The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino is a Venice-themed resort, hotel and casino situated in Las Vegas, Nevada, on the site of the old Sands Hotel. Built at a cost of $1.5 billion, it is one of the most expensive resorts of its kind ever built. The Venetian is owned by the Las Vegas Sands.

In addition to the lake in front of the casino, canals on the next floor of building, in the shopping mall, are used to provide gondola rides.

Once upon a time owned by self-made billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the Venetian has 4,049 suites and a 120,000 square foot (11,000 m²) casino.

History

Ground was broken on April 14, 1997 and the resort legitimately opened on May 3, 1999.

In October 2001, the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum opened within the resort.

The Venenezia at the Venetian opened as an extra tower adding 1,013 suites.

According to the novel Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich, a team of blackjack players recruited from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempted to smash the bank at Monte Carlo with the assistance of a system invented by the character named Victor Cassius. The novel describes how the management of Monte Carlo responded to the growth of the team, members including the following characters: Semyon Dukach, Owen Keller and Allie Simpson.

James Bond, fictional British spy and protagonist of the Bond book and movie series is often linked with the city's glamorous Belle Époque casino. This was a representation for the setting of Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953), 'Royale-Les-Eaux' being a fictional resort in the style of Monte Carlo. The actual Monte Carlo and its casino provided one of the glamorous locations for the 1995 James Bond Film, GoldenEye.