Fifty years ago, the Tropicana Casino opened with an elegance and glamour that distinguished it from other casinos. Its luxurious rooms and splendid gardens earned it the nickname of “Tiffany of the Strip”. Rudy Spinosa, an 82-year-old employee who helped open the casino, says: “The tulip-shaped fountain at the front and tropical landscaping set the Tropicana apart from its contemporaries. Definitely nothing came close to it”.

The Tropicana was purchased in January by Columbia Entertainment, an affiliate of Columbia Sussex Corp. During the celebration of the Casino’s golden anniversary, the company will announce its plans for a $2.5 billion makeover that will change most of the existing complex, an upgrade the Tropicana has needed for a long time.

“It's a relic of the past we admire and respect, and we would like to see it work out going forward, but I don't think it will,” Rich FitzPatrick, Columbia’s Senior Vice President, said. "It needs to be updated, it needs to be freshened."

The upgrade will include the demolition of the low-rise motel wings and the construction of new towers that will add more than 8,000 new rooms to the complex by 2010. Old slot machines will be replaced with the latest coinless models and the convention center and casino floor will also be expanded.