Well, the hotel is still there, it's just no longer the Mint.
The Mint Casino opened in 1957 on Fremont Street between First and Second, next to Binion's Horseshoe. A 26-story 296-room hotel tower was added in 1965 at a cost of $6 million.
The Mint was made famous by the Mint 400 off-road race (see QoD 5/7/06), which was the basis for Hunter S. Thompson's book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
The hotel-casino was bought in 1989 by the Binions for $36.5 million, at which time the Mint became the Horseshoe West. All the Binions had to do was cut out a big door in the shared casino wall to incorporate the Mint into the Horseshoe. For a long time, the two casinos were a contrast in '50s and '60s design and decor, but today -- more than 15 years later -- the old Mint is just a part of Binion's.
