Venue Information

William F. Harrah opened his first bingo parlor on October 30, 1937, but by December 1937 it was closed. Harrah spent the winter raising money and re-opened his casino called the Heart Tango between Virginia and Center streets, in the heart of the action. Harrah slowly acquired neighboring casinos adjacent to his Virginia Street establishment. In 1968, he acquired a building dubbed "The Reno Grand Hotel" adjacent to his casino and contracted with his close friend and landmark architect Martin Stern Jr to create and construct a luxury 24 story hotel, it would be built atop the bones of the former Grand Hotel Harrah bought. It was put up at rapid speed and was topped out in 1969. It was opened in Summer 1969.

In 1981, a 100 or so room tower addition was added to the existing 24-story tower by the new owners to compete with MGM Grand in Reno, that opened only four years earlier and took a lot of business from the downtown hotels. In the mid '90s, amidst another ma ...