Mirage’s influence cannot be ‘overstated’ as Las Vegas prepares to say goodbye

Barb Edgemon and her late husband Daryn began their love affair with The Mirage hotel-casino during their honeymoon in 1995. The newlyweds from Spokane, Washington, were both blackjack dealers and spending time at one of the world’s premier casino properties was a natural fit.

“The Mirage was the only place we used to stay, back in the day,” Edgemon said. “We would stay about four times a year.”

She has lots of great memories of The Mirage, which will close for good on July 17 so that the property’s new owners, Hard Rock International, can begin a multiyear transformation of the Strip icon into the Hard Rock with a 700-foot guitar-shaped hotel. The new property is tentatively scheduled to open in 2027.

Edgemon recalls one night when Daryn went on a heater and won 23 blackjack hands in a row, which prompted a visit from the casino’s surveillance team. As luck would have it, he broke his toe at the pool the next day.

She also remembers losing a $100 chip during their first visit and getting a call in their hotel room the next day that it had been found.

“That’s great customer service,” she said, touching on one of the hallmarks that the property’s founder, Steve Wynn, emphasized and which separated The Mirage from its competitors in its early years.

‘Everyone has a story to tell’

Mirage President Joe Lupo was an undergraduate student at UNLV when the casino-hotel was being constructed in the mid-1980s.

“There are 10,000 stories — probably even more — from locals, employees, influencers, visitors and guests about The Mirage. Everyone has a story to tell about this property,” he said.

Even as a young 20-something, Lupo understood that Wynn’s success with the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas was a precursor for what was about to happen.

“It was evident that there was a change coming to the Strip and to Las Vegas,” Lupo said. “In a very short period of time, The Mirage became the go-to, the number one place everyone had to visit when they came to Las Vegas.”

For someone who cut his teeth working at other Las Vegas casinos, such as the Sands and the Stardust, Lupo has a deep appreciation for the place he now oversees.

“To be here, at this property, is one of the most fortunate moments of my career,” he said, “and I’m just grateful, I’m thankful, for the opportunity.”

Changing the way the city did business

The Mirage is often credited with changing not only the Las Vegas experience but the way the city did business. Before The Mirage, casino executives relied almost solely on gaming revenue to turn a profit. Wynn put an emphasis on non-gaming amenities, such as restaurants, entertainment and the hotel resort itself, which completely turned the tables on how casinos made their money.

David Schwartz, casino historian and UNLV ombudsman who previously served as director of the school’s Center for Gaming Research, said the impact of the “Oasis in the Desert” on Las Vegas — and the gaming industry at large — can be seen in the way properties were designed pre- and post-Mirage. Since 1989, nearly every major casino project in the United States and, to a degree, the world, has emulated a style that Wynn essentially created with The Mirage.

“Steve Wynn, with Mirage, saw the opportunity to say, ‘We’re going to go after a different demographic, a different customer, one that’s willing to spend more money,’” Schwartz said. “From the start, he said, ‘This is a resort hotel with a casino attached, not a casino with a hotel attached.’”

Within 10 years of The Mirage’s opening, Strip casinos were making more money from non-gaming than gaming. That business model is still driving today’s Las Vegas, Schwartz said.

“I just don’t think you can overstate (The Mirage’s) importance in the history of casino development,” he said.

One needs look no further than two of the Mirage’s most notable entertainment acts to grasp Schwartz’s point. The 13-year run of Siegfried and Roy’s show and the 18-year residency of Cirque du Soleil’s “The Beatles’ ‘Love’” brought just as many guests — if not more — to The Mirage as any slot machine or table game.

The dolphins, the big cat habit and the massive aquarium behind the hotel lobby desk all contributed to making The Mirage more than just another casino. It was designed to transport guests away from the harsh desert landscape outside and immerse them in a tropical paradise, complete with a coconut aroma that is instantly recognizable and impossible to forget.

And then there’s the volcano, the free-to-all streetside spectacle that has never generated a single dollar in revenue but will be missed as much as The Mirage itself. Under almost every social post that has mentioned The Mirage’s impending closure, the comments lamenting the loss of the volcano are as frequent as they are personal. Some of the commentary makes it seem that everyone who has been to Las Vegas has seen the volcano and has an opinion on whether or not it should remain. (It won’t.)

Balancing the raw emotions associated with closing an iconic property like The Mirage while trying to honor its place in the pantheon of great casinos and, more importantly, the people who made it possible has been “extremely challenging,” Lupo admits.

“We want to ensure that The Mirage always has a place in history — which it has earned — and to the employees who cared for this property,” the casino president said. “But, at times, change is good. And we should embrace that.”

What is to come

Lupo expressed optimism that what is to come can be just as great as what was, even if it can never truly replicate The Mirage.

“We’re in a position now that we get to acknowledge the generational impact of this property,” he said. “In 2027, we’ll have the opportunity to introduce another concept with generational impact with Hard Rock Las Vegas.”

Some of the original day one Mirage employees will be recognized during a press conference in the casino’s porte cochere on Wednesday morning. Each of them will receive a keepsake that their colleagues, friends and, in some cases, family members can sign, almost like a yearbook where memories of days past can be fondly remembered.

Edgemon, the widow from Washington State, is not taking anything tangible away from The Mirage. Rather, she left something on the grounds that can never be removed. At least not intentionally.

After Daryn passed away in April 2019, Edgemon came to Las Vegas with his ashes. She sprinkled his remains at the pool, in the atrium and, finally, at the volcano. The exact spot where the volcano currently sits is where Hard Rock will build a 700-foot guitar-shaped hotel.

“I guess it’s fitting that they are putting (a) guitar up at the volcano (since) for 30 years, (Daryn) was a guitar player in a country western band,” she said. “I’m just going to think that he had something to do with it.”

Contact David Danzis at ddanzis@reviewjournal.com.