$1 Million In Cash

Las Vegas, Nevada

A million dollars doesn't buy what it used to, but it's still something that people want to see. That's the thinking behind the revival of one of Las Vegas's most beloved tourist attractions -- a display of $1 million in cash that tourists can use as a photo prop.

The money was first assembled at the Horseshoe Club in 1954, then sold when cash got tight in 1959, then reassembled in 1964 -- this time as one-hundred $10,000 bills inside a six-foot tall horseshoe. Visitors could get their pictures taken for free in front of it -- an estimated five million Polaroids over the years -- until it was sold in 1994. Money problems were again the reason, and the casino itself was shut down in 2003.

A new version of the photo-op appeared in Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel on August 21, 2008. The $10,000 bills were gone -- worth more as collectibles than as cash -- replaced by a display of piles of smaller bills within a theft-proof plexiglass cube.

In 2020 this, too, vanished -- but in 2023 an updated version of the original display reappeared: $1 million in paper money, once again sealed in plexiglass, but now stacked like a stepped Mexican pyramid.

Some skeptics have questioned if the display really holds a million dollars (a naysayer outlook that really has no place in Sin City). Binion's responded by releasing a video of the pyramid being loaded with mixed denominations of genuine cash: $42K in $1 bills, $688K in $20 bills, and $270K in $100 bills.

The notion that Las Vegas would bring back anything is heartening, given that the city routinely plows under its old tourist attractions. Like a gambler who never quits, the $1 million in cash appears to be a safe bet to stick around.