Inside Look At The MGM Grand Hotel And Casino

The MGM Grand Hotel and Casino is Las Vegas’s newest resort. Opened in 1993, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is the world’s second largest hotel. The MGM Grand casino floor is the biggest one in Las Vegas. When it first opened, there was a full sized amusement park behind the MGM Grand, designed to provide entertainment for visitors under the age of 21. By 2002, MGM had decided to eliminate the amusement park and replace it with a luxury hotel/condominium complex. The original entrance to the MGM Grand was the mouth of Leo the Lion, which is MGM’s mascot. The entrance was later remodeled because Chinese visitors did not want to enter the casino through the lion’s mouth due to the belief that it is bad luck to enter the mouth of a lion. The MGM lion now sits at the hotel’s entrance as a statue 45 feet tall, weighing 50 tons. This makes it the United State’s largest bronze statue. When MGM Grand first opened, it was decorated in a Wizard of Oz theme. This was later changed because the hotel wanted to appeal to more mature guests. MGM Grand now bills itself as “The City of Entertainment.”