The celebrated ecclesiastic realm of casino gambling. Since the historic moment in 1931 of legalizing gambling, the city has relished an evolutionary process in the genesis of casinos.
The sensational history of Vegas begins with the inception of the first luxury casino hotel, the Pink Flamingo, dawning in 1946 by the infamous mobster Bugsy Siegel, later in 2000 renamed as the Flamingo Las Vegas.
The Golden Nugget Casino that welcomed gamblers in 1946 remains the gargantuan casino in downtown Vegas to date, featuring 2,419 palatial rooms.
While in 1966, entrepreneur Howard Hughes who entered the penthouse of Desert Inn. Though he entered as a guest, he left the casino as its owner and invested $300 million in developing other casinos in Sin City.
The year 1971 observed seasoned author Hunter S. Thompson pampering himself in an escapade to Las Vegas casinos that stimulated the engendering of his influential novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
How long is a strip of casinos?
The approximate expanse of the Las Vegas Strip is 4.2 miles. In 1972 a former FBI agent Bill Coulthard was killed by bombing his car. This incident transpired when he was about to withdraw the renewal of Horseshoe Casino owned by the scandalous gangster Benny Binion.
After the FBI agent’s death, Binion was accorded a brand-new 100-year lease. This was how the Holiday Casino was established in 1973, renamed Harrah’s in 1992.
The Worst Casino Disaster
The year 1980 witnessed the most horrendous casino disaster in the history of Vegas at the MGM Grand Casino. A cataclysmic fire killed 85, and a massive 785 people suffered injuries.
The following year, testified to arsonist Philip Cline sets fire to the Las Vegas Hilton. This disaster claimed eight lives, injured 200, and annihilated the iconic venue.
Vegas punches above its weight.
The magic bullet for unfurling the abode of sport within Vegas is Caesar’s Palace. They hosted a melange of boxing bouts involving boxers like Muhammed Ali, Oscar De La Hoya, and Sugar Ray Leonard and hosted from 1981 to 1984 the behemoth Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
Then ultimately, in 1989, the genesis of the Mirage paves the way for the mega-resort era of Las Vegas.
Counting Cards and Winning Cash
In the 1980s and 1990s, the MIT Blackjack Team comprised former students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Harvard Business School.
They deployed their in-depth understanding of maths and card counting to thwart the concept of house edge by emerging as champions across Vegas casinos and earning the stature of cultural legends for their daring exploits.
The year 1993 marked the inception of Luxor. This colossal casino being the 8th largest in the world, has 4,407 rooms and is celebrated for the iconic sky beam that emanates from its pyramid structure.