Why was Las Vegas built?

Clark subsequently built another railroad branching off from Las Vegas to the boomtown of Bullfrog called the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad. With the revenue coming down both railways that intersected there, the area of Las Vegas was quickly growing. read more

It was a brilliant idea. They had water, the Hoover damm was being built, they had regular train service and a world that wanted to move out west. read more

Las Vegas’s embrace of Old West-style freedoms—gambling and prostitution—provided a perfect home for East Coast organized crime. Beginning in the 1940s, money from drugs and racketeering built casinos and was laundered within them. read more