This led to the expansion of illegal gambling rackets and bordellos at the hands of LA organized crime refugees, most notably corrupt LAPD vice cop Guy McAfee. The project brought an influx of young male workers, but gambling and prostitution were still outlawed. With the railroad sector taking turn for the worst in Vegas, President Herbert Hoover authorized the construction of the Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam, in 1931. Originally established in 1905 after the opening the San Pedro-Los Angeles-Salt Lake Railroad Line, Vegas become a hotbed for “social clubs” that featured gambling and prostitution for entertainment, and remained so even after these activities were outlawed in 1910. This narrative, however, doesn’t only apply to the citizens and tourists that roam the street of Las Vegas, but rather reflects the development of the town itself.

They see the mesmerizing neon skyline dead smack in the middle of the desert, overwhelmed with the possibility that with a stroke of luck in the casino that they too can rewrite their fate and become everything they’ve wanted to be.

This common theme has been told hundreds of times in films, literature and television: a man or a woman is down on their luck, suffering from the realities of financial hardships or the belief that their future is limited in their hometown roots. Since its origins as a railroad town turned gambling mecca, Las Vegas has always prided itself on new beginnings.

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