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Bally’s has officially been renamed the Horseshoe Las Vegas with a soft opening on Thursday Dec. 15 at midnight PT. The rebranding was announced in January and brings the prestige of old-school Vegas less than a year after its first wildly successful season holding the World Series of Poker along with its sister property, Paris, which was previously was held at the Rio for 17 years.
Bally’s opened on December 4, 1973 and was originally named the MGM Grand. The building, in 1980, suffered one of the worst fires that Las Vegas has ever seen. It took until the following year to reopen, and in 1986 Bally Manufacturing purchased the property. Finally, in 2005 Harrah's Entertainment (now named Caesars Entertainment), bought the casino, along with the Paris Hotel and Casino.
The World Series of Poker began in 1970, at Binion's Horseshoe casino, owned and operated by Benny Binon and had only a few players. Johnny Moss was the inaugural champion, voted in by his peers as the “best-all-around player." Compared with last year’s numbers topping out at 8,663 and the Main Event champion Espen Jorstad winning $10,000,000, the WSOP has grown exponentially since its inception. Doyle Brunson , one of poker’s most widely-renowned poker ambassadors was in attendance at the first WSOP and has been one the greatest and well-known poker players to bring attention to the game.
As a full-circle moment, the Horseshoe Las Vegas renovated its poker room earlier this year which reopened as its Hall of Fame Poker Room on the morning of November 14th. It features 18 tables with an array of games and will have some new features coming in the next months. These will include a WSOP bracelet display case and a wall of bronze Poker Hall of Fame plaques, similar to the old display at Binion's.
The Horseshoe Las Vegas also opened Jack Binion’s Steakhouse last summer, which adds to the legacy and roots of the Horseshoe brand. The casino and hotel will go through further renovations that will harken back to an iconic Horseshoe look that includes tooled leather and vibrant colors that will be sure to delight the thousands of poker players coming to the 2023 WSOP whose initial schedule was just released.
On Thursday at midnight, a soft opening occurred but without much fanfare or a ceremony. The soft transition included changing out the casino chips to the Horseshoe logo. Bally's signage outside the building still appears in a few areas but that is expected to change soon.
Between now and the 2023 World Series of Poker, further renovations will continue and before long the entire facility will no longer resemble the Bally's theme.
The 2023 WSOP will run from May 30-July 18, and the full schedule will be released next year. The WSOP did unveil their smallest tournament buy-in to date with the $300 Gladiators of Poker, which comes with a staggering $3,000,000 guarantee.
Read details about the renaming of Bally's to Horseshoe Las Vegas.
Christina is a Las Vegas-based freelance writer who discovered poker at the age of twelve. She's been a contributor to PokerNews since 2022.
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