transferred the Hand of Faith<\/a> to its then-new location in Biloxi, Miss. on May 1 of that year.<\/p>\nIn the interim, the Las Vegas casino still managed to display a<\/em> Hand of Faith. A casino rep confessed to Roeben that it was a stunt double, but promised that the real deal would return to Vegas by the end of that summer.<\/p>\n\u201cApparently, this whole loaning-out process is a pretty common occurrence,\u201d Roeben wrote at the time, \u201cas the same thing happened when a Golden Nugget opened in Atlantic City in 2012.\u201d That location no longer maintains a Hand of Faith display.<\/p>\n
So Where’s the Real One Now?<\/strong><\/h2>\nOn March 22, 2024, Casino.org<\/em> contacted a front-desk agent at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget. She also claimed that the Hand of Faith on display there was fool\u2019s gold.<\/p>\nAsked how she knew for sure, she replied, \u201cbecause my manager just told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That leaves two other current Golden Nuggets with Hand of Faith displays: Biloxi and Laughlin, Nev. Like the display in Las Vegas, neither has a sign indicating that theirs is a replica. (A fourth Hand of Faith was displayed at the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, La. until sometime last year.)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nCasino.org<\/em> contacted front desk agents in both Biloxi and Laughlin, and that’s where this story took an unexpected turn…<\/p>\nA composite photo made by Vital Vegas<\/em> shows the real and replica nuggets in Las Vegas. (Image: Scott Roeben\/Vital Vegas<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBoth agents admitted that, as far as they knew, their Hand of Faiths were also replicas.<\/p>\n
What’s Happening Here?<\/h2>\n According to Roeben, the real Hand of Faith is still on display in Biloxi because, says his source, no return trip ever occurred. This was due to the larger-than-expected cost of shipping and insuring the nugget’s first trip, which cost more than $1 million.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the agent in Biloxi was either mistaken or lying to us.<\/p>\nInstagram user Grayli Hope unknowingly poses for a photo with a probable “Hand of Fake” earlier this year. (Image: Instagram\/thenames_gray)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHowever, it’s also possible that the actual nugget is back in Vegas or that it gets regularly shuffled among the three displays as part of a giant shell game.<\/p>\n
As for what customer-facing employees know, perhaps they’re kept in the dark to prevent an inside job. The nugget’s current estimated value is $3.5 million. Though the heat would be too intense to resell the stolen gold in such a familiar form, it could certainly be melted down for an estimated $1.5 million return.<\/strong><\/p>\nOr maybe, all three exhibits are<\/em> fake and the world’s largest golden nugget is no longer on display anywhere. Maybe insuring it got to be the world’s largest expense.<\/p>\nCasino.org<\/em> asked the Golden Nugget\u2019s public relations department to come clean and identify which two, or perhaps three, of its three Hand of Faith displays are liars.<\/p>\nIt came as no shock that our e-mail wasn\u2019t returned in time for this story.<\/p>\n
Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday<\/strong> on Casino.org.<\/em> Visit VegasMythsBusted.com<\/a>\u00a0to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes new entries every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on March 25, 2024. \u201cThe Hand of Faith is the biggest gold nugget in existence, the second-biggest ever discovered, and the biggest ever found with a metal detector,\u201d reads the copy on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":315065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81886,88494],"tags":[82746,83630,82055,90307,23,85281,89063,90308,90309],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: The 'World\u2019s Largest Golden Nugget' is Real - Casino.org<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n