Vote now! Readers' Choice Awards Best Las Vegas Casinos of 2026

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? Everyone seems to have a memorable Las Vegas casino story, and while some should probably be kept under wraps, we want to hear exactly which casino has served as the home base for your favorite memories. You may not have scored a hefty jackpot here, but you loved the lively atmosphere, attentive service, and plentiful options for game play.

Our team of experts has put together this list of 16 Las Vegas casinos, set on the Strip, around Fremont Street, and other spots in Sin City. Cast your vote during our Readers' Choice Awards for Best Las Vegas Casinos.

Voting period ends on July 15, 2026. We'll announce the winners on July 23.

Vote for the best Las Vegas casino!

Nominee 1: ARIA Resort & Casino

ARIA Resort & Casino opened in 2009 as part of the $9.1 billion CityCenter development, and its casino floor has remained one of the Strip's most technically sophisticated ever since. On more than 150,000 square feet of gaming floor, you’ll find more than 2,000 slot machines, 145 table games, and a 24-table poker room. Serious players may be most excited about the ARIA's SPIN High Limit Room, which features a dedicated casino cage, private restrooms, and a lounge, giving a level of separation rarely found at this scale. The casino's server-based gaming system updates machine offerings in real time based on play data, and natural light enters through skylights above the high-limit area—an unconventional design choice that sets the floor apart from standard Strip counterparts.

Nominee 2: Bellagio Las Vegas

Few properties in Las Vegas carry the cultural weight of Bellagio, and for the casino itself, the setting does a lot of the work. The gaming floor—table games, slots, and a poker room hosting nightly tournaments—wraps around one of the Strip's most famous backdrops: the eight-acre lake that features choreographed fountains that shoot water 460 feet into the air.

Our expert team appreciates the property's rotating Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, a gorgeous and whimsical seasonal installation that gives the resort a reason to visit even for non-gamblers. The AAA Five Diamond hotel has nearly 4,000 guest rooms, and dining ranges from Le Cirque and PRIME Steakhouse to informal cafés, with multiple options overlooking the fountains.

Nominee 3: Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace has been a Las Vegas institution since 1966, and its Roman-themed scale still attracts attention for its (sometimes kitchy—see Fall of Atlantis animatronics in The Forum Shops) wow factor. The casino floor features more than 1,300 slots and 160-plus table games set beneath soaring columns, but it's also a destination for sports bettors in particular: the Race & Sportsbook features 140 seats, a 143-foot HD LED display, and 13 betting windows, with an energy on game days that draws crowds even from those not placing a wager.

Reviewers from our panel noted that the Colosseum, a 4,300-seat entertainment venue on the property, regularly hosts some of the highest-profile residencies in Las Vegas, adding a draw well beyond the casino floor. The Forum Shops at Caesars, attached to the property, make the complex self-sufficient for a full-day visit.

Nominee 4: The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has maintained a hold on the Strip's style-conscious crowd since opening in 2010. It has a reputation shaped less by raw gaming floor size than by atmosphere, dining, and the sense that something unexpected is always just around the corner. The casino's signature venue is The Chandelier, a sparkling three-story bar covered in 2 million crystals that works as both the property's social centerpiece and a gaming lounge. Tucked within the resort are three speakeasies, a hidden restaurant styled as a pawn shop, and Secret Pizza, a New York-style pizzeria at the end of a third-floor hallway with no signage. The dining roster includes José Andrés' Jaleo, and Momofuku, among others. The Cosmopolitan consistently draws guests who want to gamble, eat, and explore a property that rewards curiosity.

Nominee 5: The D Las Vegas

The D Las Vegas offers a different experience from the Strip, as this downtown property sits on Fremont Street, within the corridor's outdoor entertainment district. Accordingly, it's built around energy and accessibility; the two-floor casino concept splits the experience cleanly between new and vintage. The ground floor is organized around table games, dancing dealers, and the Longbar, one of the longest bars in Nevada at nearly 100 feet, where flair bartenders mix drinks alongside live gaming action. Upstairs, the second floor is a vintage sanctuary, home to classic slot machines and the only operational Sigma Derby simulated horse-racing machine left in any Las Vegas casino. Our reviewers cited this dual nature as the property's calling card: one casino, two very different moods.

Nominee 6: Fontainebleau Las Vegas

When Fontainebleau Las Vegas opened in December 2023 after nearly two decades of stops and starts, it introduced a fresh luxury tier entrant to the north Strip. The 67-story tower (Nevada's tallest occupiable building) houses 3,644 rooms and a 150,000-square-foot casino floor with 42-foot ceilings that open the space in a manner few Strip floors manage. The design anchors around a central elevated bar topped by a large gold chandelier, giving the gaming floor a navigable focal point amid its considerable scale. Our panel recognized the property's commitment to a full-scale dining program with 20 restaurants, including several by Michelin-recognized chefs, as well as 12 bars and 6 pools. Fontainebleau received a Michelin Key designation after its opening year.

Nominee 7: Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino

Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino anchors the far south end of the Strip with a tropical identity that holds up as one of the more distinctive themes on Las Vegas Boulevard. The property's defining amenity is Mandalay Beach—an 11-acre wave pool complex with 2,700 tons of real sand, a lazy river, and a dedicated poolside concert series, giving guests a leisure experience with no real parallel among its Strip neighbors.

Our expert panel also noted the casino floor’s range of games and the property's extensive convention infrastructure, which makes it one of the city's highest-traffic resort destinations. Dining options range from the border-inspired Border Grill to StripSteak, and the connected W Las Vegas tower adds a boutique-hotel dimension within the same complex.

Nominee 8: MGM Grand

MGM Grand has operated at the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard since 1993, and its sheer footprint continues to justify its place among the Strip's anchor properties. The casino floor spans more than 100,000 square feet, placing it among the largest single gaming floors in the city, with thousands of slot machines, a solid selection of table games, and a sportsbook. The MGM Grand Garden Arena hosts some of the city's highest-profile boxing matches, concerts, and sporting events, pulling visitors who may never set foot on the gaming floor. The property's sprawling pool complex, with a lazy river configuration, adds a resort dimension that goes well beyond the casino.

Nominee 9: New York-New York Hotel & Casino

New York-New York Hotel & Casino reconstructs the Manhattan skyline across 12 themed towers on the south Strip—complete with a 150-foot Statue of Liberty replica, a 300-foot Brooklyn Bridge facsimile, and a cobblestone casino floor styled after New York City streetscapes.

Inside, the gaming area covers 84,000 square feet with 80 table games and approximately 2,000 slot and video poker machines; the Bar at Times Square hosts a well-regarded dueling piano show nightly.

Our panel thinks the casino’s energy is the primary appeal; the theming, the density of activity, and the proximity to T-Mobile Arena make it a natural gathering point on game days and event nights. The Big Apple Coaster wraps the exterior and remains one of the few roller coasters attached directly to a casino on the Strip.

Nominee 10: The Palms Casino Resort

The Palms Casino Resort sits just off the Strip on Flamingo Road and has built an identity around live entertainment and a rooftop experience that has few rivals in Las Vegas. The Pearl Concert Theater, a 2,500-seat intimate venue that earned the 2025 Best of Las Vegas Gold Award for Best Showroom/Live Venue, brings a caliber of acts to the Palms that more than compensates for its off-Strip location. Ghostbar, on the 55th floor of the Ivory Tower, offers 360-degree views of the Las Vegas Valley, stretching from the Strip to Red Rock Canyon to Allegiant Stadium, from a sky deck with a glass inset in the floor. This combination of an intimate concert venue and a high-elevation nightlife experience is what makes the Palms worth the short detour, at least according to our experts.

Nominee 11: Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino plants itself at the center of the Strip and derives much of its identity from what surrounds the casino floor as much as the floor itself. The Miracle Mile Shops, a 1.2-mile retail and dining complex that wraps around the property, adds more than 150 stores, 15 restaurants, and live entertainment to the resort footprint, making Planet Hollywood a de facto destination even for visitors staying elsewhere.

The casino leans contemporary and celebrity-themed, with a crowd that skews younger than some of its neighbors. PH Live Theatre's pop residency history has been a consistent draw, with past performers including Gwen Stefani and Shania Twain. A FlowRider wave pool at The Scene Pool Deck, a rarity in Las Vegas, gives the property a non-gaming amenity that stands apart from the standard Strip offering.

Nominee 12: Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa

About 10 miles west of the Strip in the Summerlin community, Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa defines itself as the anti-Strip alternative—a property where the setting does meaningful work. The 70-acre resort sits at the gateway to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and its 796 guest rooms look out on either the canyon's ochre ridgelines or the city's eastern glow.

Opened in 2006 as the first $1 billion luxury resort built off the Las Vegas Strip, it holds an AAA Four Diamond designation and features a 25,000-square-foot spa, a full gaming floor with a race and sports book, nine restaurants, 12 bars and lounges, a 72-lane bowling center, and a 16-screen cinema. This combination of casino amenities and proximity to the outdoors makes it a different kind of Las Vegas experience.

Nominee 13: Resorts World Las Vegas

Resorts World Las Vegas arrived on the Strip in June 2021 as the first newly built casino resort on the boulevard since the Cosmopolitan a decade earlier. Developed by Genting Berhad in partnership with Hilton, the $4.3 billion property integrates three distinct hotel brands—Las Vegas Hilton, Conrad Las Vegas, and the ultra-luxury Crockfords Las Vegas—into a single 3,500-room, 66-story tower.

The casino floor was Nevada's first to offer fully cashless gaming across both slots and table games. Famous Foods Street Eats, a 24,000-square-foot hawker-style food hall modeled on a Southeast Asian market and home to Michelin Bib Gourmand-recognized vendors, is a must-try during the stay. And a 5,000-seat Resorts World Theatre and 350,000 square feet of meeting space round out a property with serious event capacity.

Nominee 14: SouthPoint Hotel, Casino & Spa

South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa has operated at the southern edge of Las Vegas Boulevard since 2005, and it has built out a loyal following precisely by not trying to be the Strip. The 2,163-room resort operates with a value-focused ethos, making it a consistent pick among Las Vegas regulars who prioritize odds and atmosphere over spectacle.

The 137,000-square-foot casino offers some of the most competitive gaming odds in the city, alongside a 24-hour sportsbook and bingo hall. Beyond the floor, our experts underscored an amenity stack few properties can match: a 64-lane bowling center that hosts PBA championship tournaments, a 16-screen movie theater, and the South Point Arena & Equestrian Center—a 4,600-seat venue that hosts everything from championship rodeos to college basketball.

Nominee 15: The Venetian Resort Las Vegas

The Venetian Resort Las Vegas has delivered one of the most fully realized themed environments in casino history since opening in 1999. It remains compelling because the immersion is genuinely comprehensive.

The resort's indoor Grand Canal replicates Venice's waterways at a quarter-mile scale, with gondolas you can ride, singing gondoliers, cobblestone walkways, and frescoed ceilings painted to suggest an Italian sky. The Grand Canal Shoppes span 875,000 square feet and house 160 stores alongside award-winning restaurants.

Our experts nominated The Venetian due to the casino floor’s scale and diversity, with hundreds of table games, thousands of slot machines, and one of the Strip's most storied poker rooms, plus the all-suite hotel configuration that gives every room more square footage than a standard Strip accommodation.

Nominee 16: Wynn Las Vegas

Wynn Las Vegas sets a service standard that is reflected throughout its casino floor. The combined Wynn and Encore properties cover more than 111,000 square feet of gaming space, featuring over 1,800 slot machines and 180 table games, including high-limit salons, poolside gaming, and a 28-table poker room. The Lake of Dreams is the resort's most distinctive non-gaming feature: a three-acre illuminated water show, visible nightly from several bars and restaurants on-site, that serves as a quiet counterweight to the casino's energy. Wynn Resorts has earned more Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Awards than any other independent hotel company globally; the Las Vegas property holds Five-Star designations across its hotel, spa, and dining.

Vote for the best Las Vegas casino!

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Our Experts

BethEllen Clausen

Clausen is a freelance writer with a heavy emphasis on art and culture. She is a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the LA Wine Writers, and she writes for Food, Wine and Travel Magazine, the Napa Valley Wine Academy, and Costco Connection. You can read more about Clausen's experiences at her website, Organic Wine Travel.

Marguerite "Peggy" Cleveland

As an Army veteran, military spouse, and adventure-seeker, Cleveland has lived across the United States and has turned a lifetime of moving, exploring, and discovering hidden gems into a successful writing career. The travel journalist and author loves sharing stories about destinations, food, wine, and wellness. Her work has appeared in major publications nationwide, and she is the author of 100 Things to Do in Tacoma Before You Die. When she’s not writing, Cleveland is often planning her next adventure—or enjoying one.

Susan Lanier-Graham

Lanier-Graham is an award-winning food, wine, and travel writer with more than three decades of experience exploring destinations around the world. She has visited luxury resorts, boutique properties, and hidden gems across six continents, bringing a discerning eye to every stay. As publisher of Wander With Wonder, she leads an award-winning digital publication that inspires readers to discover exceptional travel experiences. Her work blends firsthand insight with a passion for storytelling, offering trusted recommendations on where to stay, dine, and explore. Susan’s expertise helps travelers confidently choose destinations that transform trips into unforgettable, experience-rich journeys.

Reviewed Editors & Experts

Reviewed editors and experts have hard-earned insight from a broad range of backgrounds, and our nomination panel includes independent researchers, subject matter experts, and editorial team members. We provide unbiased, experiential editorial coverage on products, brands, and companies across the U.S.