The Venetian
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| Number of rooms | 4,049 Suites | |
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| Theme | Venice | |
| Gaming space | 120,000 ft² (11,148 m²) | |
| Permanent show(s) | Blue Man Group Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular |
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| Signature attraction(s) | Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Madame Tussauds | |
| Notable restaurant(s) | Grand Lux Cafe Bouchon Canaletto Lutèce Royal Star |
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| Owner | Las Vegas Sands | |
| Date opened | May 3, 1999 | |
| Casino type | Land-Based | |
| Major renovation(s) | 2003 | |
| Previous name(s) | Sands Hotel | |
| Casino website | The Venetian website | |
The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino is a Venice-themed hotel and casino located on the famed Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, on the site of the old Sands Hotel. The Venetian is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation.
The Venetian has 4,049 suites and a 120,000 square foot (11 000 m²) casino. It is located on the east side of the Strip, between Harrah's and the Wynn Las Vegas. Each suite in the Venetian has a fax machine/printer, and guests receive a personal greeting fax with their own personal fax number on arrival.
When The Palazzo opens with 3,025 rooms, The Venetian resort, with 7,074 hotel rooms and suites, will become the largest hotel complex in the world.
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[edit] History
On November 26, 1996, 8 years after it was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, The Sands Hotel was imploded to make way for The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. Ground was broken April 14, 1997.
It officially opened on May 3, 1999 with flutter of white doves, sounding trumpets and singing gondoliers, with actress Sophia Loren joining The Venetian Chairman and Owner, Sheldon G. Adelson, in christening the first gondola. Built at a cost of $1.5 billion, it is one of the most expensive resorts of its kind ever built at the time it opened. A brief timeline of the hotel's history:
- November 14, 1997 — $1,000,000,000 financial package secured.
- September 24, 1997 — Announcement that the Venetian's Grand Canal Shoppes will be managed by Forest City Commercial Management.
- August 18, 1998 — Venetian Resort tops out.
- August 24, 1998 — Venetian begins accepting room reservations, by phone and on-line.
- May 3, 1999 — Grand opening of first phase of complex.
- October 7, 2001 — The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum opened within the resort, featuring its first collection: Masterpieces and Master Collectors: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings.
- August 30, 2002 — The museum opened its second collection: Art Through the Ages: Masterpieces of Painting from Titian to Picasso.
- May 15, 2003 — Museum opens third exhibit: American Pop Icons.
- June 27, 2003 — The Venezia at the Venetian opened as an additional tower, adding 1,013 suites and a new wedding chapel.
- November 7, 2003 — Museum opens exhibit: A Century of Painting: From Renoir to Rothko, featuring paintings by Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, van Gogh, Renoir, and others.
- March 19, 2004 — "The Nevada Gaming Commission Thursday reluctantly imposed an agreed-upon $1 million fine on The Venetian for rigging contests and violating state gaming regulations but only after chastising other state agencies for not pursuing the case more vigorously. Chairman Peter Bernhard and Commissioner Art Marshall, who called the violations the "most serious" they have dealt with during their tenures on the commission, criticized the state attorney general's office and the Gaming Control Board for taking a year to bring the eight-count complaint before the commission. ... "This is the most serious complaint I've seen since I've been on the commission. The issues go to the heart of the integrity of the industry," Bernhard said. ... The Asian high roller at the center of the case, who was also the big loser in the casino over the Chinese New Year weekend in 2002, was preselected to win a Mercedes-Benz. The complaint said a Venetian executive who rigged the drawing with a cohort hid the winning ticket in his shirtsleeve and pretended to draw it randomly from a batch of entries before announcing the "winning" ticket."[1]
- October 10, 2005 — Blue Man Group officially opens at the Blue Man Theatre.
- June 24, 2006 — Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular opened at a new theatre at the Venetian.[2]
- September 22, 2006 — A fire broke out after a construction tarp fastened to a decorative tower was overheated by a light. The fire department reported a 3-alarm fire and traffic was closed off on Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road. Flames shot about 40 feet into the air although only a wax museum and cosmetics store in the hotel were evacuated. The fire was quickly contained and there were no injuries reported.
[edit] Film history
- Building the Venetian was the subject of an episode of the show MegaStructures.
- Various Venetian locations were the setting for the introductory scenes of the 2001 movie, Rat Race.
- A suite from the Venetian is featured as a location in the 2005 movie Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
[edit] Casino and other attractions
The Casino at the Venetian offers more than 122 casino games. In addition to slot machines and table games, there is a state-of-the-art sports lounge.
The Venetian has an extensive indoor retail mall called The Grand Canal Shoppes, which covers 500,000 square feet (50 000 m²).
In addition to the lake in front of the casino, canals on the second floor of building, in the shopping mall, are used to provide motorized gondola rides. The hotel also hosts the Las Vegas Madame Tussauds wax museum. You can see statutes on your way out of the exit near the "Sephora" and down the escalators, one of the statues is of Whoopi Goldberg.
[edit] Dining, Amenities and Entertainment
The Venetian hosts 17 acclaimed restaurants, including Bouchon, which is the vision of Time Magazine's “America's Best Chef”, Thomas Keller. There is also a food court in the Grand Canal Shoppes. Because the hotel is composed of suites, the hotel contains an upscale "grocery" store that sells produce, meats, and other items for cooking.
In addition to shopping at the Grand Canal Shoppes, The Venetian offers plenty of other things to do, including:
- Blue Man Group — an explosive show in the 1760-seat Blue Man Theatre
- Canyon Ranch SpaClub — a 69,000 sq. ft. (6,400 m²) health spa and fitness center
- Convention space — 1.9 million sq ft (180,000 m²), including the 1.2 million sq. ft. (110,000 m²) Sands Expo convention center
- Golf Concierge
- A new production of Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical The Phantom of the Opera entitled Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular, which runs 95 minutes long and new special effects only seen at the Venetian.
- Pool Deck — a five acre deck above the fourth level of the Venetian Tower, featuring 3 pools and a hot tub
- Tao Nightclub — 10,000 square foot (1,000 m²) high-energy nightclub located within the Tao “Asian Temple” Entertainment Complex.
- Aquanox - a medium sized quaint and elegant restaurant that specializes in seafood. Located left of the front atrium in the casino, this place seems to rival even the restaurants of Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagassi.
[edit] References
- Las Vegas Tourism website, lasvegas.com - The Venetian
[edit] External links
- The Venetian website
- photos of Venetian
- History of the Venetian
- Venetian - User reviews, expert advice, articles and more information on the Venetian
[edit] See also
- The Court of Honor at the World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893
- The Palazzo
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