A history of The Promise: Can Vegas relight its spark?

Upon closer inspection, the origins of these two properties provide us with insights to factors that made Las Vegas so special. Indeed, their ongoing prosperity and relevance offer lessons in sustainability and, more importantly, reminds us of “The Promise” that enabled Las Vegas’ evolution, growth and reinvention, which remain vital to drive future success.

Setting the stage 

On Boxing Day, 1946, The Flamingo opened at the third resort on Route 91, today’s Strip. The resort’s opening was considered a disaster; it was overbudget, the hotel wasn’t ready and, within months, the developers Billy Wilkerson and Benjamin Siegal exited the project, the latter in a more terminal fashion, to be replaced by Gus Greenbaum, Moe Sedway and Dave Berman. They honed the message and set the template for casino operations for the first generation of Las Vegas casino owners.  

Other than providing mythology to the city’s origin story, the legacy of The Flamingo is two-fold. Firstly, and not apparent at the time, was the importance of location. Secondly, was strategy.  

The Flamingo’s appeal was not to the “frontier gamblers” of the other properties, but attracted customers of Wilkerson’s other hotels, nightclubs and restaurants dotted across California’s major cities. These properties were frequented by the subjects of his Hollywood Reporter magazine and the pleasure-seeking nouveau-riche, such as Siegal, where they could mingle with likeminded people. 

When hotel developers Jay Sarno and Stan Mallin conceived their Cabana Palace across from The Flamingo, Las Vegas was already established as America’s gambling capital. The renamed Caesars Palace finally opened on 5 August 1966. It was elegant and fun, with an escapist theme, far removed from the bleak headlines of the mid-1960s and the backdrop of the Nevadan desert. 

People loved Caesars Palace in a way they loved few other hotels. Not only could you eat, drink, dance, see shows, gamble, sit by the pool and play dice or cards, all in the same place, but they loved how being there made them feel; they loved the escape, the fantasy, the entertainment, the experience. Opening night was attended by some of the country’s most recognisable names and faces.  

Improbably, but crucially to the future of Las Vegas, was perhaps the least known person at the party: 26-year-old Steve Wynn. Sarno’s unappreciated and intuitive genius set out the strategic foundations that would define the market. Established at The Flamingo, advanced at Caesars Palace and absorbed by a young Wynn, “The Las Vegas Promise” was set. 

Reviving “The Promise” 

Faced with competition from Atlantic City, by the early 1980s, Las Vegas was relegated to the second-largest gaming market in the USA. The Flamingo became part of Hilton’s portfolio, removing all elements of the historic build. Caesars Palace had also expanded, but the primary attention and resources of the corporate parent, Caesars World, were directed on the east coast and other ventures. 

The tragic fire at the MGM Grand remained a symbol of Las Vegas’ decline, with no new major resorts opening in market. As several Las Vegas casinos fell into bankruptcy, the consensus belief of remaining casino operators was that if they were to compete against the newer, better located resorts in Atlantic City, they needed to be cheaper, with more offers, comps and discounts to attract customers, firmly in the middle and mass market. Rather than being an exclusive retreat for gamblers, Las Vegas became more inclusive to those on all budgets. 

Las Vegas as a “value destination” stopped the financial bleeding, but this transactional tone made the experience all about “the deal.” Moreover, this strategy did not deliver the elevated escapism promised by the formative icons. 

The importance of Wynn’s Mirage, which opened in 1989, was not the frequently misunderstood claim that by building big, it was the catalyst for the renewal of modern Las Vegas. Rather, it marked the culmination of Steve Wynn’s own experiences and insights, pulling in various strands of strategic thinking, lifting heavily from Caesars Palace and The Flamingo, reimagined alongside his own experiences, all showcased in a single property. Throughout development, Wynn was unyielding in delivering and communicating what he called “Keeping The Promise” to his customers. This was no accident – and he delivered. 

The business story 

There has been an influx of smart people into the Las Vegas hospitality and casino industry over the past decades, many of them, like me, with advanced business and finance degrees, with experience in other commercial environments. 

Where such conversations were once limited to conference gatherings, I see almost weekly dialogue and pronouncements about strategy, offering various hypothesis to drive business revenues and shift the customer demographic. Turning all aspects of the business into revenue centres, eliminating under-performing elements and services, and maximising efficiencies has had the effect of record operating margins, evolving revenue mixes and a new customer demographic coming to the market.

Fun, pleasure, excitement, thrill, escapism, aspiration are embedded in “The Promise.” Stay in our resort and you will feel better about who you are. If you don’t “feel” loved, it becomes about a transaction, thus increasing scope for dissatisfaction.

In this sense, these changes have proved successful, at least financially. In some cases, however, recent moves have alienated some customers familiar with past experiences and expectations, with the dissatisfaction playing out in social media. Although visitation data, commercial results and social media headlines do not tell the full story, there remains a story to be told. 

True, on a macro-level there has been a decline in annual visitation, particularly from international markets. But this is as likely to be due to exogenous factors, notably a public trade spat with Canada and Mexico, and ongoing military conflict in various countries, rather than to Las Vegas operators’ decision-making alone. Also true is that Las Vegas is not the bargain destination of popular conception, a legacy of the 1980s sell. Gamblers no longer subsidise other business units, as operators seek to bring in “the right” customers, rather than seek occupancy as the key performance metric.  

National (and indeed, international) inflationary pressures have led to increased costs of goods, the labour unions have negotiated an increase in salaries from resorts, and the advent of mega-attractions (such as The Sphere and Allegiant Stadium) have pulled customer time and spend away from smaller attractions and venues, sometimes challenging their viability. 

However, despite these very understandable and rational explanations, it would be churlish to blindly disregard the visitor sentiment as mere bluster. Instead, it may be that what is being vocally conveyed is something broader found in the present Las Vegas experience. 

Notable irritations are inconsistent service standards and the addition of a variety of fees and charges – some seeming arbitrary and excessive – to inflate what looks like decent value. It must be noted that cheaper pricing alone is not a guarantee of competitive advance, but it is the perception of price-gouging that should be a concern. Unchecked, this is an easy pathway to dissatisfaction and product alienation. 

McGovern and Moon observed in 2007: “Any CEO focused on long-term sustainability would be wise to identify these strategies and begin dismantling them. Clearly such practices work in the short term as the profits of certain practitioners attest, but as competitors emerge to exploit customers’ pent-up hostility, companies that bullied their customers in the ways described here should expect a punishing response sooner or later.” 

It has taken a moment, but from the perspective of customers, something has changed, with dissatisfaction a more pronounced attitude than ever before. In this industry specifically, this is particularly alarming. 

At every turn, whether it be appropriate pricing strategies, programming, investing in new experiences and amenities, or ensuring our hospitality delivery is at the pinnacle of the industry, creating love and capturing loyalty must be our strategic goals. If we do that, customers will keep coming back.

Assessing the Las Vegas Promise 

Although the proponents of Las Vegas talk about the experiences that Las Vegas offers, rightly justifying the diversity and quality of what is served, that is only one aspect of a deeper – and in some cases lesser understood – insight to the drivers of strategic competitive advantage. My previous columns have addressed this in detail, but to summarise, in this industry there are only two drivers of sustainable competitive advantage: location and customer loyalty.  

Increasingly, the focus on loyalty is as something either functional or transactional, using points, access and status to entice customers to their resorts. By being a good customer, you “get something” back. This has proved highly effective and, moreover, it is quantitative – and if you can measure it, you can manage it. 

My own research from 2011 and 2021 shows that some properties are more successful in capturing customer loyalty that others. Over the 10-year time period, these notably include The Flamingo, Caesars Palace, The Mirage (prior to closing), Bellagio and Wynn. Of these properties, there is no surprise that The Flamingo and Caesars Palace feature, personifying the “Las Vegas Promise” in Americana, being located in the best positions at the heart of The Strip and more recently having benefitted from the loyalty strategies enacted by Harrah’s/Caesars.  All the other resorts were developed by Steve Wynn and his team. 

Wynn’s views, like Sarno before him, were shaped by a deep, intuitive understanding customer psychology and placemaking. Wynn recalled the experiences of his parents’ generation at G2E in 2014. Summarising, his message: “They never saw a good day in years. If they didn’t go to war and get killed, they came out to The Great Depression, then World War II. But by luck, they experienced the rapid growth of the post-war years, and all they wanted was a taste of “the good life” – something they had only heard about.” 

Many early resorts (and an increasing number of those today) were developed, programmed and operated based on function, with great resources and amenities – which are presented to the customer as marketing elements, either as differentiators or providing a reason to visit.  

This misses the point. 

Theodore Levitt famously observed about marketing, that people do not merely buy products; they buy solutions to meet their needs. It is this that sets The Flamingo apart from The El Rancho, Caesars Palace from The Dunes, The Mirage from The MGM Grand, Bellagio from Mandalay Bay, and Wynn from Aria. It is not that they offer better “stuff” in meeting their customers’ functional needs, but certain resorts have managed to dive deep into psychology and focus on embracing the emotional needs of customers, some that even the customers themselves cannot cognitively identify.  

This is done not just by the physical building and design elements (including meticulously calibrated environments subliminally engaging across the senses), but the human interactions, employee culture, personal engagement. When staying at our resort, how do you feel? 

Fun, pleasure, excitement, thrill, escapism, aspiration are embedded in “The Promise.” Stay in our resort and you will feel better about who you are. If you don’t “feel” loved, it becomes about a transaction, thus increasing scope for dissatisfaction. Get this right and customers will return, repeatedly. In too many Las Vegas experiences, it is not being delivered.  

The operator’s dilemma 

When developing and programming a casino resort, the first question to ask is, who is your customer?  

The answer is not always binary, with many newer (and larger), Strip resorts having to cater to multiple customer segments with the final product having to balance the competing needs of convention customers, casino players and nightlife mavens. In some cases, where the properties are relatively smaller, such as in Downtown Las Vegas, or focused on a particular geographic sub-market, as found in Station or Boyd’s properties, or where there is a singular “top-down” visionary (Wynn, Adelson) the priority is often clearer.  

In a more corporate, risk-averse age (where real estate and operations are separate) the programming has become more formulaic to meet functional needs, (bars, restaurants, facilities and amenities) supplemented by events and experiences, underwritten by transactional drivers, each with a dedicated ROI, where the outcome is driving and maximising revenue, rather than seeking an emotional response from customers. 

Has modern, large-scale, diversified, convention-friendly, operationally heavy and (by necessity) transactional Las Vegas broken the historic promise to customers? For many, particularly certain gaming customers in some properties, The Promise remains strong, but it needs constant renewal, with the realisation that what is lost can be found.  

As 2026 marks the important milestones in the history of Las Vegas’ casino history, I challenge today’s operators and developers to (metaphorically) travel back in time to the early days of Las Vegas, appreciate what made this city so remarkable and understand not just what, but why and how.  

Those present at the opening of The Flamingo, Caesars Palace, Mirage and Bellagio, knew they were witnessing something special. They fell in love with Las Vegas in a way that was not merely transactional; the memories they hold dear are responses to engagement with the elements intended to solicit an emotional response. Las Vegas was created to provoke the expressions, behaviours and feelings that other places could not. 

These responses to place are not unique to past customer demographics. Aspiration and the pursuit of self-validation are universal, plus the realisation of achievement, embracing of emotion and recognition of experience. This generation even has an app to immediately communicate these moments to others. And when they fail to have these moments, there is an app for that too! 

At every turn, whether it be appropriate pricing strategies, programming, investing in new experiences and amenities, or ensuring our hospitality delivery is at the pinnacle of the industry, creating love and capturing loyalty must be our strategic goals. If we do that, customers will keep coming back.  

If we keep “The Las Vegas Promise” to our customers, they will keep theirs to us.  

Oliver Lovat leads the Denstone Group, which offers strategic consultancy on customer-facing, asset-backed investments, including casinos. He has been a regular Gambling Insider contributor for years, but is mostly found in our sister publication Gaming America.