Fab FAQs
Here are some little known fun facts and trivia about the world’s most spectacular meeting, convention, fun, and event destination: Fabulous Las Vegas!
- There’s a “new kid in town!” Belinda Maguire opens her new “Destination Fabulous” DMC on Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. Now that’s historic!
- When Paul Anka played Vegas, he was too young to be allowed in the casino.
- Bugsy Siegel named his casino “The Flamingo,” after the long, shapely legs of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill.
- The first hotel/casino on what was to become the “Strip,” wasn’t the Flamingo; it was the El Rancho Vegas, across from the new SLS Resort & Casino (formerly The Sahara Hotel & Casino).
- In Nevada, it’s mandatory that video slot machines pay a minimum of 75% on average.
- “Vegas Vic”, the huge animated cowboy on Fremont Street, is the world’s largest mechanical neon sign.
- Billionaire recluse Howard Hughes stayed at the Desert Inn so long that he was asked to leave the hotel. So he simply bought it.
- Camels were used as pack animals in Nevada as late as the 1870s.
- More than 40 million people visit Las Vegas each year.
- Seventeen of the 20 biggest hotels in the world are in Las Vegas.
- Gambling was legalized in Las Vegas in 1931.
- The Stratosphere Hotel & Tower, at more than 1,100 feet, is the tallest building west of the Mississippi and the fifth tallest structure in the United States.
- The Las Vegas Strip isn’t really in Las Vegas. It’s actually in Clark County.
- The famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign was created in 1959 by graphic artist Betty Willis.
- Hoover Dam was completed in 1935. It took 21,000 workers more than five years to build it.
- The City of Las Vegas was incorporated on May 15, 1905 when 110 acres of land in downtown Las Vegas was auctioned off.
- The original sign over Fremont Street read: “The Gateway to Boulder Dam.”
- Las Vegas is 2,001 ft. above sea level.
- The current population of Clark County (as of the 2010 census) is 1,951,269
- As of 2010, Las Vegas boasted 148,935 hotel and motel rooms.
- McCarran International Airport is the 8th busiest in the world, averaging 980 flights per day.
- In 2010, 4.4 million people attended more than 18,000 conventions in Las Vegas.
- The average temperature is 66.3 degrees Fahrenheit with an average yearly rainfall of 4.13 inches.
- Mt. Charleston is just 35 miles away and rises to an elevation of 11,918 feet.
- The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has more than 20,000 full and part-time students.
- The area boasts more than 30 golf courses, two water parks, ice skating, and eight bowling centers.
- The sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center offers 3.2 million sq. ft. of total space.
- The stunning Smith Center for the Performing Arts is America’s newest and most lavish concert hall, playing host to major symphonies, top performing artists, and Broadway shows.
- The 123,000-seat Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosts NASCAR racing, drag races, and is the home to Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival, one of the world’s largest music festivals.
- Belinda Maguire unveils Destination Fabulous 2.0 on Friday, August 11, 2017 as a preemptive strike to Apple’s iPhone 8 launch. How do you like them apples?