That’s what happened.
The Paddlewheel opened in the mid-‘80s on Convention Center Drive, halfway between the Convention Center and the north Strip. It had a tiny casino and 200 hotel rooms.
In 1993, Debbie Reynolds, a long-time Las Vegan, bought it, renamed it the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel Casino & Museum, then proceeded to lose money every year until she sold it to the World Wrestling Federation in 1998 for $10.6 million.
The WWF had big plans to turn it into a major Las Vegas hotel-attraction, announcing plans in February 1999 for a $100 million 1,000-room resort with a wrestling theme and a large arena to host WWF performances.
But nothing ever happened there and the WWF sold the casino to a Chicago developer in 2001 for $11.2 million. It became the Greek Isles in July of that year and it’s been the Greek Isles ever since, with a good Greek restaurant and a succession of worthwhile small production shows.
In April 2005, a New York developer claimed that he'd purchased the casino for $52 million, but though the owner admitted the joint was for sale, the deal never materialized.
