Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

By 4:30 p.m., the line had already started forming outside the bingo hall at Circus Circus — a full half-hour before the doors opened.

When they did, more than 70 people filed in, spread their bingo cards across long tables and raised their daubers, ready for games to start and numbers to be called.

For $30, anyone could play, and on this Friday evening, plenty of people were willing to take their shot.

Tourists and locals of varying ages packed the hall, tucked past the SpongeBob ride near the Adventuredome. By 5:30 p.m., the caller’s voice filled the room and the daubers came down — pink, purple and green marks dotting the bingo cards in careful, deliberate strikes. Within minutes, someone had shouted “bingo,” a floor walker confirmed the win, and a $50 payout was awarded. By the end of the night, the top payout for the session would reach $750.

It was only week two, but Circus Circus staff say bingo has already become a hit.

That might not come as a surprise. The hall holds the distinction of being the only bingo parlor on the Las Vegas Strip — and there’s something fitting about that. Circus Circus, which opened in 1968, has long taken pride in its history and its enduring place on the Strip. Bingo, it turns out, might be right back at home here, more than two decades after the game disappeared from Strip resort.

“A lot of what we’re trying to focus on right now is bringing Vegas back to Vegas; that vintage Vegas feel is something that customers and, quite honestly, staff (and) employees all really, really like,” said Shana Gerety, general manager at Circus Circus. “To a degree, Vegas has gone up on a lot of options, a lot of pricings. You’ve seen that happen, and we wanted this to be something that everyone can really play.”

Just off Las Vegas Boulevard South, almost directly across from the entrance to the Fontainebleau, a small worn sign in front of Circus Circus’ Slots-A-Fun reads, “Welcome back to vintage Vegas” along with a list of deals found in few other places across the city.

With tourism down 7.5% in Southern Nevada and visitors growing increasingly vocal about the cost of a Las Vegas vacation, some businesses are turning to nostalgia and old-school deals to lure customers back through their doors.

Circus Circus is a prime example. Two years after developing Caesars Palace, the legendary Jay Sarno opened Circus Circus, and the property has undergone changes under a number of ownership parties. Most recently, in 2019, billionaire businessman and Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin completed his purchase of Circus Circus from MGM Resorts International. Nestled along the north Strip among a row of glittering newcomers — Resorts World Las Vegas, Wynn Resorts and Fontainebleau — the nearly 60-year-old casino has leaned into its history as a charm rather than compete with the spectacle surrounding it.

That philosophy is part of what drove Circus Circus’ decision to convert an old storage room near the Adventuredome into a full bingo hall.

Brainstorming began in early December, and within months, the team had cleared the space, laid new carpet, hung televisions and hauled in the tables needed to make it work. What was once used for storage can now hold up to 255 players per session. The hall officially opened Feb. 13.

Multiple bingo sessions run from Thursdays through Sundays, each featuring 14 games that include traditional bingo, a bonus game and a coverall, where players can win up to $1,500.

A full session package starts at $30 and includes a raffle ticket along with two complimentary drinks — soda, water or beer. Players can buy additional cards and snacks like freshly popped popcorn.

Gerety said the Circus Circus team was still working on improving operations, but that the response has been great. The hall averaged 70 people a session in its first two weeks, and the Circus Circus team expects that to grow.

Bingo isn’t the only old-school draw at Circus Circus.

The property also debuted in 2024 its expanded Slots-A-Fun casino annex. Most of Circus Circus’ remaining coin-operated slots were moved to Slots-A-Fun as part of its vintage revamp. The concept is as analog as it sounds — players feed coins into roughly 75 machines, the kind of tactile, clinking gambling experience that has largely vanished from the modern Strip. The area also has digital machines and low-limit table games.

“We wanted to be that property that people can say, I have a limited budget, but Circus Circus can take care of that for me — from the rooms, food, bingo, slots to the (Adventure Dome’s amusement park) rides. You add additional little areas here and there that make it a little bit more modern, but you stay true to Circus Circus,” Gerety said. “Just because you’re old doesn’t mean that it’s bad, just because you’re old doesn’t mean it’s dirty, so we want to be the best old casino there is.”

Marla Royne Stafford, a professor in UNLV’s department of marketing and international business, said the public perception of Las Vegas has shifted considerably in recent years.

The arrival of professional sports franchises and high-profile developments like the Sphere has reshaped the city’s identity — and its price tag. As inflation has climbed, so have the costs visitors encounter on the Strip, and guests have taken to the internet to voice their frustrations over steep charges for dinners, drinks and resort fees.

The pandemic only deepened the divide, Stafford said.

In the years that followed, many Strip and downtown resorts eliminated the kinds of offerings that once defined an affordable Vegas getaway — cheap buffets chief among them.

For visitors who remember a different version of Las Vegas, those weren’t inconsequential changes. They had been part of what made the trip worth taking.

Circus Circus still has its buffet, but many other properties have converted theirs into food halls. Some buffets on the Strip still exist, like the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace that can run up to $100 or more per person. The Circus Circus buffet is priced from $25 to $30.

People do like to romanticize the past, Stafford said, but it also reminds them of a time when Las Vegas was considered a cheap place to travel.

Circus Circus will sweeten the pot for potential guests when it rolls out new hotel packages closer to the summer, Gerety said.

And Circus Circus still boasts what many will say is its main attraction in the midway arcade. The arcade has classic carnival games like ring toss, balloon darts and coin-drop machines — the same games as decades ago offering a nostalgic atmosphere for all ages.

“I think people like nostalgia, but I think at the same time, Vegas has become perceived as a very expensive vacation,” Stafford said. “People used to come out here, and they used to feel it was a good value, it was fun. They might lose money gambling, but they had shows and things that were still a good value. They’re trying to bring back that image of that nostalgia, which brings back the image of the value and the fun that Vegas was.”

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