Las Vegas

One morning in the summer of 1972, my ex-wife Bonita and I got up from a motel in Gallup, New Mexico and headed west in our green Fiat 124 Sport Coupe towards Kingman, Arizona.  We never got there.

Once we drove across the state line, the fruit we had bought in Gallup was confiscated by Arizona authorities.  We forgot all about that when we stopped to see the magnificent Grand Canyon.  It took my breathe away.

As we continued heading west, Bonita noted on our road map that we weren't that far away from Las Vegas, Nevada.  So, we decided to spend the night there instead of Kingman.

We had dinner and enjoyed the show at Circus, Circus.  Then we entered a casino and I bet $1 (in cash) on a spin of a roulette wheel.  I lost and we left.  We found a cheap motel for our final night before arriving in California the next day.

Las Vegas was founded in 1905 as a small town that was a stopover for trains travelling between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, Utah.  The construction of the nearby Hoover Dam, started in 1931, brought thousands of workers into Las Vegas.  

Gambling was outlawed in Nevada but there were well-established  underground casinos in operation there.  Realizing that gambling would be profitable for local business, the Nevada state legislature legalized gambling at the local level also in 1931. 

Las Vegas was poised to begin its rise as the gaming capital of the world. The county were it is located (Clark) issued its first gambling license on March 19, 1931 (92 years ago). 

Tommy Hull was a business man who was granted the first license. He built El Rancho (hotel plus casino) in the area that came to be known as the Vegas Strip. 

Tommy Hull’s success brought many other business men to Las Vegas and many hotel casinos were built. The most famous of which, the Flamingo, was built by the famous mobster Bugsy Seigel.

In the 1970s the trend of turning hotel casinos into mega resorts brought more good fortunes for the city. Las Vegas was transformed from a gambling city into a family vacation spot because these resorts provided all sorts of entertainment aside from gambling.

However, to me, Las Vegas is "been there, done that."  Not interested in a return trip.