Las Vegas was a struggling mining outpost until March 19th, 1931, when Nevada Governor Fred B. Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98, also known as the Wide Open Gambling Bill: legalising casino gambling, and setting the stage for town’s transformation into Sin City. 

When the Boulder Dam project began, drawing thousands of workers nearby, Fremont Street exploded into a Saturday night hotspot. And when mobster Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo in 1946, glitzy Hollywood-style resorts followed in his wake, with celebrities like Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack drawing in high-rollers and cementing the city’s glamour.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the Vegas boom was enabled by the election of tough-on-crime L.A. mayor Fletcher Bowron; discover why the City was known as the "Mississippi of the West”; and reveal how a 50-room hotel was once considered a cutting edge attraction in the Strip…

Further Reading:

• ’How Las Vegas Became a Gambling Mecca’ (HISTORY, 2022):

https://www.history.com/news/las-vegas-history-mobsters-gambling

• ’Nevada marks 90th anniversary of legal gambling’ (The Mob Museum, 2021): https://themobmuseum.org/blog/nevada-marks-90th-anniversary-of-legal-gambling/

• The City of Las Vegas: The Early Years (City of Las Vegas TV, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czyMm5DdqAY

#30s #US #Crime #Games #Racism

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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