Let me give you a history lesson today.
The contemporary city of Vegas bloomed around prostitution and legal gambling. The real birth can be traced back to 1945 when one of the most prominent criminals at the time, Bugsy Siegel, started constructing the Flamingo, which became the city’s first major hotel and casino complex.
Siegal was assassinated in 1947 after the Mob incurred many losses.
You can learn more about how the Mob contributed to the emergence of contemporary Vegas at the Mob Museum.
While organized crime helped form this city, its dominance was short-lived because the newly established Nevada Gaming Control Board and Gaming Commission soon came after them. The officials were responsible for overseeing and licensing gambling operations, and they began to diminish the freedom of gangsters. By the 60s, the Commission had removed a lot of corruption from the gambling industry and banned people with criminal records from casinos. Corrupt public officials were also removed and arrested.
Private individuals began to lead the development of contemporary Vegas. One of them was Wilbur Clark, the owner of Desert Inn, who proposed the removal of the city’s World War II debts through holding a national lottery. Howard Hughes was also another prominent businessman who made significant investments in Las Vegas. While some of his investments, like the costly Landmark Casino, failed, others succeeded. They include the Howard Hughes Parkway and the McCarran International Airport (now called Harry Reid Airport), among many others.
Another factor contributing to contemporary Vegas’s emergence was the nuclear weapons tests conducted at a Nevada test site in the 50s and 60s. The site was 65 miles (105 km) from Las Vegas. At first, the local populace welcomed it. But soon, protests arose, with one of the leading protesters being Howard Hughes.
The city continued to grow throughout the 60s and 70s, mainly because popular entertainers like Elvis Presley, Wayne Newton, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra brought publicity. In the late 70s, the growth faltered a bit due to the national economic recession. Tourism additionally declined slightly after 80 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in November 1980. But Steve Wynn, the owner of the Golden Nugget, took this positively and acquired and renovated old casinos and even built new ones. Among them was the Mirage, which was opened in 1989.
From the late 80s, Las Vegas significantly grew. Its tourist and gaming economies accelerated, and the population increased from only about 100,000 in 1980 to over 250,000 in 1990. By the mid-90s, the population in the metropolitan area had exceeded 1 million. This number doubled later on.