The Venetian has 4,049 suites and a 120,000 square foot (11 000 m²) casino. It is located on the east side of the Strip, between Harrah's and the Wynn Las Vegas.
Combined with the adjacent Sands Expo Convention Center and The Palazzo Hotel and Casino Resort, The Venetian is a part of the largest hotel and resort complex in the world --- featuring 7,074 hotel rooms and suites.
History
On November
26, 1996, 8 years after it was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, the Sands Hotel was imploded
to make way for The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. Ground was broken April 14,
1997.
The resort opened on May 3, 1999 with flutter of white doves, sounding trumpets and singing gondoliers, with actress Sophia Loren joining The Venetian Chairman and Owner, Sheldon G. Adelson, in christening the first motorized gondola. Built at a cost of $1.5 billion, it was one of the most expensive resorts of its kind when it opened. A brief time line of the hotel's history:
November
14, 1997 — $1,000,000,000 financial package secured.
September 24, 1997
— Announcement that the Venetian's Grand Canal Shoppes will be managed by
Forest City Commercial Management.
August 18, 1998 — Venetian Resort
tops out.
August 24, 1998 — Venetian begins accepting room reservations,
by phone and on-line.
May 3, 1999 — Grand opening of first phase of complex.
October 7, 2001 — The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum opened within the resort,
featuring its first collection: Masterpieces and Master Collectors: Impressionist
and Early Modern Paintings.
August 30, 2002 — The museum opened its second
collection: Art Through the Ages: Masterpieces of Painting from Titian to Picasso.
May 15, 2003 — Museum opens third exhibit: American Pop Icons.
June
27, 2003 — The Venezia at the Venetian opened as an additional tower, adding
1,013 suites and a new wedding chapel.
November 7, 2003 — Museum opens
exhibit: A Century of Painting: From Renoir to Rothko, featuring paintings by
Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, van Gogh, Renoir, and others.
March 19, 2004 —
"The Nevada Gaming Commission Thursday reluctantly imposed an agreed-upon
$1 million fine on The Venetian for rigging contests and violating state gaming
regulations but only after chastising other state agencies for not pursuing the
case more vigorously. Chairman Peter Bernhard and Commissioner Art Marshall, who
called the violations the "most serious" they have dealt with during
their tenures on the commission, criticized the state attorney general's office
and the Gaming Control Board for taking a year to bring the eight-count complaint
before the commission. ... "This is the most serious complaint I've seen
since I've been on the commission. The issues go to the heart of the integrity
of the industry," Bernhard said. ... The Asian high roller at the center
of the case, who was also the big loser in the casino over the Chinese New Year
weekend in 2002, was preselected to win a Mercedes-Benz. The complaint said a
Venetian executive who rigged the drawing with a cohort hid the winning ticket
in his shirtsleeve and pretended to draw it randomly from a batch of entries before
announcing the "winning" ticket."
October 10, 2005 — Blue
Man Group officially opens at the Blue Man Theatre.
June 24, 2006 — Phantom
- The Las Vegas Spectacular opened at a new theatre at the Venetian.
Film
history
Building the Venetian was the subject of an episode of the show MegaStructures.
Various Venetian locations were the setting for the introductory scenes of
the 2001 movie, Rat Race.
A suite from the Venetian is featured as a location
in the 2005 movie Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous
Casino and other
attractions
The Casino at the Venetian offers more than 122 casino games. In
addition to slot machines and table games, there is a state-of-the-art sports
lounge.
The Venetian has an extensive indoor retail mall called the Grand Canal Shoppes, which covers 500,000 square feet (50 000 m²).
In addition to the lake in front of the casino, canals on the second floor of building, in the shopping mall, are used to provide gondola rides. The hotel also hosts the Las Vegas Madame Tussauds Las Vegas wax museum. You can see statutes on your way out of the exit near the "Sephora" and down the escalators, one of the statues is of Whoopi Goldberg, another one of Jerry Springer.
Dining, Amenities
and Entertainment
The Venetian hosts 17 acclaimed restaurants, including Bouchon,
which is the vision of Time Magazine's “America's Best Chef”, Thomas
Keller. There is also a food court in the Grand Canal Shoppes. Because the hotel
is composed of suites, the hotel contains an upscale "grocery" store
that sells produce, meats, and other items for cooking.
In addition to shopping at the Grand Canal Shoppes, The Venetian offers plenty of other things to do, including:
Blue Man Group — an explosive show in the 1760-seat Blue
Man Theatre
Canyon Ranch SpaClub — a 69,000 sq. ft. (6,400 m²) health
spa and fitness center
Convention space — 1.9 million sq ft (180,000
m²), including the 1.2 million sq. ft. (110,000 m²) Sands Expo convention
center
Golf Concierge
A new production of Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical
The Phantom of the Opera entitled Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular, which
runs 95 minutes long and new special effects only seen at the Venetian. The Phantom
Theater was custom built to resemble the Palais Garnier.
Pool Deck —
a five acre deck above the fourth level of the Venetian Tower, featuring 3 pools
and a hot tub
Tao Nightclub — 10,000 square foot (1,000 m²) high-energy
nightclub located within the Tao “Asian Temple” Entertainment Complex.
Aquaknox - a medium sized quaint and elegant restaurant that specializes in
seafood
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