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From desert scrubland to pleasure-seeker playground, Las Vegas has been on a hell of a ride on it’s was to become the casino capital.
The history of Las Vegas can be seen as random as a roll of the dice. How come the greatest gambling city on earth is stuck in the middle of a desert?
Why did the God-fearing Mormons bankroll a betting Mecca? What part did the Hoover Dam play in the evolution of Sin City?
Few urban destinations capture the imagination quite like Las Vegas. It has a population of less than 700,000, with an average age of 38 and attracts over 40 million visitors each year.
Vegas is one of the few destinations which can rival the thrill of the best online casinos, with real-world glamour and prestige.
It has also been a key location in dozens of iconic films, featured in scores of songs, and has more hotel rooms than any other city on Earth.
It’s time to take another look at Las Vegas, one decade at a time; from when the city, as we know it, began in 1900.
How Las Vegas Became Casino Capital of the World
Las Vegas didn’t turn into the center of casinos and entertainment overnight. It took many decades for its reputation to be established.
Up Until 1900 – The Meadows
What’s the most valuable thing you can find in a desert? Well, for the Southern Paiutes, Sante Fe trader Antonio Armijo and pioneer John C. Fremont, the answer was simple: water. Las Vegas is an oasis; a spring at the heart of a meadow of mesquite trees.
The Paiute Tribe knew of it for centuries. Armijo first ‘discovered’ it in 1829, seeking out a new route from Sante Fe to Los Angeles. Fremont camped there, with his army, and mapped the area.
It was the perfect supply stop, fresh water in the middle of the desert. The Spanish travelers nicknamed it ‘the meadows’; in Spanish: ‘Las Vegas’.
The final ingredient, in the early years of Las Vegas, was the arrival of the Mormons. Fueled with missionary fervor, and on a God-given quest to convert the Paiute people to Christianity, they briefly settled the area in 1855. They stayed for only three years but would return in 1905
1900 – 1910: A Railroad and a Casino
In 1905, the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad was finally completed; arriving in Las Vegas. Pipelines were also laid, supplying water from the springs nearby.
Land was sold and the Mormons returned to the region. By 1930, they would make up more than 10 percent of the population.
One of the early real estate developers was John Miller. He bought a parcel of land, on Main Street and Fremont Street, and built the Hotel Nevada in 1906. The 10-foot square rooms cost $1 per day (about $35 in today’s money) and were described as ‘first class’.
The hotel was home to the first casino in town. It operated until 1909 when gambling was banned in Nevada. It also had the first telephone in Las Vegas, with the number #1. It’s recently been revamped, making it the oldest casino in town.
1910s – 1920: Growth and Prosperity
In 1911, the city was finally incorporated and elected its first mayor: Peter Buol. For a decade, the city would slowly grow and prosper, thanks to the railroad.
On Fremont Street, the Northern Hotel was built by the Salt Lake Brewing Co, with a bar on the first floor and a hotel on the second. It was subsequently known as the Northern Club. It was the first casino in Nevada to gain an official gaming license in 1931.
1920s – 1930: Trouble with Trains
By now, Las Vegas was dependent on the railway. A strike in 1922 could have changed the city’s history, as the owners considered relocating its machine shops to Caliente.
However, by this time, Las Vegas had refrigeration facilities, a growing population and well-established infrastructure. It survived the strike.
In 1922, a plan for a multipurpose dam in Black Canyon was put before Congress. It would control flooding and offer irrigation, as well as generating hydroelectric power. It would cost $165 million ($3.1 billion today) and it would be the making of Las Vegas.
1930s – 1940: Game On
This is the decade when Sin City comes to life. Work started on the Hoover Dam in 1931. The population of Las Vegas exploded from 5,000 to 25,000. The newcomers were mainly men, escaping the Great Depression and looking for work building the dam.
It didn’t take a great deal of imagination to figure out what the workers from the dam would be looking for every weekend, when they received their paychecks. In 1931, the Nevada legislature legalized gambling in the state, issuing seven licenses.
Gambling was already well-established in the city, alongside bootlegging and prostitution. Nicknamed ‘Glitter Gulch’, Fremont Street was paved and the neon lights blazed.
Also arriving in Las Vegas, at this time, was the Mafia. Even though the rest of the US was enduring prohibition, the alcohol flowed freely in Las Vegas. Sin City had started to earn its reputation as a good-time town – which has never left it.
1940s – 1950: Welcome to the Strip
By 1940, Las Vegas was deep into its ‘Golden Age’. With Fremont Street overflowing, it was time to spread out.
El Rancho was the first hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The 65-room hotel and casino had air conditioning, a swimming pool, horseback riding, great entertainment and gourmet food.
It also introduced a Las Vegas staple: the all-you-can-eat buffet. It was new style of hotel: classy, stylish, and cool. The celebrities loved it.
More and more hotel casinos appeared. Although the Mafia was working behind the scenes, the Las Vegas families had managed to stay in control. After World War Two, however, it all changed, with the arrival of well-connected celebrity gangster Bugsy Siegel.
He opened the Flamingo on December 26, 1946. The opening ceremonies lasted days, with more than 200 VIPs attending.
The Chicago Mafia slowly moved in; borrowing money from pension funds to build some of Las Vegas’ most important historical casinos, including the Sahara, the Sands, the Riviera, the Fremont and the Tropicana. Las Vegas had landed.
1950s – 1960s: Showtime
In 1960, the ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign appeared, along with the Stardust and the Dunes. The population of Las Vegas was nearly 50,000 and 8 million people were visiting every year.
Celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Liberace and Bing Crosby were all performing in town.
In 1957, Minsky’s Follies, the first topless show, revealed itself. The Mafia was making a fortune and getting an ever tighter grip on the city; power and influence is big business. The mob had deep pockets, with politicians in most of them.
In 1951, Benny Binion opened the iconic Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, with high table limits; attracting the whales (big spenders) into town. Vegas Vic, the 40-foot-high neon sign also turned up in the same year.
Elvis Presley made his first appearance in town at the New Frontier Hotel, on April 23, 1956. At the end of the decade, the Stardust Hotel brought the French production of Lido de Paris to town. In 1959, the Gaming Commission of Nevada was established.
These were the golden years, when global stars made Las vegas there second home and delighted many fans.
1970s – 1980: Fear and Loathing
All good things…
By the 1970s, the Las Vegas magic was fading. The Rat Pack, and its associated celebrity cool, had disappeared and moved on. Las Vegas was now where failing celebrities came to perform. It was seen as a joke; the only gig they could get.
The Mafia was in control of most of the hotels and focused on skimming cash from the casinos, rather than maintaining Vegas as an entertainment hub.
Sin City had earned a reputation as a tawdry tourist trap, with aging hotels, cheap restaurants, shabby buffets, and far too many no-go areas.
The FBI embarked on a mission to purge organized crime and the murder rate had never been higher.
Gonzo writer Hunter S Thompson perfectly captured the sleazy side of Sin City, with his classic book: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He wrote: “A little bit of this town goes a very long way. After five days in Vegas, you feel like you’ve been here for five years.”
Many of the hotels had also fallen behind the times and would have easily made our worst hotels in Las Vegas list at the time.
By the end of the decade, many casinos had gone bankrupt. Not helped by the arrival of a sparkling, all-new, rival on the East Coast: Atlantic City, which opened its first legal casino in 1978.
It wasn’t all bad in the 1970s, though. The MGM Grand Hotel and Casino opened in 1973; the world’s largest resort and a sign of things to come. In 1975, gaming revenues topped $1 billion for the first time, paying half the state’s budget. Tourists were still flowing in.
The relatively tough times of the seventies were about to change; a decade of decadence was set to begin – and no one does extravagance better than Las Vegas
1980s – 1990: Rebirth and Viva Las Vegas
The 1980s was a boom time for almost everyone. The mob and its money had been decimated. The ‘classic’ hotels were tired and defunct.
It was time for new blood and new money. In 1989, a $630 million gamble, by entrepreneur Steve Wynn, paid off: The Mirage Hotel and Casino opened.
It had a 50-foot high volcano, that erupted every night, a five-story waterfall, lagoons, world-class chefs, more than 3,000 rooms and a swimming pool that was a quarter mile long.
Siegfried and Roy’s magic show also became a huge attraction, with four white tigers and a performance that cost more than $30 million to stage.
The Polynesian-themed behemoth was the first ‘megaresort’ on the Strip. Waiting behind Wynn were entrepreneurs Kirk Kerkorian and Sheldon Adelson. Vegas was cool again.
One other 1980s event worthy of note is the arrival of the Megabucks slot, from IGT. It was the first linked progressive slot, with a multi-million jackpot created by players enjoying the same game – wherever they were.
The slots were no longer where you dumped your small change. They were serious.
1990s – 2000s: Boom Time
Las Vegas is an ever-evolving, shifting, changing, entity; a triumph of ambition over reason. In the 1990s, the larger-than-life ethos exploded along the Strip, with bigger, better, brasher, bolder resorts.
In this decade, all the following hotels would make their debut on the Strip: Treasure Island, Hard Rock, the Luxor, Excalibur, the Stratosphere, the MGM Grand, the Bellagio, the Venetian, Mandalay Bay, and Paris Las Vegas.
The experience was as immersive as it is today; Now, Sin City was targeting families; less sin, more shopping, shows, and two decades later, a giant sphere. Everything was an ‘event’.
Gambling was presented as a sideline. Betting may be the Las Vegas raison d’être but you can spend a month here, entertained, without risking a cent.
In fact, there are plenty of things to do in Las Vegas with kids, if you want to keep fun PG-13.
Las Vegas Today
The truth is Las Vegas is like a long run at the tables: a rollercoaster of highs and lows. The exterior flips and flops, from cool to corny.
Under its skin, it’s still a city where anything goes; a temple to both human invention and desire for excess.
When you gamble, you can risk a little to win a lot. You throw the money down, hoping that your dream will come true. Las Vegas is this – but in bricks and mortar. It’s the warped American dream where fantasies are fulfilled, but you don’t need to put in the hard work.
Today, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, there are 300 casinos in Nevada that gross $1 million or more in gaming revenue annually; 174 of these are in Clark County.
Las Vegas continues to boom. Hotels are reinvented and reimagined. Shows are re-staged, revived and revamped.
Las Vegas started as an oasis; a place where travelers could recharge and refresh, as they made their way across America.
Today, Las Vegas is an oasis of pleasure and extremes. Somewhere where anything and everything is still possible.
They all still need water, though.
References
- https://vintagelasvegas.com/post/718386409447260160/1932 (Vintage Las Vegas)
- https://www.businessinsider.com/las-vegas-history-transformed-railroad-town-now-gambling-mecca-2023-2#but-that-didnt-matter-by-then-las-vegas-had-transformed-from-a-dusty-desert-town-into-the-most-famous-gambling-city-in-the-world-in-a-matter-of-decades-35 (Business Insider)
- https://www.westgateresorts.com/blog/las-vegas-history/ (Westgate Resorts)
