Everybody loves a good ghost story, and they can be found aplenty in casinos worldwide. We did the research and went through a bunch of haunted land based casinos and we listed the top 5 that felt the spookiest to us!
We don’t blame you if you’re kind of spooked out by these stories. Even writing about them gave us the heebie-jeebies! So, unless you consider yourself some amateur ghostbuster, if you want to play a game of craps or hit the slots, it’s best to do so at home.
Here is our list of the creepiest casinos around:
1. Flamingo Casino: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Flamingo Casino is among the most recognized and famous casinos in the world. It is well-known fact that it was established by the notorious mafioso Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel. In fact, Siegel is credited with playing an important part in turning this nondescript city into the Entertainment Capital of the World.
As all mobster stories usually end, Bugsy was shot to death in 1947. This meant that he could not be alive to watch his beloved casino thrive, as it had shut down the first time it opened, reopening only three months before his murder.
If the stories are to be believed, Bugsy, reputed for his stubborn nature, has refused to leave the casino even after he’s gone. Many visitors, guests, and casino staff members have reported seeing the ghost of Siegel, usually lurking around his favorite presidential suite or simply chilling by the pool after midnight.
Such is the aura of terror that Siegel had created in his lifetime, that even though his spirit has never been reported to bother anyone, a couple of employees have quit their jobs mid-shift after a spectral encounter with him.
2. Bally’s Casino & Resort: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
A former MGM Grand hotel-turned-casino sitting pretty on the Las Vegas Boulevard, Bally’s Casino is a huge crowd puller and a popular destination for visitors to Sin City. However, its long, glorious corridors hide traces of a tragic past.
The year was 1980. In one of the biggest cases of 20th-century unnatural calamities in the USA, the then MGM Hotel caught fire due to a short circuit in the electrical supply.
The fire sparked out around seven in the morning and quickly turned into a blazing inferno, engulfing the entire hotel in its flames. At the time, the building housed more than 5,000 occupants.
When some of the guests on the upper floors realized that it would be too late for the fire brigade to rescue them, they panicked and jumped to their deaths from the windows. Elsewhere, further casualties were recorded as some people burned to death. When the fire was finally put out, the body count read 87 dead and more than 700 injured.
While the hotel was rebuilt within a year, in 1985, the management sold it off to the Bally Entertainment Corporation, who rechristened and started the casino afresh. But if witnesses are to be believed, the unfortunate victims did not manage to make their way into the afterlife.
Many reports of shadowy apparitions, ghostly scares, and paranormal encounters have been registered at the casino, with the fire escape being considered a popular haunting ground for the spirits that supposedly wander these halls.
Unnatural occurrences in the restrooms have also been noticed, and a casino dealer has gone on record to say that he saw a group of people sitting on a table look ‘strangely’ at him and disappear into thin air the moment he blinked his eyes.
3. Palace Casino: Bucharest, Romania
The only non-Nevada establishment on our list, Palace Casino is located in the symbolic Casa Vernescu, right in the center of the capital city of Romania. The fact that it is only a three-hour drive away from Bran Castle, home to the legendary Vlad ‘The Impaler’ Tepes, who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, provides strength to the claims of the casino being haunted.
Romania is a land of the natives and their stories, and hence, local folklore is rich with stories about how high-rollers are doomed to lose it all here, including their lives. It is a documented fact that a few players have ended their own lives here after losing all their money, and it has only added fuel to the fire.
Residents and guests at the beautiful castle have noticed the regular incidents associated with paranormal activity, like eerie sudden gusts of cold wind, furniture moving or shaking inexplicably, and in some cases, a lingering smell of gunpowder.
However, employees of the casino have taken these activities into their stead and turned them into a seasonal theme. During Hallowe’en season, the entire staff dresses up as characters from horror movies and stories, and all the regular games have little spooky details added to them. That’s one way to ward off evil spirits for sure!
4. Circus Circus Casino: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Although it does not have a scary or gruesome background story, Circus-Circus is another entrant to the list of popular Vegas casinos that are presumed haunted, and not without reason. While some attribute its eeriness to the large circus it houses and the clowns that come with it, it holds a darker secret.
Circus Circus casino was launched in 1968 with the aim of being the first family-friendly casino in the city. While the ground floor housed a lavish casino, the upper floor consisted of a children’s play area, prompting parents to leave their kids there as they indulged in casino games below.
However, the casino was not performing well, which led Jay Sarno, its owner, to turn to the Mafia for help. And they obliged, in the form of Anthony ‘Tony the Ant’ Spiltoro, a noted gangster who used the casino gift shop as a front for his illegal activities. Needless to say, the casino became a potential deathbed for many of his victims, and locals say that some of those unfortunate souls still haunt the casino.
Another scary story is associated with the casino’s most spooky area, Room 123. Legend has it that a woman killed her little son and then committed suicide herself in this room, and their souls never left. Instances of sounds of a boy crying for help and the words ‘Help Me’ written across bathroom mirrors have been witnessed many times, as have been apparitions of a woman and her son, looking for a man named ‘Robert’.
5. Whiskey Pete’s: Primm, Nevada, USA
Although not a strictly Las Vegan casino, Nevada-based Whiskey Pete’s Casino qualifies for this list sheerly based on the eccentric nature of its resident ghost, Mr. Whiskey Pete. When he was alive, Pete used a gas station business as a front for illegally producing Moonshine whiskey, hence earning his sobriquet. After his death, his body was buried standing up on the mountains overlooking the town, in accordance with his last wishes.
Strange cases have come in regarding the casino where patrons returning to their cars have found their gas tanks refilled, supposedly on their own account. But although visitors have often reported seeing Pete’s specter form roam around the establishment, it is said to be a gentle spirit and does not harm anyone.
The larger piece of attraction here is a car. A bullet-riddled, 1934 Ford Deluxe V-8 that the criminal duo Bonnie and Clyde were in when they were killed by law enforcement agents. Along with the car, Clyde’s bloody, bullet-holed shirt is also on display here, and it adds to the macabre environment.
Guests have mentioned that they feel strangely uneasy in the proximity of the car, but experts dismiss it as feelings stemming from the gruesome backstory of the car and the legacy its notorious owners have left behind, instead of suggesting that their souls might linger here. Whatever the case, the casino is abuzz with the presence of the paranormal.