David Spanier

For most of its history as America's gambling capital, Las Vegas has played the role of Sin City in popular culture, a place where adults could come to indulge in activities forbidden in the rest of the country. The city's dangerous, transgressive image has been undermined in recent years by the spread of legalized gambling outside of Nevada and by the corporate repackaging of Las Vegas as a family—friendly destination during the 1990s. But as David Spanier maintains in the following excerpt from his book Welcome to the Pleasuredome: Inside Las Vegas, part of Las Vegas's appeal to tourists has rested on its reputation as a city of vice founded by notorious organized crime figures. As the author describes, mobsters opened the first casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and held...