Las Vegas has historically been the sometime home to a host of big names, from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to Orson Welles and Howard Hughes. While in the old days, most of the stars tended to live in opulent suites within the hotels when they were in town (Elvis at the former International, now Las Vegas Hilton, and Hughes at the Desert Inn, for example), today a number of celebrities have private residences in Las Vegas. There aren’t, however, the kinds of Hollywood-style tours that take you past the driveways of the rich and famous.
For one thing, in Vegas the stars’ homes are scattered around the city in different neighborhoods, depending generally on whether they’re old-timers or more recent arrivals. Thus, you don’t have distinct areas like Bel Air and Beverly Hills, where you can guarantee that virtually every other house has a famous owner. Here, they're spread between Henderson, Summerlin, downtown, and elsewhere.
Also, the majority of Las Vegas’ wealthier neighborhoods consist of gated communities, so many homes aren’t accessible or even visible from the public highways.
Finally, there’s simply a different vibe here. Las Vegas is a lot more low-key than L.A., with people tending to respect the privacy of their famous neighbors. There’s no desire to encourage the kind of celebrity-stalking that you tend get around Hollywood. So, although Las Vegas may be permanent or occasional home to the likes of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, Tony Curtis, Celine Dion, Siegfried & Roy, BB King, Elton John, Wayne Newton, Gladys Knight, Mary Wilson, Penn and Teller, Susan Anton, Rita Rudner, Mike Tyson, and David Cassidy, to name a few, you simply won’t find any coach tours that point out their houses for you.
