Wednesday, June 24, 1998 | 9:30 a.m.
The deal, approved Tuesday, is for land between the Monte Carlo Hotel-Casino and the new Bellagio. Mirage is building the $1.3 billion Bellagio and is 50 percent owner of Monte Carlo.
Under the plan, a Mirage subsidiary will merge with Boardwalk Casino Inc. Boardwalk has a 652-room hotel and casino at the site, which will continue to operate. The property includes nearly eight acres with an 817-foot frontage on the Strip.
Mirage also has 34 acres of land behind the frontage, most of it part of the old Dunes Hotel golf course.
The deal was approved after a lengthy discussion about race book operations at the Boardwalk, with regulators questioning whether all state rules were followed.
Once the takeover is completed, Mirage executive Dan Lee said the Mirage will cooperate with state investigators looking into the race book, and will impose tighter supervisory controls.
Lee had said earlier that the Mirage wouldn't make many changes at the Boardwalk, acquired with two other parcels in a $144 million deal, because it's busy getting the adjacent Bellagio up and running.
Lee also repeated Mirage chief Steve Wynn's comments that the deal reflects continued optimism about the Las Vegas economy. But he also said no final decision on whether to expand the Boardwalk or even replace it would be made for three or four years.
Mirage is scheduled to open Bellagio in the fall, is completing the Beau Rivage resort in Biloxi, Miss., and is working on the design for a new megaresort in Atlantic City, N.J.
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