas Boulevard. However these near-strip casinos are within walking distance – albeit a long walk in the heat.

Strip-Area Casinos

According to the Nevada Gaming Commission, there are actually 60 casinos in the Las Vegas strip area. Again however, their definition of “strip” is not as strict nor literal as ours is here, and therefore their list includes casinos off of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Going from south to north, here’s the list of casinos directly on the Las Vegas Strip:

Besides the Virgin Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, Rio, Gold Coast and Palms, some of the other casinos just off the strip, which I did not include here, include OYO and the Westgate. The list above is strictly for casinos with frontage on the Strip. Yes, the Aria is a decent walk to the Strip, but it still fronts it, sort of.

(Related: How many casinos are there in the state of Nevada?)

Included in the 31 is a casino-within a casino: O’Sheas, which is part of the Linq Casino.

Previously the Margaritaville Casino inside the Flamingo was another casino within a casino, however it has since been de-themed as is just part of the Flamingo now, (although the very successful Margaritaville restaurant next door remains open).

View towards Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas Strip
View towards Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas Strip

Strip Casino Ownership

Of these thirty-one casinos, over half are owned by one of two corporations: Caesars Entertainment, and MGM Resorts International.

Caesars Entertainment owns or operates Bally’s, Caesars Palace, Harrah’s, Paris, the Linq, O’Sheas, Planet Hollywood Casino, the Flamingo, and The Cromwell. You can use your Caesars Rewards at any of the casinos listed above.

MGM Resorts owns and/or operates the following, meaning you can use your MGM Rewards card at all of these casinos: Aria, Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Park MGM, New York New York, Luxor, and Excalibur.

(Related: How many casinos are in Las Vegas?)

Of the remaining twelve, two are owned by Wynn Resorts (Wynn and Encore), while one is owned by Apollo Global Management out of New York City.

The MGM Grand is one of 30 casinos on the Las Vegas Strip
The MGM Grand is one of 31 casinos on the Las Vegas Strip

The former owner of the since-demolished Frontier Hotel and Casino, Phil Ruffin, owns Treasure Island, Circus Circus, and the neigbhoring Slots O’ Fun, while Penn National Gaming owns the historic Tropicana.

The iconic Stratosphere, built by the fun and colorful Las Vegas legend Bob Stupak, is now owned by Golden Entertainment, a Las Vegas based slot, bar and entertainment company. In 2017 Golden Entertainment purchased the property from American Casinos & Entertainment Properties.

Another colorful Las Vegas legend, Tom Elardi, owns the Casino Royale.

The Sahara Las Vegas is now owned by the Meruelo Group, who own the large Grand Sierra Casino/Resort in Reno, Nevada. The Meruelo purchased the struggling property from the orginal owners of what used to be known as the SLS, a Los Angeles nightclub/restaurant company called SBE Entertainment.

Lastly, there are lots of Strip casino ownership changes in the works, as the San Manuel Tribe of Indians purchased the Mirage from MGM Resorts in December 2021. In turn MGM Resorts took over ownership of the Cosmopolitan.

Las Vegas Strip Casinos Revenue

Although gambling is increasingly taking a backseat revenue-wise to shopping, shows, nightclubs, dinning and entertainment, the Las Vegas strip still does very well for itself gambling wise. According to the Nevada Gaming Commission, the 60 casinos they define as being in the Strip area had a combined revenue of over $7 billion in 2021.

Non-Gaming Hotels on the Las Vegas Strip

Although they look like casinos, there are also a few high-rise hotels that do not offer any sort of gambling, and are therefore not included in our list of casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard.

These include The Four Seasons Hotel and Delano at Mandalay Bay. Technically, both The Four Seasons and Delano are attached to Mandalay Bay, yet both have a separate entrance and both are a long walk to their much busier and louder sister property. In a similar vein, the Nobu Hotel is a hotel-within-a hotel at Caesars Palace, and it too, does not have its own casino floor.

Besides the Four Seasons, other non-gaming hotels on the Strip include the equally ritzy Waldorf Astoria at the City Center, the less than ritzy Travelodge, the Vdara (also at City Center), and the Hilton Grand Vacations Suite on the north end of the strip. Near the Hilton Grand Vacations, the Trump Hotel also does not have a casino. Technically it is not a strip resort either, as it is about a block west of the strip.

Casino Sales

In September 2021, MGM Resorts announced it was purchasing the operatorions of the Cosmopolitan.

Previously, the Cosmopolitan (reportedly built for $4 billion) was owned by the Blackstone Group, a New York City investment management firm. Blackstone had bought the resort from Deutsche Bank, after they took it over from a man named Bruce Eichner, the original developer, who had financial troubles with the resort. The Blackstone Group paid $1.73 billion for the Cosmo in May of 2014.

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that Blackstone sold the Cosmo to MGM in a deal worth $5.65 billion. That’s a $3.92 billion dollar profit in seven years; not too shabby for Blackstone shareholders

The Blackstone Group also owns the Weather Channel and Legoland, of all things.

In March 2021, just two months after the death of it’s founder, Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas Sands corporation agreed to sell the Venetian and Palazzo to Apollo Global Management, another NYC-based invement management firm, for $6.25 billion.

The San Manuel Band of Indians purchased the operations of Mirage from MGM Resorts in December of 2021 for $1.075 billion.

(By Steve Beauregard. Photos courtesy of VisitLasVegas.com, Tony Kent and Tim Gage via Flickr.)

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