However Las Vegas will always be recognised as the hub of gambling, and how could you argue with this statement when Nevada is a state where you can find slot machines in gas stations!
Nevada was one of the first western states of America to legalise gambling and Las Vegas was founded in 1905. However gambling was outlawed again in 1910 but illegal gambling prospered there, and it was in this time period that Las Vegas became known for its gambling.
Gambling was legalised again in 1931 and the city really began to thrive with the world famous Las Vegas Strip being developed in the 1940s. Just after the Second World War Mafia Boss Meyer Lansky sent 'Bugsy' Siegel to Las Vegas to set up the Trans-America Wire Service on the West Coast. Siegel was quickly sucked into the gambling potential of Las Vegas and created the Flamingo hotel and the first major casino. By 1947 Bugsy was dead, assassinated for running up huge debts. His murder sensationalised the Strip and created its reputation of allure and danger. The Flamingo hotel is now gone, demolished in 1993, but the name remains.
Competition with the newly legalised gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey was a temporary setback for Las Vegas, but it fought back by reinventing itself further with the Mega Resort. The old Downtown area was deserted for a while but as the years passed, gambling made its transition into legitimate big business and the Downtown area, with the opening of the modern Mega Resort, has been revitalised and regenerated, with new shopping malls and the Freemont Street Experience. This new area is where you can find all the newest hotels and is where the more 'upmarket' clientele hang out. Ever larger casino resorts, such as Caesars Palace, opened both on the Strip and Downtown.
Las Vegas established its reputation as an entertainment capital, with the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack playing throughout the 1960s.
It was during the 1980s that corporate gamblers applied mass-merchandising techniques in order to give betting and gambling a better image, selling it as family entertainment. Las Vegas quickly became known as 'Disneyland for Adults'.
Today the attraction of gambling has spread ? you do not have to make your way to Las Vegas to place a bet. Gambling is global, with an estimated 65% of the adult population playing the British National Lottery. Even more appealing is online gambling, we are now able to gamble at home in the comfort of our living rooms 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can bet as much or as little as we like.
