Circa Becomes the First Las Vegas Casino to Debut an NFT to the Blockchain
Circa Resort and Casino, built around four decades ago, has become the first casino in Las Vegas to debut Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) to the crypto blockchain. It opened during the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020 and first time as an adults-only casino resort.
The NFT art collection at Circa includes a flagship cowgirl sign in neon, Vegas Vickie, that was painted by Jason “Borbay” Borbet, a well-known self-representative artist. All information regarding the real-life utility function, mint date, and NFT tiers will be declared soon in a few weeks, as per the company’s press release on Thursday.
The NFT is believed to pay homage to the 20 feet blonde cowgirl Vegas Vickie neon sign. Vickie succeeded in the 1980s most popular Fremont Street Experience, smiling towards the massive crowds while settling on Glitter Gulch Casino of Bob Stupak.
The neon sign was originally developed by Charles Chuck Barnard, but it was later acquired in 2016 by the CEO of Circa Resort and Casino, Derek Stevens, where the sign was revamped by YESCO, a sign company based in Las Vegas. Currently, the sign lives as a popular signature art in the lobby of the Circa casino.
To initiate this project, Jason Borbet created the painting with Vegas Vickie on it, and it will soon serve as a foundation for the first NFT at Circa. The neon painting was painted live at the Circa casino throughout February, and it is now placed at the rooftop lounge of the property, Legacy Club. The painting has a QR code just next to it that, when scanned, leads to an NFT page with more valuable details.
CEO Derek Stevens mentioned that Circa strives to bring essential aspects from history and combine them with modern art – one of the most historical pictures in Vegas turned into a modern form of art, NFT. He added that the platform has been passionate and enthusiastic about lending support to the crypto community ever since its inception. Derek’s properties were Vegas’s first casinos to accept Bitcoin about eight years ago.
Considering Circa casino’s new project, there is a great chance that it will start accepting altcoins like Ripple as well. Recently, there has been a rising popularity of crypto casinos that offer Ripple payments or Ripple casino sites that Ripple holders can explore to earn rewards.
Borbay is an Idaho-based prominent artist, entrepreneur, and author, painting legendary portrait pieces ever since 2009. He has been a huge fan of Las Vegas, and his work is featured at Universal Hip Hop Museum and the Guggenheim.
Vegas Vickie is Borbay’s love at first sight, and according to him, the painting is a striking and timeless work. What is worth mentioning is the amount of detail and the effort put forward by the Circa team. This collaboration will be a crypto community project to the core, and it will empower and educate the NFT crypto space, not only in Las Vegas but beyond.