Most players, and ordinary people too, know that Las Vegas is the unspoken capital of the gambling industry, which is home to a large number of casinos. Among them there are luxurious complexes with recreation areas, hotels, theaters, restaurants, etc., occupying thousands of square meters, as well as small gambling establishments. Almost everyone on Earth knows: here you can become fabulously rich or go broke. However, not everyone knows how an oasis of prosperity appeared in the desolate Nevada desert.
A little about the national traditions and attitudes of Americans
The inhabitants of the United States are quite an interesting people. Their national character is represented by two main features, which are opposite. These are passion for money and puritanism. To be precise, Puritans are sure that wealth is always from God, so honesty in receiving income is very important for most citizens. Puritans, and such residents in the United States even 100 years ago was the majority, had a very negative attitude to gambling, considering them the spawn of the devil, which "makes" very quickly lose money earned honestly. It is because of the eternal struggle of opposites (passion for money and puritanism) in the U.S. constantly alternated periods of piety and moral turpitude.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Puritans again gained the upper hand. As a result, in all states of the country were completely banned gambling, and a little later came and the so-called "Prohibition". By the way, in the eyes of the pious public casinos have always been associated with the immense use of alcohol, prostitution, decadence of morals, etc. However, the Great Depression was the reason for the abolition of the "Prohibition" and the ban on gambling, because the government had to find additional sources of revenue to the budget.
Despite the fact that the Puritans always tried to fight crime, the lifting of the ban on gambling led to a significant strengthening of the position of organized crime. The gambling business, as well as the alcohol market, came under almost complete control of the mafia (bootlegging flourished even before the legalization of gambling). That is, in the first third of the 20th century it was moralists who became unwitting accomplices of gangsters.
A paradise in a land of no man's land
In 1931, very few Americans lived in Nevada because almost all of the state was desert. In the early 20th century there were several mines in Nevada, but because of the Great Depression they almost all closed. The neighboring state of Utah, which until 1861 included Nevada, was a stronghold of the Mormons (Puritans). Accordingly, in Nevada they lived in the majority, but this did not prevent the government to make unconventional decisions: it was in this state decided to legalize gambling, and at the same time, and to simplify divorce as much as possible. Thus, one of the largest cities in the state of Reno became the "capital of divorce" and the first locality in which many new casinos appeared.
Almost immediately they began to open in Las Vegas, which had previously been a backwater railroad hub. As the construction of the gigantic Hoover Dam began very close by, there was a chance to improve the city with a huge amount of electric power. Hoover Dam, in the future there was a chance to improve the city at the expense of a huge amount of electricity. This was the bet of the future gambling business. In the meantime, the "fresh" casinos were often visited by the workers who were building the dam, and they had to entertain themselves somehow.
The main money flow was formed in Las Vegas already after World War II. From 1945 to 1963, Mafia bosses became the de facto masters of the city. Their representative Bugsy Segal patronized most of the Las Vegas casinos, laundering criminal money. Between 1950 and 1960, many new casinos were built in the city on the money of the Mafia and... Mormon bankers (puritanism did not prevent them from cooperating with gangsters).
After the beginning of the atomic bomb tests, which took place very close by, numerous tourists began to come to the city to "live" to see this "gorgeous sight". As a result, 20 years after the opening of the first casinos, the flow of players in Las Vegas increased tenfold. After the U.S. government managed to squeeze the mafia out of the gambling business, it began to invest in large billionaires. Today their names are known far beyond the borders of America. These are Howard Hughes, Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Win and others. They founded such famous casinos as Caesars Palace Casino, Bellagio Las Vegas, Mirage, and so on. Today Las Vegas is a chic capital of gambling, where not only avid gamblers, but also ordinary tourists have a rest.
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