Aladdin Silver Strikes & Tokens

In the late 1990s, wealthy investor Jack Sommer and his family trust bought the beleaguered Aladdin and spent $1.2 billion on massive improvements. The implosion of the old casino in April 1998 paved the way for a new version of the Aladdin that boasted a pair of hotel towers with 2,567 guest rooms and a large interior shopping mall called the Desert Passage. With profits tumbling, Sommer's mega-resort was criticized for design problems, specifically the inconvenient stairs that led from the Strip to the Aladdin's casino and the lack of easy automobile access from the Strip. With debts from bondholders and other creditors he could not meet, Sommer was forced to cede control of the hotel to a federal judge. Once again, the Aladdin was a bankrupt property. In 2003, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas accepted a bid of $637 million for the Aladdin from four partners who headed the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain.