The hotel was opened on December 15, 1952, as a casino and hotel with 200 rooms. The hotel was established in 1952 by Mack Kufferman, who bought the LaRue Restaurant which had opened a year earlier. During its heyday, it hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack and Jerry Lewis. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent 56-foot (17 m) high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic American hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996.
