The Mint was a casino in downtown Las Vegas that 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 through passage 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 20 years later -- the old Mint is pretty much forgotten (aside from its clock -- see QoD 7/11/08), now just a part of Binion's, which of course has also seen its share of changes and is only a shadow of its former self, but that's another story.
