Many visitors to Las Vegas like to imagine the city as still being under the thumb of the Mob, with each casino fighting a quasi-legal cutthroat war against all the rest. The Monte Carlo conclusively puts the lie to that notion. Remarkably enough, it's a joint venture between Las Vegas's two major rivals: the Mandalay Resort Group, who put up the money to build it and are wholly responsible for running it, and MGM-Mirage, which owns the land on which it stands. At the time it was built, Mirage were busy with Bellagio , and did not have the spare cash to create another casino. That potent combination meant that despite having over three thousand rooms, and therefore ranking among the world's ten largest hotels, the Monte Carlo took a mere fifteen months to go from the drawing board to its opening night in June 1996.
Another light monorail system links the Monte Carlo with Bellagio to the north; it can't continue to the Mirage and Treasure Island because Caesars Palace is in the way.
The Monte Carlo is by a long way the soberest new casino to appear in Las Vegas in the last ten years. The usual Circus Circus thrills and gimmickry are nowhere to be seen, and you can't help suspecting that Mirage made it a condition of its construction that it didn't try to steal the thunder of Bellagio next door. Its nominal theme is that it's modeled on the Place du Casino in Monte Carlo, so there's plenty of sub- Caesars classical statuary around, and a certain Belle Epoque elegance about its plush Victorian trimmings. However, apart from its ornate 1200-seat theater, home to the show of the excellent illusionist Lance Burton, the theming does not extend to its restaurants and other facilities, and is probably of minimal significance to most guests. They tend to be an affluent and slightly older-than-average group, both because they see the Monte Carlo as being a quieter and classier place to both sleep and gamble than almost anywhere on the Strip, and because the hotel is shorter on crowds in general and kids in particular. The one place they can let their hair down is the Monte Carlo Pub & Brewery , a huge brewpub at the far end of an unassuming shopping mall known rather fancifully as the Street of Dreams.
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