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Las Vegas is one of the stranger success stories in American history — a city that shouldn't exist (no water, no resources, no strategic location) that became one of the most visited places on earth in the span of a generation.
The Foundation
Las Vegas was founded as a railroad service town in 1905. Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, the same year Hoover Dam construction began — the combination of gambling revenue and 5,000 dam workers who needed entertainment established the pattern.
The Mob Era (1940s–1980s)
The Flamingo Hotel, built by Bugsy Siegel in 1946 with mob financing, established the Strip resort model. For three decades, organized crime families from across America financed and operated Las Vegas casinos — skimming profits and using the casinos as money laundering operations. The FBI Kefauver Commission (the same hearings now housed in the Mob Museum) began the slow unraveling of mob control.
The Corporate Era (1980s–present)
Howard Hughes's purchase of multiple casinos in the late 1960s began the transition to corporate ownership. Steve Wynn's Mirage (1989) redefined what a Las Vegas hotel could be — the corporate luxury model that replaced the mob's version. The MGM Grand, Bellagio, Venetian, Aria, and Wynn followed in a continuous escalation of scale and investment.