The Barbary Coast had a nearly three-decade run at the northeast corner of Flamingo Road and the Strip — a focal point in the resort corridor, sitting quietly since the 1990s as it was dwarfed by megaresorts such as Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Horseshoe Las Vegas.
Built and opened by Michael Gaughan, he never took the small hotel-casino above eight floors as other Strip properties expanded.
Caesars Entertainment — then known as Harrah’s Entertainment — took it over in 2007 in a Strip land swap with Boyd Gaming, three years after Gaughan’s Coast Casinos was merged into Boyd.
After three name changes — one of which lasted only a few months — Caesars handed the keys of the property, then known as the Cromwell, to businesswoman and reality television star Lisa Vanderpump.
