The Strat

Stratosphere
File:Stratosphere-LV-Logo.svg
Address	2000 Las Vegas Blvd. South Las Vegas, NV 89109
Opening date	April 30, 1996
Theme	Top of the World
No. of rooms	2,444
Total gaming space	80,000 ft2 (7,432 m2)
Permanent shows	American Superstars Bite
Signature attractions	The Big Shot Insanity the Ride XSCREAM
Casino type	Land-Based
Owner	Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds
Previous names	Vegas World
Renovated in	2001 (2nd 1000 room tower)
Website	Stratosphere Las Vegas

• CN Tower, Toronto
• Sears Tower, Chicago
• Stratosphere, Las Vegas
• Space Needle, Seattle

The Stratosphere Las Vegas is a landmark tower, hotel, and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, an affiliate of Goldman, Sachs & Co who purchased American Casino & Entertainment Properties which includes the Stratosphere along with three other properties. The sale closed on 21 February 2008 for $1.3 billion. The property's signature attraction is the 1,149 ft (350 m) Stratosphere Tower, the tallest free-standing observation tower in the United States and the second tallest in the Western Hemisphere, surpassed only by the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. It is the tallest free-standing structure in Nevada, and it is the second-tallest free-standing structure west of the Mississippi River, after the Kennecott Smokestack in Magna, Utah. The hotel is a separate building with 24 stories, 2,444 rooms and an 80,000 square foot (7,000 m²) casino.

The Stratosphere is the northernmost of the major Strip casinos and the only one actually in the City of Las Vegas, as the rest of the strip south of Sahara Avenue is in the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester. Because it is inside the city limits, the Nevada Gaming Commission groups it with the other Downtown Las Vegas casinos.

Following its completion in 1996 it was initially less popular than first envisioned due to its location on the extreme north end of the strip, far away from the most popular hotel casinos, but its low room prices and unique offerings eventually ensured its success. While many tourists consider its location to be inconvenient, others feel the location is an advantage since it is equidistant between the more popular strip casinos and the downtown area (which includes the Fremont Street Experience).

History

In the early 1990s, The Stratosphere was conceived by Bob Stupak to replace his Vegas World casino. At the conception of the project, one of the planned rides was to be a giant ape that would carry riders up and down one of the tower's columns. Original plans called for the Stratosphere to have a height exceeding that of the CN Tower (1815 ft/553 m), making it the world's tallest freestanding structure at that time. However, due to possible interference with nearby McCarran International Airport and any possible flights that come through Las Vegas, the tower's proposed height shrank multiple times until it stopped at its present height.

In 1995, Grand Casinos was brought on as an equity partner for the still privately funded project under construction. While construction was still progressing, the Stratosphere Corporation was formed as a public company with shares being offered to the public.

On August 29, 1993, the tower caught fire while still under construction, causing a gigantic setback for Stupak and the construction of the tower. It was severe enough to close Vegas World, the adjacent resort next to the tower, and caused a crane to list to the side, almost collapsing to the street below. Nobody was injured, but the fire forced repairs and rebuilding that led to numerous delays in the construction of the tower.

The Stratosphere opened on April 30, 1996. Shortly after opening, the Stratosphere Corporation was forced to file for bankruptcy. This caused construction on the second tower to stop, with only a few stories partially built, and it allowed Carl Icahn to gain control through one of his companies by buying a majority of the outstanding bonds.

A major addition was completed in June 2001 for $1 billion that included finishing the 1000-room second hotel tower.

In the early 2000s, the company attempted to get approval for a roller coaster that would run from several hundred feet up the tower and, in the last proposal, across Las Vegas Boulevard. Part of that last proposal included an entry monument on the ride over Las Vegas Boulevard welcoming people to the City of Las Vegas. The City Council did not approve the project due to objections from the neighbors over possible noise from the enclosed cars on the proposed ride. This ride was intended as a replacement for the never-built ape ride.

Since its opening in 1996, five people have jumped to their deaths from the top of the tower.

Attractions

View from the top

The top of the tower has two observation decks, a fine-dining restaurant known as "Top of the World" (revolving restaurant), and three thrill rides:

• Big Shot at 1,081 feet (329 m) is the highest thrill ride in the world;
• Insanity, opened in 2005, at 900 feet (274 m) is the second highest thrill ride in the world, it dangles riders over the edge of the tower and then spins in a circular pattern at approximately forty miles per hour.
• X-Scream at 866 feet (264 m) is the third highest thrill ride in the world.

Previous attractions

• The High Roller at 909 feet (277 m) was the second highest ride in the world and the highest roller coaster. It was closed on December 30, 2005 and dismantled to make space for a new attraction.

Gambling

Some of the casino games include slot machines, video poker and European roulette. The Stratosphere has inherited some unusual variations on casino games from its Vegas World predecessor, such as "crapless craps" and "double-exposure blackjack", which came with a number of twists. For example, the variation on blackjack involved the dealers showing both of their cards, which appeared to greatly favor the player. However the rules also were changed that the house wins in the event of a push, which meant that statistically the game favored the casino more than in normal blackjack. This type of blackjack is popular in Atlantic City, but rarely seen in Las Vegas.

Controversies

The thrill ride Big Shot

In two separate incidents in 2005, riders were left dangling several hundred feet above the Las Vegas Strip for nearly an hour and a half when one of the thrill rides shut down. Some have been critical of the Stratosphere's response to the situations. Rather than admitting culpability, in one case the Stratosphere representative asserted, "The ride didn't malfunction last night. It worked exactly as it should" (thrill rides are often programmed to cease operation if a fault or problem is detected by the ride's control system). The compensation offered to the stranded riders was also questionable: a one-year free pass to the ride.

In 2008 noted gambling mathematician Michael Shackleford brought a formal complaint against the Stratosphere for refusing to honor an expired winning sports ticket. At the Nevada Gaming Commission hearing it was discovered that the Stratosphere had been issuing tickets for years that incorrectly listed a shorter expiration date than was really the case. The Stratosphere garnered considerable negative press as a result of this incident, including from the Las Vegas Sun, which said, "The arrogance and the contempt for a paying customer of the casino are palpable.... the Stratosphere bosses should be ashamed of their actions. This episode gives another black eye to Nevada’s legal sports betting scene...."

Gallery

• 
  View looking upwards at The Stratosphere
• 
  The Stratosphere by night
• 
  View from front
• 
  View from ground at night
• Clouds over the Stratosphere at midday
  Clouds over the Stratosphere at midday
• 
  View from Stratosphere during construction
• 
  Insanity the Ride atop the Tower
• 
  The X Scream on top of the Stratosphere "drops" riders over the edge of the tower
• 
  View of the former High Roller ride
• 
  Aerial view of the Stratosphere

See also

• List of towers
• List of tallest freestanding structures in the world
• X-Scream

References

• John L. Smith, No Limit: the Rise and Fall of Bob Stupak and Las Vegas' Stratosphere Tower (Huntington Press, 1997) ISBN 0-929712-18-8

External links

• Stratosphere Las Vegas homepage
• Las Vegas Leisure Guide page on the Stratosphere, with construction details
• Stratosphere Tower at Structurae
• Insanity the Ride
• Insanity the Ride video
• Satellite shot