Bellagio Hotel and Casino

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By Doug Kerr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/8779420880/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=143480986

History

On May 23, 1955, The Dunes Hotel and Country Club was opened on the site now occupied by the Bellagio. This was old school Vegas where everything was owned by the mob and the corporate sponsors were decades into the future.

The Dunes was frequently visited by men high up in the mafia and may of them are thought to have been shadow owners.

By 1979 when the last addition was made to the building The Dunes had 1,282 rooms.

The Dunes began to run into financial issues in the 1980s and in 1987 Japanese businessman Masao Nagaku bought the resort for $157 million ($435.8 million in 2024) intending to expand it. When the Nevada control board investigation took a much longer than average time to be completed his potential financial partners faded away.

 In 1992 The Dunes was purchased again for a much reduced $75 million ($166.8 million in 2024) by the Mirage Resorts. Their intentions were a complete demolition and replacing The Dunes with a lake resort.

On January 6, 1993, The Dunes was closed. In October of the same year the North Tower was imploded and the South Tower was brought down and in July of 1994.

As well as The Dunes a Denny’s restaurant was also demolished for the new resort.

In July of 1995 plans were changed from a lakeside resort – this plan was eventually used for a resort in Mississippi – to a model after a town in Italy called Bellagio.

Even though the new design was scaled down costs climbed rapidly. By the time the resort was completed it cost 1.6 billion and was the expensive resort ever built.

The resort opened on November 15, 1998, and had over 80,000 visitors in the first 24 hours. The rooms were $200 a night as opposed to $80 which was the Vegas average at the time.

The revenues for the first year were lower than expected.

 In 2000 Mirage Resorts merged with MGM Grand Inc and ownership of the resort was transferred to MGM. Revenue increased under the new ownership.

The expansion of the new Spa Tower was built between April 2003 and December 2004 which added 928 rooms for a total of 3,933 rooms at the resort. The Bellagio quickly became the most profitable resort in Las Vegas.

In 2019 MGM sold the resort to Blackstone Inc for 4.25 billion but continued to run the resort under a lease agreement.

The resort has undergone numerous multi-million dollar renovations (especially the Spa Tower).

Paranormal Activity

When The Dunes was still standing people reported cold spots that moved through both the hotel and casino. In the lounge on the top floor an unexplained blue glow was often seen as well as disembodied voices after closing time.

In the Bellagio apparitions have been seen walking through walls; probably due to the numerous renovations that have changed the floor plans.

Shadow figures are also reported they are said to follow and stalk guests in the halls creating a extra disturbing experience.

Numerous EVPs have been recorded in the hotel rooms including some rather disturbing threats.

Many staff have reported voices and other unexplained sounds coming from empty rooms. This often followed by a visible ball of light exiting the room.

The apparition of a young African American is reported in the casino. She is seen in a red dress playing near one of the blackjack tables. Many people have approached her thinking she was a lost child. She will lead any followers to the resort’s day care center before disappearing.

Others report her wondering the hotel looking lost. She has never spoken a word to the living even when approached.

This is the ghost of 10-year-old Jade Morris who was murdered by Brenda Stokes. Stokes was convinced her boyfriend was cheating on her and after slashing the face of the woman she believed was having the affair with said boyfriend; she wasn’t, Stokes checked Jade – her boyfriend’s daughter – out of the daycare and took her to a construction site where she brutally beat and stabbed the girl to death.

What are reported as extremely cold spots and breezes have been experienced by both staff and guests. Others have reported the sound of a breath followed immediately with the feeling of a freezing breath on the back of their necks.

A man committed suicide by swan diving off the pedestrian bridge over the Bellagio Lake in front of a Friday night crowd. People reported hearing his skull crack as it struck the bottom of the shallow waters. His blood quickly found it’s way into the filtration system turning the fountains the color of blood.

It is said if you let your eyes relax while looking at the fountain the waters will turn red again. People also describe the phantom sound of crack when they are walking over the bridge; comparing the reports with those of people who were there that night the sound is very similar to the man’s skull cracking.

Bellagio Lake itself is said to be cursed. A maintenance man was found drowned and tucked under one of the fountain pipes. When they removed his bodies unexplained bite marks were found on him. Many people believe there is something in the water always watching (the energy of which can be felt by people sensitive to it).

People have reported a powerful sensation to get into the lake trying to draw them in.

Testimonial by R

I spent 4 nights in room 22093 in the original tower.

This started at about 430pm on our last evening.

Upon going back to my room after being at the swimming pool with my friend. I put some music on my phone and attached it to my Bluetooth speaker. After one song the music just quit. My friend’s phone was checked to see if it had connected, it hadn’t. The phone was still playing music, but the speaker was completely silent.

We wrote it off to technology issues and went for dinner.

I use a meditation app to help me sleep and turned it on as per normal when we were going to bed. You can choose different background sounds and the app began changing sounds on it’s own and suddenly went to maximum volume. This happened repeatedly and I noticed the phone was actually changing screens when neither of us was touching it.

At this point I firmly told the ghost enough was enough and we were going to bed now. We had no more issues with it the rest of the night.

When leaving in the morning we asked an employee if there had been any previous reports of hauntings in our room. They responded with a clear yes admitting the hotel is haunted.