History
On April 28, 2006, Wynn Las Vegas celebrated its one-year anniversary by breaking ground on a second hotel tower. Initially named the Encore Suites at Wynn Las Vegas, the 2,034-room hotel project cost $2.3 billion and was sited adjacent to the existing resort and on the remaining frontage of Las Vegas Boulevard. Originally envisioned as an expansion of Wynn Las Vegas, Encore Las Vegas quickly became a full-scale resort; it shares resources and is connected to the Wynn resort via a shopping arcade. The resort was estimated to add 5,300 jobs to the Las Vegas area.
After 2½ years of construction, the resort formally opened to the public at 8:00 pm on December 22, 2008, to large crowds. Due to the period's economic downturn, the opening was designed to be more subdued than previous casino resort openings. The resort's jewelry shop featured the 231 carats (46 g), prune-sized Wynn Diamond, billed as "the largest cut pear-shaped diamond in the world." To open the betting, Steve Wynn gave high-rollers a few million dollars to make the initial bets and initiated the action by declaring over a microphone, "Let the games begin!"; the start of gambling was accompanied by a recording of Frank Sinatra's "Luck Be a Lady Tonight."
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