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Thursday 17 December 2015

Las Vegas

Las Vegas was founded on May 15, 1905 when 110 acres (0.45 km2), adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, in what later would become downtown, were auctioned off. Las Vegas was incorporated as a city six years later.

The "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is actually located in an unincorporated township called Paradise, Nevada.


1931 was a pivotal year in the growth of Las Vegas with the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression.

Las Vegas was once known as the “Atomic City” due to its close proximity to the Nevada Test Site. Visitors to the city witnessed mushroom clouds and were exposed to the radioactive fallout of over 100 nuclear detonations during the 50’s and 60’s.

Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack are widely credited with helping end segregation in Las Vegas, by refusing to perform in venues that wouldn't allow blacks.

Las Vegas is referred to as 'Hawaii's Ninth Island,' with more than 80,000 former residents of Hawaii living in the city.

Prostitution is legal in Nevada but illegal in Las Vegas.

Downtown Las Vegas and Red Rock behind. By Stan Shebs, Wikipedia Commons

There is one slot machine in Las Vegas for every eight inhabitants.

A 25 -year-old software engineer from California won $39 million after putting in $100 in a slot machine at the Excalibur, in 2003. He still holds the record for the highest-paying Vegas win in recorded history.

In Las Vegas, card counting in blackjack is perfectly legal.

The greater metropolitan area of Las Vegas hosts over 100,000 weddings each year.

Te famous Las Vegas Strip is not actually in the city of Las Vegas. It sits immediately south of the city limits and is technically located in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, Nevada.

Las Vegas is actually a long way from being the gambling capital of the world - Macau's gambling revenue is five times larger.

According to NASA, Las Vegas is the brightest city on Earth.


Las Vegas has more unlisted phone numbers than any other city in the United States.

More than 60,000 pounds of shrimp are consumed in Las Vegas each day, which is higher than the rest of the United States combined.

Las Vegas was hit particularly hard in 2020 by the unemployment crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. One-third of the city’s economy is in the leisure and hospitality industry, and most of those jobs can’t be done from home.

There is a network of tunnels underneath Las Vegas that is home to an estimated 1,500 homeless people. These tunnels are used for flood control, but they are also used as a place to live by people who have nowhere else to go.

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