How Las Vegas Became the World’s Gambling Capital

This video is sponsored by morningbrew, las vegas is a city synonymous with entertainment and nightlife gambling. shows clubs the kind of stuff that makes. for some great movies, in 2019 the city welcomed over 42 million visitors making it one of the, top three destinations in the united, states and one of the most famous resort. cities in the entire world, i had never been to las vegas before making this video and i was fascinated, by this extremely unique city i mean where else can you visit the eiffel. tower and venice's gondolas along the same street but as i visited more of this city both, on the las vegas strip and off i. couldn't help but have questions like, why is las vegas the nation's biggest. gambling city. how did it get this way and why did it, happen in this patch of the mojave desert let's uncover the reasons vegas is vegas. after the bike bell. before we figure out exactly why there are so many casinos in las vegas we need. to know why there's a city in the middle. of the desert. deserts aren't usually ideal locations, for cities given that most people need, water and don't enjoy heat stroke. i mean las vegas is a mere two hour drive from death valley one of the. hottest places on earth. to answer this question we need to go. back in time in the first decades of the, 1800s las vegas did not exist anasazi. and payute tribes inhabited this area, and the first non-native american to visit the valley arrived in 1829 the mormons built the first settlement a fort but they didn't stay long though you can still visit the old mormon fort, in las vegas today, las vegas exists where it does because of its strategic location it's about halfway between salt lake. city and los angeles two important. cities in the western united states at. the time las vegas was a bit of an oasis in the mojave with access to fresh water las. vegas means the meadows and it was named. that because it was greener relative to, the surrounding desert this made it a, great stopping over point later as silver was discovered near the. city las vegas became a critical supply depot. the railroads connecting salt lake city in los angeles also went through vegas. and all of that silver from the mines was shipped through the city supplies for the mines and the miners headed in the other direction by 1920 las vegas, was a thriving small community of about, 2 000 people, nobody at this time thought the city was, going to be a massive global tourist destination. a few forward-thinking boosters thought it could eventually resemble a resort, town like palm springs because it was. sunny and warm all the time. the city's big break came in the great, depression when the federal government, decided to invest in western dams to, provide cheap water and power to growing. sunbelt cities as it turned out the biggest and most. famous dam in the united states would be built about 30 miles or 48 kilometers, from las vegas it was the hoover dam the dam initially, felt like a setback. the federal government opted to construct an entirely new city called. boulder city to house the dam's workforce instead of building housing in. las vegas, but again las vegas would serve as an. important supply depot for the massive project which will be the largest dam in, the world when it was finished and. create the largest reservoir in the us. the project didn't just bring jobs it, also created a tourist attraction soon after the workers completed the dam, visitors poured in to see this new world. wonder, 75 percent of them also visited las, vegas the city been steadily building up.

its own attractions first aimed to lure construction workers and later tourists it had clubs a red light district and. casinos so now we know how las vegas put itself on the map but where do casinos and. gambling fit into this story, well nevada has always had a fairly, permissive attitude towards gaming at, least compared to other us states, the territorial and eventually state. legislature alternated between allowing, it outlawing it and decriminalizing it. before 1909 someone could essentially gamble without fear of penalty in nevada. between 1909 and 1931 the state. legislature banned gambling which essentially forced card games into the, back rooms. the state couldn't seem to kick its, relationship to gambling so in 1931 the state legislature legalized it making it one of the nation's only places to. gamble legally the state government did, this to compensate for the state's. economic decline during the great, depression and it turned out to be a. pretty smart move now we know why las vegas exists in a, desert and why it has casinos but that. doesn't explain why vegas became vegas reno was the largest city in nevada, until the 1960 census, why did las vegas take the crown. how did a small city with a few casinos grow into the entertainment juggernaut, it is today, las vegas's location on the road to los angeles proved helpful yet again new deal funding paid for a widening and paving of the highway making it easier. than ever for visitors to arrive, the era also saw las vegas proactively, purchase an existing airport one that would eventually grow into today's harry. reid international airport local leaders. believed air travel was the future and. they were right these same local leaders made the right, call when they sought and received federal funding for a convention center which again added momentum to vegas's growing tourist industry conventions. weren't as big of a thing back then as. they are now today's a 330 billion, dollar industry in the us las vegas got, into the industry early and established itself as a popular destination rivaling. larger cities like chicago and new york. las vegas had the right idea with air. travel and conventions and they were, also ahead of the game on divorce you. might associate las vegas with weddings, but they have you covered on both ends of the relationship in 1931 the same year the nevada legislature passed its, gambling legalization law it also passed an extremely permissive divorce law, residency requirements were reduced from, six months to six weeks and the wannabe. divorcees didn't have to prove adultery or abandonment clark gable took nevada upon the law and his divorce to ria langem in las vegas made national news and put the city in the spotlight soon would-be divorcees came to the city. to get their divorce where clark gable, did and divorce ranches sprung up one member of the couple usually the. woman would take up residence for six weeks and enjoy a sunny vacation culminating in a divorce. by 1945 nevada was granting more, divorces than the state of new york, despite the huge difference in total populations, while the 1930s were all about dams and divorce the 1940s in vegas were all. about the military the united states, entered world war ii in 1941 and the city added two new military, installations what are known today as, creech air force base and nellis air, force base. these new bases and industries added. tens of thousands of military personnel and their families to the area this, helped las vegas grow and so too did the. gaming industry gis and the war weary public found some temporary respite in the casinos and shows. after the war the idea of large-scale, resort-style casinos became the fashion.

in the early days casinos are primarily. clustered in downtown las vegas near. fremont street today there's still a large group of casinos there but these larger resort casinos found the land they needed on the highway to los, angeles in unincorporated clark county nevada the city of las vegas was never aggressive enough about annexing land around it unlike other sunbelt cities. like phoenix and albuquerque and as a result most of the casino gambling is. outside of las vegas proper casino, owners also resisted annexation afraid, of higher taxes and more regulation the first luxury hotel on the strip was. the flamingo opened in 1946 by the. famous mobster bugsy seagull the, flamingo was followed by the sahara and, the sands in 1952 the riviera and the, dunes in 1955 and the tropicana in 1957.. other famous casinos like the hacienda, the stardust caesar's palace circus, circus and the mgm grand would bring us, to the 70s these golden years cemented las vegas as, the place to be it was the era of elvis. frank sinatra and liberace, these new large-scale resorts did more. than just bring in big name talent they, created an agglomeration economy around, tourism all of those casino hotels created a specialized workforce hotel management casino dealers entertainers. and food and beverage vendors are all. numerous in the las vegas area opening a casino in las vegas is easier. than in places without a casino for this reason the city can out-compete other. casino resort cities and currently does, and las vegas continues to reinvent. itself as times and tastes change many of those casinos i just listed no longer exist or have been substantially. renovated the sans was demolished to. make way for the venetian the hacienda made way for the mandalay bay the stardust was imploded in 2007 the new resort casinos like the bellagio. palazzo and encore aimed at attracting. higher income travelers who preferred, spas fine dining and luxury retail. outlets, las vegas has had an improbable rise. from the mormon fort to the sin city the, outcome was never certain but the city. and its leaders were able to cash in on, some early advantages like proximity to los angeles federal new deal financing, warm weather and early resort casino, success, today las vegas owns its density. reputation and shows no signs of slowing down the pandemic has been a bump in the. road but already visitor numbers are. rebounding if you want to keep up on las, vegas continue to rise i'd recommend checking out a news source like morning brew, i've been subscribed to the morning brew. newsletter for a while now it's one of my absolute favorite newsletters i'm thrilled they want to sponsor this channel if you didn't know morningbrew, is a free daily newsletter it gets you, up to date on business finance tech and other news in five minutes and provides a fantastic survey of the most important. issues while being irreverent and. informative and i'll say it again it's completely free here's a taste of what i've learned from morningbrew recently. the nintendo switch is the king of the consoles for a third straight holiday season there are still 90 container, ships waiting to be unloaded in la and starbucks workers are unionizing in buffalo it's even got crosswords which makes it the price of admission in my, mind and the price of admission of, course is free, it's basically a mix of the news i'm. exactly interested in in the stuff i. didn't know i wanted to know about. mooring brew is one of the few emails they actually open so this one is a complete no-brainer. it's free and takes less than 15 seconds. to subscribe you're getting a fantastic. newsletter you'll actually love and, you'll be supporting this channel too it's a win-win so go check it out click on the link in the description you,