Look at the property that changed Las Vegas forever. When Steve Wynn opened the Bellagio in October 1998, he spent $1.6 billion — more than any hotel had ever cost — and built it on the site of the demolished Dunes resort, one of the Rat Pack-era properties that had defined Las Vegas for a generation. The message was deliberate: the old Las Vegas was over.
Wynn modeled the Bellagio on Bellagio, Italy, the village on Lake Como whose lakeside elegance he wanted to transplant to the Nevada desert. He commissioned a genuine gallery of fine art including works by Picasso and Van Gogh. He brought in chefs from Europe to run restaurants that could hold their own against New York or Paris. He built a conservatory filled with living botanical installations that change with the seasons. He was, in short, trying to convince the world that Las Vegas was not merely a gambling destination but a legitimate cultural capital.
The gamble worked. The Bellagio redefined what a Las Vegas resort could be and triggered an arms race in luxury that transformed the entire Strip. Every hotel that followed — the Venetian, Wynn, Encore, Aria — owes its conception to what Steve Wynn built here. The Dunes was demolished. The Bellagio era began. And Las Vegas has never been the same.