by Ray Fauteux

Created on: December 11, 2008   Last Updated: February 09, 2009

For the most part, the earliest version of Las Vegas was totally controlled by the Mafia.

It was a historic decision for the Mafia and gambling in general when the state of Nevada legalized gambling in the early 1930's.

In those days, gambling was a main source of income for the Mafia throughout the United States and they were involved in pretty well every type of gambling including horse racing, cards, sports betting, and illegal back room casinos.

At first, nobody gave Las Vegas a second look as far as having potential as a gambling destination. After all, it was a pretty inhospitable place. It was hot and dusty, and if not for a few local cowboys and occasional visitors from nearby military bases there would have been little clientele for the few sleazy diners and slot machine joints that were spotted in and around the Las Vegas area. At the time, it was certainly not the kind of place anyone would consider visiting on vacation.

It was shortly after the second world war before anyone began to look seriously at Las Vegas as a possible gambling Mecca. Up to that point, the real gamblers could easily access Cuba and gamble all they wanted. At least until the Castro regime took over and gambling quickly became a thing of the past for Cuba.

It was perfect timing for someone to step in and although Al Capone had given Las Vegas some consideration as a possible gambling destination, he never followed through and it was the Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel who were the first to actually construct a casino in the hot and dusty Las Vegas desert.

The Flamingo was born and in the early days ran into problems. It opened it's doors on December 26, 1946 because of Mafia pressure even though tourism interest in Las Vegas had not been given time to grow. In order to cover cost over-runs, Bugsy Siegel had skimmed money from the pension funds of Mafia owned unions. The Mafia rushed the opening because they were in panic mode and wanted their money back. When the Flamingo failed in the early days, Siegel was assassinated and Meyer Lansky took over.

The rest as they say, is history. Within a year gaming took off in Vegas and the Flamingo earned back many times it's initial investment. The success of the Flamingo led the charge that would soon cause an explosion of growth. Soon the Chicago family joined the New York family in the invasion of Las Vegas. By the 1960's, many major casinos sprung up that would become historic icons. The Stardust, Desert Inn, Riviera, Hacienda, Golden Nugget and Fremont were among the earliest of Las Vegas casinos. Some have since been demolished and others like the golden Nugget and Fremont still welcome gamblers to this day.

The death knell for the Mafia-run Casinos was sounded when an eccentric billionaire name Howard Hughes began to buy out the Mafia interests in the major casinos. Once the Mafia was forced out, Hughes had built his Las Vegas empire up to 17 casinos, but after ten years sold his interests.

Once again the mob tried to move back in, but the attempt failed because the FBI stepped in and in the 1980's all the Mafia run casinos were cleaned up and eventually sold to legitimate interests.

It was these new owners who eventually made Las Vegas what it is today. They made this once dusty, desert town a family-themed holiday destination that sees thousands of visitors from all over the world every single week.

Although the main drawing card might me legalized gambling, Las Vegas has become so much more to so many people.

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