Gambling has always been a very important business in the mob. From card games to betting on horses and other sports, the mob has made cash from all of them. They operated many luxury and illegal gambling operations throughout the United States. Police officers and law enforcement officers were on the payroll of mob bosses and ignored gambling operations. However, a major event occurred that forever changed the history of gambling and casinos in the United States. The state of Nevada legalized gambling in 1931.

Although gambling had been legalized, no one paid much attention except local cowboys and a few men from nearby military bases. Las Vegas was a dirty city in the middle of the desert with a few gas stations, greasy junk food eaters, and a few slot machine emporiums. Las Vegas in the early 1940s was not an attractive place to do business or live. The mob didn’t realize Las Vegas’ huge moneymaking potential until after World War II ended. Al Capone had watched the city with great interest, but never completed his plans to turn it into a haven of hotels and casinos for tourists and travelers.

Las Vegas remained mob free until mobster Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel realized the potential of Las Vegas. The timing could not have been better. Before the formation of Las Vegas, American tourists looking for fun had to go to Cuba. In Cuba, gangsters were welcomed by the corrupt Batista regime, casinos abounded, and the profits were huge. About a decade after the opening of the first casino in Las Vegas, Fidel Castro’s Revolution swept Cuba away. So people were left with no alternative to legal gambling than to go to Las Vegas.

With the imagination and great organizational skills of Siegel and the money of the mob, Las Vegas’ first gaming complex, The Flamingo, opened on December 26, 1946. It was the first of many complexes funded by the mafia. Las Vegas proved to be a very profitable and legal business for the mob. Once a boring desert city, it has now become the glitzy “Strip” of Las Vegas.

Lansky, unwilling to be the culprit if the Las Vegas plan didn’t go well, had recruited Bugsy Siegel. Siegel’s job had been to raise money and the enthusiasm of the mob families. Things got off to a shaky start when the Flamingo was forced to open ahead of schedule due to pressure from the mob. Las Vegas was not that famous at the time and there was not much tourist interest. Siegel had other problems as well. He had extracted huge sums of money from the construction money and pension funds of the mafia-controlled unions. After this discovery, the mafia demanded the return of the money and gave a deadline. Bugsy’s hopes were pinned on the success of the Flamingo. Due to the bad start, the mob families believed that he could not return the cash and, in retaliation, they murdered him.

Lansky took over the Flamingo and turned his luck around. Over the course of a year, the Flamingo was very successful and had already made a return of many times the investment. Lansky obviously got all the credit for this. This success was the scene for more of the mob to arrive in Las Vegas. By then, more than $ 50 million had been taken from Union pension funds, this time with the go-ahead from the mob.

By the 1950s, Chicago Outfit had also joined the New York City mob families in Las Vegas. The Outfit ran three major casinos: Stardust, Desert Inn, and Riviera. The Hacienda, Golden Nugget, Sahara, and Fremont casinos were added by them in the 1960s. Tourists from all over the United States, and later the world, flooded Las Vegas in search of excellent gambling, entertainment, and nightlife.

As more and more mob families built resorts, concerns arose about how increased competition would affect profits. The various Mafia families across the country eventually agreed on a deal that would give each a part intertwined in the other’s resort. By the time the lawyers legalized the deal, it was nearly impossible to know who owned what. Whatever happens, everyone got a piece and this piece was huge.

The 1960s were a time of decline for the Las Vegas mob. Howard Hughes, a lonely and eccentric billionaire, managed to achieve a change in Nevada law that prohibited corporations from buying shares in hotels, casinos and resorts. He bought 17 resorts and drove the mob out of them. In the decade that followed, Hughes exited the casino business after his businesses failed to perform as expected. He had been expecting big profits, but actually he lost money overall and had a few million in the red. Mafia involvement in Las Vegas casinos made a comeback, but this time it was short-lived.

In the 1980s there was a large-scale attack on mob interests in Las Vegas by the FBI. Mafia-owned casinos were cleaned up and sold to rightful owners. These new owners changed the face of the city and turned it into a family-themed vacation spot. Most of the gangsters involved were arrested and faced long prison terms, probably for the rest of their lives.