Las Vegas

In 1829 the first Europeans entered the region now known as Las Vegas. Then, water was plentiful & a young scout, Rafael Rivera, saw a valley of lush grasses & the area was named LasVegas, Spanish for "The Meadows". Las Vegas remained sparsely populated until 1931 when construction of the Hoover dam & the legalization of gambling brought an influx of construction workers & their families. In 1946 casino owner William Wilkerson acquired a parcel of land on which he envisioned a lavish hotel, casino, nightclub & restaurant complex that would be called The Flamingo. Notorious mobster Bugsy Siegel, seeing an opportunity for legitimacy, agreed to bankroll Wilkerson & soon took over the project. Bugsy demanded the best of everything & the mobsters funding his desert dream soon grew weary of his excessive spending & suspected theft. On June 20, 1947 Bugsy Siegel was shot to death in his Beverly Hills home. Perhaps if the mob could see into the future, they might have been a bit more forgiving of Bugsy's excesses. Today the Las vegas strip leads all casino venues with annual revenues of $6 billion. The Flamingo itself makes over $72 million.