Gambling in Las Vegas“Las Vegas looks like you'd imagine paradise would look at night,” says New York Times bestselling novelist Chuck Palahniuk. (1) He's right. Las Vegas is, in a sense, America's Mecca: a national tourist hotspot filled with resorts, gambling, shopping, restaurants, drinks, sports, nightlife and many other things entertainment. Las Vegas is the fastest growing city and fastest growing job market in the United States. (source?) The city, a sort of enormous carnival for adults, is made up of elements largely foreign to its native desert setting. First, Las Vegas welcomes nearly 40 million visitors a year, a number nearly seventy times greater than the city's population; but drinking water and food are also largely imported, and a number of hotels are modeled after famous cities, buildings and monuments from around the world. (2) While Las Vegas is a melting pot of diverse forms of entertainment, food and clothing, gambling has been intrinsically a part of Las Vegas before bright signs and extravagant resorts existed. The gambling industry in Las Vegas, which dates back to the days before the city's official founding, is much more than just a piece of "Sin City's" multifaceted entertainment front: the industry has saved and supported the his city's economy, and continues to foster fiscal growth and urban expansion: Gambling has been an essential part of Las Vegas' success. Gambling was part of Las Vegas culture before the city was born and continued despite regulations prohibiting it. In the 1850s, prospectors hoping to profit from the gold rush devastated the largely unsettled American West. Word of the gold rush had spread across the continent and beyond, attracting prospectors from the United States, as well as...... middle of paper ......r – “By the end of the decade, there was a casino in sight from every point of the city.” A record 15 million people visited Las Vegas in 1971, and approximately 81 percent of these tourists gambled during their stay in Las Vegas—an apparent effect of Hughes' massive investments in casinos. By 1974, gaming revenue exceeded $1 billion, and just under 50 percent of Nevada's state budget was supported by gaming taxes. Hughes was able to dramatically increase the size and attractiveness of the city, making it more profitable, tourist-friendly, and charming. None of this would have been possible without the gambling industry that attracted Hughes to the city: once again, gambling played a major role in the growth of Las Vegas. Industry growth continued at a torrid pace, until the legalization of gambling in other states made the future of the city's gaming industry murky..