The first state to ever make casino gambling legal was Nevada. But first it would have to undergo some major changes to gambling laws. Nevada was also the very last of the western states to make gambling illegal, although it did so with much reluctance.
It was at precisely midnight on October 1, 1910 when Nevada put into place a very strict anti-gambling law. You couldn’t so much as make a friendly wager on whose horse was taller; you weren’t even allowed to flip a coin for the price of a drink in the saloon, an old western custom. This was a far cry from what Las Vegas would become in the future.
The local gamblers weren’t swayed by this new law; they quickly set up underground gambling games which required a password to get you through the door. Gambling continued to grow in the darkness of hidden rooms until Phil Tobin, a rancher in Northern Nevada authored a bill for legalizing gambling that would be approved by the Nevada Legislature. The bill was approved in the year 1931. The irony of this is that the author of this bill had no interest in gambling of any kind and had never even set foot in Las Vegas. The bill was introduced as a way to raise taxes which were needed for schools. This approach worked and it’s still in place today.
During the great depression Las Vegas flourished, virtually untouched by the financial hardships that wreaked havoc on the rest of the country. Jobs were plentiful and money was prevalent. This was due to the railroad and the legalization of gambling. The construction which had began on the Hoover Dam also played a role in the economic strength of Las Vegas during this otherwise trying time. Since then, the
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