Las Vegas Gambling “Las Vegas looks like what you imagine paradise must look like at night,” says New York Times bestselling novelist Chuck Palahniuk. (1) He is right. Las Vegas is, in a sense, America's Mecca – a national tourist hotspot filled with resorts, gambling, shopping, dining, drinking, sports, nightlife and more entertainment. Las Vegas is the fastest growing city and job market in the United States. (source?) The city, a sort of massive carnival for adults, is made up of elements largely foreign to its original desert setting. On the one hand, Vegas welcomes nearly 40 million visitors per year, almost seventy times the city's population; but also its drinking water and food are largely imported and a series of hotels are modeled on famous cities, buildings and monuments from around the world. (2) While Vegas is a melting pot of different forms of entertainment, food and clothing, gambling was an intrinsic part of Vegas before neon signs and extravagant resorts existed. Las Vegas' gaming industry, dating back to the days before the city's official founding, is much more than just one part of the multifaceted entertainment front of "Sin City": the industry has saved and sustained the he city's economy, and continues to drive its fiscal growth and urban expansion, gambling has been a vital part of Vegas's success. Gambling was part of Las Vegas culture before the city was established and continued despite regulations prohibiting it. In the 1850s, prospectors hoping to profit from the gold rush ravaged the largely unstable American West. Word of the gold rush had spread across the continent and beyond, attracting prospectors from the United States, as well...... middle of paper ......r – “By the end of the decade, there was a casino within sight of every point in town. A record 15 million people visited Las Vegas in 1971, and about 81 percent of those tourists gambled during their stay in Vegas – an obvious effect of Hughes's massive investments in casinos. By 1974, gaming revenues exceeded $1 billion and just under 50 percent of Nevada's state budget was funded by gaming taxes. Hughes managed to greatly increase the size and appeal of the city, making it more profitable, more touristy and more glamorous. None of this would have been possible without the gaming industry attracting Hughes to the city – once again, gaming played a leading role in the growth of Las Vegas. The industry's growth continued at a breakneck pace, until legalization of gambling in other states made the future of the city's gambling industry murky..