Westin Causarina Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa

The Westin Casuarina Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa is a resort and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is located at the intersection of Flamingo Boulevard and Koval Lane, just east of the Las Vegas Strip. The Westin Casuarina is managed and owned by Columbia Sussex, under franchise from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. It is noteworthy for being one of the very first Vegas resorts that prohibits tobacco smoking in almost all parts of the property; only in a part of the casino is smoking permitted.

The Westin Casuarina is one of very few Las Vegas resort hotels where the casino is almost an afterthought. The casino floor has fewer than 300 slot and video poker machines and only ten table games, far smaller than typical Strip megaresorts and even smaller than many casinos catering to local residents. Instead, the resort concentrates more on its hotel amenities, including a spa, catering to guests who typically visit other Westin Hotels throughout the world.

The Westin Casuarina opened in 2003.

Maxim Hotel

The property was originally opened on July 1, 1977 as the Maxim Hotel and Casino. Though smaller than typical Vegas resorts even before today’s megaresort era, the Maxim had a popular following because of its attention to personal service. It thrived during the 1980s, but went into decline as flashier, larger resorts opened on the nearby Strip.

In 1999, the casino was closed in a dispute between the casino operator and hotel owners. The hotel itself remained open without gaming, then the resort closed in its entirety in 2001 and stood vacant until Columbia Sussex reopened it as the The Westin Casuarina, using the name of its successful resort in the Cayman Islands.

The Maxim was the site of the shooting death of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996. Shakur was a passenger in a BMW that was driving in front of the casino, when a man in a Cadillac pulled up and opened fire, gravely wounding the rap star. He died a week later from his injuries.