Harrah's Lake Tahoe - History

History

Harrah's was first established in Lake Tahoe when William F. Harrah purchased George's Gateway Club in January 1955 for $500,000 and Harrah’s Lake Club opened June 20, 1955. This is now Harveys Lake Tahoe.

In 1956 Harrah’s Lake Club was sold for $5,250,000 in cash to Harvey Gross, which at the time was the most expensive casino purchase ever. In 1958 Harrah acquired an interest in the Stateline Country Club and Nevada Club across the street (Harrah's current location) and opened Harrah's Stateline Club.

Also in 1956, a new radio station, KOWL, had its original radio studio inside the Harrah's Stateline Club. They were located on the upper floor. The station's transmitter and broadcast tower were roughly two miles south of the casino in South Lake Tahoe, California.

The South Shore Room opened at Harrah's Tahoe in 1959 at a cost of $3.5 million. This 750 seat showroom, whose opening act was comedian Red Skelton, made entertainment a priority at Harrah's.

In 1963 Barry Keenan, Joseph Amsler and John Irwin abducted Frank Sinatra, Jr., the 19-year-old son of singer Frank Sinatra, after his performance at the South Shore Room opening for George Jessel.

Portions of the Bette Midler film Jinxed! were shot on location at the hotel in summer 1981 for the summer 1982 release of the film. Other locations used in the film were Harrah's in Reno and the Harrah's Auto Museum also in Reno.

Bill Harrah had been planning to build a hotel at Lake Tahoe for many years, but had been hindered by costs. However in 1971, when Harrah's went public, he finally had the finances available to build his dream hotel. In 1972 Harrah broke ground on his $25 million, 18-story, 250 room hotel which opened November 9, 1973. Each 500 sq ft (46 m2) room was furnished with a fully stocked bar, bay windows, 2 bathrooms with TVs and telephones. Harrah's Lake Tahoe earned the first five-star diamond rating in casino history.

The hotel was later expanded with 290 additional rooms in 1976.

In 2000 Harrah’s completed a $26 million dollar renovation to update the casino, hotel rooms and restaurants on the 18th floor including the Forest Buffet and Friday’s Station.

On December 3, 2005, a shootout occurred in a private booth near the casino floor. One person was killed, and two Douglas County Sheriff's Deputies were injured.

Caesars Entertainment Corp began a major effort to remodel and revitalize Harrah's Lake Tahoe beginning in 2005, they remodeled floors 12 to 15 of the hotel and remade the rooms in mini suites with large couches, dry bars and brand new decor and furniture. The remodel was completed in mid 2006. Following the hotel remodel, Caesars completely remodeled the hotel's lobby and added a food court and luxury diamond outlet signature to Caesars called "Park Place Jewelers" in 2007. In 2008, Caesars added an upscale, luxury Chinese/Cantonese restaurant called "Gi Fu Loh" to cater to their Asian customers. Efforts to renovate have made Harrah's Lake Tahoe the hotel to be at and is ranked as classiest out of the four casinos in Stateline.