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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.
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.
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 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 $65 million
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.
The Stratosphere offers some slot machines that offer a 98%
payback, video poker machines with pay tables that pay over
100%, and European roulette. The Stratosphere also offered
$3 blackjack (the typical minimum at strip casinos is $10),
but increased the minimum to $5 around 2004.
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 is not found in Las Vegas.
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