Exploring Las Vegas

On March 19th, 1931 Nevada officially declared that gambling was legal in order to help the state during the Great Depression. Learn more about the history of Las Vegas and how it grew into the tourist spot we know today. We have also included a movie list with some of the best movies that showcase the city.

Las Vegas, Nevada is located in the Great Basin desert. In 1848, the territory of Nevada was given to the United States to mark the end of the Mexican-American War with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Even under Mexican and Spanish rulers, there were very few settlers in the area. The Comstock Lode of 1859, was announced, in part, to draw more settlers to the area. The Comstock Lode, named after Henry Comstock, is the first big discovery of silver and gold deposits in the Virginia Range. Upon this discovery, the state saw a great influx of miners coming to strike it big, which led to the creation of Virginia City. Throughout its history as a territory and a state, Nevada had a problem with keeping residents. During the civil war, the U.S. government made Nevada a state in 1864 in order to boost up the Union Army. After the war, the number of residents slowly diminished. Las Vegas itself was founded in 1905 as a small railroad town with its peak residency at 800 people. By the mid 1920s, the mining industry was drying up. The state assembly in 1909 passed an anti-gambling bill. Governor Frederick Balzar knew that he needed to come up with something to draw attention and quickly. In 1931 Balzar signed into law Bill 98, which re-legalized gambling. Later in 1931, Nevada passed a law that allowed divorce. The city of Reno was able to grant divorce in six weeks. It is important to note that in 1931 the first steps to start the construction of the Hoover Dam in Boulder City happened. With the prospects of new workers coming to the state, state leaders saw a moment to change their luck.

Before there was the iconic strip, there was Fremont Street. Fremont Street is one of the oldest streets in Las Vegas, dating back to 1905 with the establishment of the city. One of the first places to gamble was at the Northern Club. In the 1940s, Nevada became a testing area for nuclear power and a new magnesium plant was built in Hendersen. Hendersen is roughly 25 miles away from Las Vegas, so the Northern Club was marketed as a weekend getaway. However, this was not super profitable due to the workers schedule at the plant, so the Fremont District started seeking out people who could run a gambling business. One of those people was Guy McAfee. McAfee fled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas because he was about to face prosecution for running an illegal gambling ring and for prostitution. Los Angeles during the late 1930s was cracking down on the amount of illegal gambling rings throughout the city, and wanted to locate and prosecute the leaders. McAfee was a cop on the Vice Squad before he abruptly left. Now that McAfee was in Las Vegas, he could start his gambling business again. In 1941,the first hotel and casino was built. The El Rancho Vegas is the first hotel to be built on the Strip located on Highway 91.This was seen as the first major upgrade to the new Vegas system, as it made coming to the city more of a vacation spot. Throughout the 1940s, more hotels popped-up including the Golden Nugget. McAfee and some other associates created the un-incorporated town of Paradise just outside the Strip as a way to avoid paying taxes and hide their money. Around this time, Las Vegas got its new owners, The Mob.

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was the first mobster to build a hotel and casino in Vegas. His hotel, The Flamingo, opened in 1946, just shortly before his murder. After the Flamingo opened, more and more mobsters came to Vegas. Most mobsters came to Nevada because it was the only place in the United States where they could make a legit profit off their gambling rings. The other reason why they loved Las Vegas, was because they could skim the financial earnings on tax documents and take the larger sum into their personal pockets. The practice of skimming is where you hide the real amount of money that a casino or business is earning. The Mob is largely responsible for making Las Vegas a gambling haven in the 1950s and 1960s. As the Mob grew their businesses, they started introducing nightclub acts. The nightclub act was another way to get consumers to Las Vegas. Many of the Mob affiliated casinos, brought in the top musicians of the day like the Rat Pack and Judy Garland for special shows. Slowly it became a place where you could see your favorite performer, and while you’re there, go gamble. Casinos and Hotels started competing with each other for customers. One of the competitions was who could have the best showgirl acts. The Dunes Hotel and Casino in 1957 introduced the first topless showgirl which helped Las Vegas get the moniker Sin City.

The 1960s and 1970s saw the ownership of Vegas change again. Howard Hughes started to buy some of the Hotels in Las Vegas in order to start pushing out the Mob. Nevada passed the Corporate Gambling Act in 1969 as another way to push out the Mob, by making it easier for corporations to have gambling. This act helped bring in big hotel chains like Hilton into the space. As the new owners of Vegas started to gain their footing, they were met with their first big challenge. In 1978, a new Hotel and Casino opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Resorts was the first real threat Las Vegas had to deal with as it was the new attraction that could impede on the Vegas establishments.

The growth and reinvestiments into the Las Vegas Strip have helped continue the historic appeal to new customers into the 21st Century. As other gambling cities like Atlantic City began to decline, Vegas still introduced audiences to modern entertainment that diversified from standard gambling. Next time you’re in Las Vegas be sure to check out some of the historic Fremont downtown to see the historic sites as well as the Neon museum which houses many of the highlights from Vega’s peak period.

Movies

The Lady Gambles

Viva Las Vegas

The Night Stalker

One from the Heart

Queen of Diamonds

Casino

Showgirls

Hard 8

Behind the Candelabra

Ocean’s 11

The Hangover