Реферат: Legalized Gambling Essay Research Paper Through the

replace the money the state was getting from depleted ore

rich mountains.6

Organized crime started to turn toward gambling as

their main source of income after Prohibition ended in

1933. These criminals made most of their money

bootlegging alcohol during Prohibition, so once alcohol

prices went down, they needed another way to make a lot of

money fast: gambling.7

Organized crime started getting more involved with

gambling once Las Vegas started to boom. Bugsy Siegal, a

half insane murderer who was sent to Nevada to enforce mob

control of the race wire services, opened up the first

hotel/casino in Las Vegas. His hotel, the Flamingo began

a long period of gang involvement in Las Vegas. In 1947,

the Desert Inn opened, run by a gang from Cleveland. A

savage group of people, including the infamous Meyer

Lansky and Lucky Luciano, established the Desert Inn in

1947. Lansky, the brains of this group, was a genius with

numbers, while Luciano, the brute of the group, was a

genius for finding Lansky. 1952 brought the opening of

the Sahara by some run-out’s from Oregon. The Sands, with

Frank Sinatra as a headliner, opened in 1953, funded with

Chicago mob money. This was the first attempt at bringing

big time entertainment out to Las Vegas to draw people to

casinos. Tony Stralla, a hoodlum from California, opened

the Stardust in 1955. The Stardust towered over the rest

of the hotels on the strip and had more luxuries inside.8

Each hotel became bigger than the next and all made a

lot of money. Much of the money was “skimmed” off the top