Open 1966–2006 · closed at noon, January 9, 2006 · the tower came down May 9, 2006. This is a memorial - nothing here is for sale.

The Coney Island of Las Vegas

Hotel · Casino - 3750 Las Vegas Blvd South, between Monte Carlo and Bellagio

Accuracy is the product

Credits & Sources

Every historical photograph has a named source and a stated publication basis. Every factual claim traces to a primary source - the company’s own SEC filings, period newspapers, the 2002 UNLV sign survey, or the casino’s own archived websites. Where sources disagree, the conflict remains visible.

How the photographs are published.

Four publication bases appear below. Where a credit line names a licence or a public-domain basis, that is the basis; where it names only a copyright holder, the image runs on the credit-plus-removal-offer footing described last.

  • Public domain - the Carol M. Highsmith Archive at the Library of Congress (donated without restrictions), a photographer’s own release, and the c. 1966 Curteich postcard, published without a copyright notice in the era when that placed a work in the public domain (a recorded good-faith basis).
  • Creative Commons - CC BY and CC BY-NC/ND images are used under their licences, with links. This memorial is strictly non-commercial, which is what the NC clause asks; ND images are shown uncropped.
  • The casino’s own promotional photography - interiors and property views recovered from hiboardwalk.com and boardwalklv.com via the Internet Archive. Rights run to the successors of Boardwalk Casino, Inc. (Mirage Resorts, then MGM Resorts). They are reproduced with full credit and a standing removal offer - most at their original dial-up size, others as clearly disclosed 2026 AI upscales whose credit lines link the untouched originals.
  • Credit + standing removal offer - a few irreplaceable photographs whose rights holders we could not license in advance are published with full credit on the same standing offer: if one is yours and you object, it comes down immediately. Say the word in the guestbook.

House rule: historical photographs are named and credited. Restorations and newly illustrated scenes are identified as such, and their source material is retained or linked. Where no photographic record survives - the Slot Joynt storefront, for example - no invented view is presented as evidence. The ledger below states the basis for every image.

Colophon: the BOARDWALK wordmark atop every page is the casino’s own logo lettering - Hobo, in the official red-to-yellow gradient of the 2002 web logo - redrawn as vector outlines. The scrollwork and soft-serve-cone ornaments are modern additions in the facade’s sign-paint palette. The front page’s seven fascia bills are rebuilt from surviving photographs; their lettering is hand-set, while the softly focused figures are modern photo-derived restorations. Several historical photographs also carry optional modern light or motion treatments. The original stills remain the source in every case.

The sound: the front page’s 50-second casino-floor recording is an unprocessed excerpt (0:56–1:46) from “Holiday Inn Boardwalk Casino Las Vegas October 2001”, a guest camcorder walkthrough on the YouTube channel vidmem7856 · © vidmem7856. The casino’s own public-address announcement remains the work of Boardwalk Casino’s successors-in-interest and runs on the same credit-plus-removal basis. The horn beside the recording is a modern recreation from period reference.

Every photograph on this site.

Principal written sources.

  • Boardwalk Casino, Inc. SEC filings (CIK 915281): FY1996 & FY1997 10-KSB, the 1997 registration statement, and the 1998 merger proxy - the facade description, room counts, finances, and the Mirage buyout timeline all come from the company’s own sworn paperwork.
  • Mirage Resorts / MGM MIRAGE SEC filings - the $112.0 million purchase price, the “incidental operation” land-bank era, and the CityCenter announcement.
  • The casino’s own websites, 1996–2006, via the Internet Archive: hiboardwalk.com, boardwalklv.com, and lvboardwalk.com - the slogans, menus, prices, and show listings quoted throughout, at this very address.
  • Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal period coverage, 1965–2006 - openings, the union picket, the Jansen obituary, the closing days, and the implosion.
  • UNLV Special Collections & Archives - the Southern Nevada Neon Survey (PH-00401, surveyed 2002), whose data sheet describes every sign on the property, and the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino Records (MS-00093), the casino’s own donated archive.
  • Vintage Las Vegas and the collector community - dating corroboration and the demolition record, checked against primary sources before use.

The full working bibliography - four research passes, conflict flags, rejected claims and all - lives in this project’s research files and is available on request through the guestbook.

Corrections & removals.

This memorial wants to be the most accurate thing ever written about the Boardwalk, which means it wants your corrections. Names, dates, prices, which door the second clown leaned out of - if you know better, say so and the record gets fixed with credit to you.

If you hold rights in a photograph shown here and want different credit or removal: one message in the guestbook (or to the site owner) is enough. Removal requests are honored immediately, no questions, no argument.

Accuracy is how a memorial says thank you.