Bally’s Hotel Casino, located on the northern end of the Strip at 3645 Las Vegas Boulevard, is said to be one of the most haunted casinos in all of Sin City. Nothing horrific happened within the walls of this hotel to justify such phenomenal accusations. It’s what happened to the former establishment that once occupied the lot that persuades even skeptics to raise a suspicious eyebrow.
What we know today as the MGM Grand is not the original MGM Grand of old. The first MGM Hotel Casino was on the exact same spot that is now Bally’s, and the culprit of its alleged paranormal status. Opened in 1973, the MGM was a proud staple of the Vegas Strip, but that all changed on one cold, ill-fated winter morning in 1980.
It was just after 7am on November 21 when flames began to engulf one of the hotel’s restaurants, known as The Deli. An electrical fire broke out due to faulty wiring in the refrigeration system. There were an estimated 5,000 guests staying in the 23-story hotel at the time, most of them still sleeping off the previous night’s frivolous intoxication. Smoke alarms were not required at the time and most guests had no clue what was happening before a total of four fire departments and rescue stations responded to the call for help as the blaze quickly began to spread throughout the second floor casino.
The Clark County Fire Department was the first one the scene, followed by the North Las Vegas Fire Department, Las Vegas Fire and Rescue and even the Henderson Fire Department some 20 miles away. Several Florida-stationed military helicopters that just happened to be in Nevada for the Red Flag show, one aptly nicknamed the Green Giant for its size, played a major role in the rescue of more than 1,000 guests, while thousands more fled through the doors or lower level windows with the assistance of fire truck ladders, but those ladders could only reach so high.
A staggering 84 people would not be so lucky, and another 650 walked away with sustained injuries on that ominous morning. A total of 79 people were never touched by the inferno, but choked to death from smoke inhalation and/or carbon monoxide poisoning, many of them having been trapped on higher level floors where rescuers could not reach them in time. Some were entombed in elevators and stairwells. Only four people were actually burned to death by the fire, and the final victim was a virtual suicide as one guest literally hurled themselves from the window, choosing instant death over the impending alternative.
Not all of the victims were guests of the hotel either. 14 firefighters lost their lives that day, along with several employees of the hotel. The fire that devastated the old MGM Grand on Nov 21, 1980, went down in history books as the third worst structural fire in the United States in regards to the number of lives lost – 84 dead and 650 injured.
MGM reconstructed the hotel then sold it to Bally’s in 1985. The new MGM Grand was later opened further south along the Strip at 3805 Las Vegas Blvd.
According to employees of Bally’s, hauntings occur primarily on the higher levels between the 19th and 24th floors. There have been numerous sightings from employees and guests alike including ghostly apparitions roaming the halls in the North Tower. The service elevator in the North Tower has a nasty reputation and many employees have stated that they will avoid using it at all cost after tragedy struck, resulting in the death of more than one room service employee.
The haunted Bally’s Las Vegas is just one of many reportedly haunted casinos and poker rooms throughout Las Vegas, but it certainly has one of the eeriest stories leading up to its paranormal classification.