Las Vegas is a relatively young city, even for the United States. It was founded in 1905 as a major railroad hub connecting the western and eastern United States, serving primarily as a refueling stop for trains and a rest point for railroad crews.
Remarkably, almost nothing today hints at those origins. Modern Las Vegas has no active passenger rail connections to other cities. Instead, the millions of visitors who arrive each year travel by car or by air, making highways and aviation the city’s primary lifelines.
A defining moment in Las Vegas history came in 1931, when the state of Nevada legalized gambling. This decision proved visionary—especially at a time when gambling was being outlawed and suppressed across much of the rest of the United States. That single move set the stage for the city’s extraordinary future.
The next major surge of growth followed World War II. Seeking places to invest and launder illicit profits, American mob figures turned their attention to Las Vegas, financing the construction of lavish casinos. The very first of these was the legendary Flamingo Las Vegas, opened in 1946 by New York gangster Bugsy Siegel on the city’s main thoroughfare, the Las Vegas Strip.
Over the following two decades, roughly fifteen major casino resorts were built with mob backing. Gambling—and the tourism, entertainment, and show industries tied directly to it—became the foundation of this desert oasis’s rapid prosperity.
Today, Las Vegas stands as one of the world’s largest centers of entertainment and gaming. The city is home to more than a hundred major casino hotels and thousands of gaming venues. It is, without question, one of the top tourist destinations in the United States.
Every year, Las Vegas draws millions of visitors from around the globe with its luxury resorts, world-class casinos, fine-dining restaurants, spectacular stage productions, and nightly concerts by internationally famous performers—earning its reputation as a true global entertainment capital.