Las Vegas Facts and Trivia

As you've probably guessed, I enjoy collecting pieces of trivia … those tiny, insignificant, but true, interesting, little factoids that make you think “wow!” or sometimes “So what!”. I've been gathering trivial pieces of possibly useless information about Las Vegas and (yes, you guessed it), I'm about to share them with you. They're fun, easy and don't take up any room.  

Las Vegas (Spanish for “the meadows”) was named in 1829 by a young Spanish scout, Rafael Rivera, who is credited as the first European to encounter this valley which featured abundant wild grasses and fresh spring waters, a respite for weary travelers in the Mojave Desert.

Before the hotels, casinos and gambling, there were tent saloons like the Arizona Club and the Gem Saloon back in 1905.

The first licensed casino to be built in the area was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931, but the first on what is currently the Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941. With 63 rooms, it stood for almost 20 years before being destroyed by a fire in 1960. There are currently 1700+ gambling venues licensed in Las Vegas which generate in excess of $9 billion in annual state gaming revenue.

Let's dispel a myth. Prostitution is NOT legal in Las Vegas, but “strictly regulated brothels” are legal in eight rural Nevada counties. As of 2013, there are 19 licensed brothels in the state.

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel named his casino “The Flamingo” after the long legs of his girlfriend, Virgina Hill. The Flamingo Hotel & Casino opened in 1946 at a cost of $6 million. It's the oldest resort casino on the Strip still in operation today.

Howard Hughes overstayed his reservation at the Desert Inn for so long that he was asked to leave to accommodate other guests' reservations. He bought the hotel.

There was an average of 220 no-wait weddings performed in Las Vegas each day in 2013 at its 50+ wedding chapels and 500+ churches. That's down, by the way, from 315/day a few years ago. It's also a cheap place to get a divorce with the cost of filing at $289.

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. It increases the sense of freedom, a disconnect from reality and thus, increases the dollars spent gambling. Likewise, there are no windows, so you can't tell if it's day or night.

In 1899 Charles Fey invented a slot machine named the Liberty Bell. The device became the model for all slots to follow. There are ~200,000 slot machines in greater Las Vegas and a metro population of about 2 million. That's 1 slot machine for every 10 people. By the way, slots typically earn 60% or more of a casino's earnings.

There's ~ 15,000 miles of lighted neon tubing on the Strip and Downtown Las Vegas. Circus Circus' Lucky Clown marquee has about ¾ mile of neon tubing all by itself.

The Strip is technically not in Las Vegas, but just south of it in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester. You need to walk to the Stratosphere to actually be in Las Vegas.

The Stratosphere Hotel tower, at 1,149' (350.2m), is the tallest observation tower in the USA.

And a few Nevada facts:

• There is no state income tax (but the sales tax is 6.85%).

• 85% of Nevada is owned by the government … more than any other state.

• Nearly the entire state of Nevada is covered by the Great Basin and the Mojave Desert.

• Nevada's main export industry is mining and in fact, Nevada rates first in nationwide gold production.

So did you say “Wow” or “So What”?

Meet the Mob in Las Vegas

Meet the mob? We're not talking kangaroos here, we're talking the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, aka The Mob Museum. Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, Sam Giancana, John Gotti, even Whitey Bulger … they're all there. Appropriately located in the old federal courthouse building in downtown Las Vegas, the courthouse itself is on the National Register of Historic Places. We thought we'd check it out before we left town.  

Organized crime, “the unlawful activities of [...] a highly organized, disciplined association” is also known in the US as “the mob”, “the Mafia”, “Cosa Nostra”, the “National Crime Syndicate”. Gambling, drugs, booze, prostitution, counterfeiting, bribery, money-laundering, extortion, murder … the mob was (is?) proficient in all areas of illegal activities and we wanted to learn more about it … because why not? After all, we are in Las Vegas and some of the investigations into organized crime were conducted in this very building.

The museum is located on three different floors accessible by elevator. Visitors are “Mirandized” as soon as the elevator doors close. The top floor is devoted mostly to the gangsters, their “families” and the development of organized crime in the US. We had the opportunity to have mug shots taken and stand in a line up.

The museum explored gangs, especially those formed by poor immigrants looking to make their way, and perhaps their fortune, in a new country. It was Prohibition in the US that provided the opportunity to make big money through illegal distribution and sales of liquor. One display is comprised of a section of the actual brick wall from the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago in which seven Irish mobsters were shot down in a warehouse by Al Capone's men. The actual bullet holes were still evident … a rather grisly sight.

The museum's second floor is dedicated to law enforcement: the G-men, later known as FBI agents, that gathered evidence to bring the bad guys to justice. Remember the movies The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Untouchables and Casino? Hollywood and audiences seem obsessed with this theme. Each of these movies had key scenes situated in Las Vegas and always had the Feds chasing the mobsters.

We descended to the first floor which concentrated on scams and skims and ways the casinos and their operators defrauded their customers and the government, as well as how customers attempt to cheat the casinos. We got a lesson in loaded dice and card marking in one exhibit.

In another display, “skimming” scams were explained along with how several casino owners made millions on unreported cash intake and were later brought up on charges of tax evasion.

We took advantage of the Tuesday afternoon “locals” special admission price (2 for 1) and apparently, so did several other people, making the museum rather crowded … sometimes uncomfortably so, especially when you're pushing someone in a wheelchair. In general though, the museum was well laid out and quite interesting. There were several informative films and video clips to view. A multi-media display of Senate investigations of the mob was presented in the actual court room of the Federal Building. We had the chance to shoot a faux tommy gun as well as accompany a beat cop on a patrol. We'd recommend this museum as one to visit if you're an adult in the area … and like crime. Some of the photos were particularly graphic and not recommended for kids.

We couldn't help wonder though why this museum is so well-funded, but the Las Vegas Art Museum closed due to lack of funding and the Las Vegas Museum of Natural History is floundering. Guess the funding goes to the places that generate the revenues.

Hidden in Plain Sight - Public Art in Las Vegas

Public art differs from some of the commercial art we see in that local and federal governments (read that your tax money) and private organizations commission and pay for the artwork which is displayed and accessible in public places. Whether it be the Mall's Balls in Adelaide, Australia or Vaquero, the Mexican cowboy on a bronco by Luis Jimenez at the entrance to Las Vegas' McCarran Airport, we enjoy seeking it out and learning more about it.  

The problem is, however, that sometimes the artwork is “hidden in plain sight”. It's right in front of our eyes and still we pass it by midst the glitz, glamor and neon lights of Las Vegas. We finally found a CityCenter Fine Art Collection guide on-line (as well as an App) that provided some information about artwork and artists, as well as their locations. As an aside, the CityCenter Fine Art Collection is touted to be “the first major permanent collection of art in Las Vegas to be integrated into a public space. [It] is one of the world’s largest and most ambitious corporate collections in existence today.” The marble sculpture Reclining Connected Forms by Henry Moore is said to be a primary example of his work inspired by the fundamentals of human experience, in this case a fetus in the womb. His signature form is a reclining figure of which he is said to have been influenced by the ancient cultures of Egypt and pre-Columbian Mexico. It's located in a little part between Aria and Crystals on the Strip.

Bolt, Bent of Mind and Untitled (Tall Column) by Tony Cragg are three interesting stainless steel towers that seem to exert their own energy. They're located in the Aria Hotel & Casino near the self-park lobby.

Halo by Mark Fuller et al is a display of about 50 vertical, clear plastic cylinders with spinning water inside which produces a waterspout/tornado effect. The cylinders are at different heights, some sloped and at different orientations with colored lights beneath which produce unusual visual effects. Some of the cylinders are below ground providing an interesting perspective as you look into them. We could have watched this one for hours. Fuller and group are also responsible for the fountains at the Bellagio and the volcano eruption at the Mirage. There are several other pieces of artwork in this “WET” collection including an ice sculpture that melts and is refrozen each day. See it all at The Shops at Crystals/Aria.

Nancy Rubins' Big Edge was hard to get to, but fun to look at. Known for her “blooming arrangements of large rigid objects” and found materials, Big Edge consists of more than 200 aluminum boats ... mostly canoes, but we saw a few rowboats and flat-bottomed boats, too … arranged in a very large, unlikely bouquet of color and shape, placed against a background of the downtown high rises. It's definitely unique. It's located at Harmon Circle near the entrance to Vdara.

There are lots more pieces to find and discover, but you really have to come here and find them for yourself. Not every piece of artwork is at the City Center or a part of the City Center Collection. Take the gorgeous Chihuly flowers on the ceiling at the entrance to the Bellagio by glass sculpture artist Dale Chihuly. How extraordinary!

Then there's the big Dogs grouping by Mark Chatterly at the Cosmopolitan which occupies a very large open hallway. It pleasantly sneaks up on you when you're not expecting it.

At one of the entrances to Paris, we spotted “Aftermath”, a bronze sculpture of a sweeper doing his part to clean up at the end of a day. The sculptor, J. Seward Johnson, is known for his trompe l'oeil work (fool the eye) which appears very lifelike. We've seen some of his work previously in Sydney, as a matter of fact.

I guess my point is, there's so much fine art in Las Vegas that we tend to overlook it. There are not always signs to let you know what you're seeing. It takes some time to research the artist and the piece perhaps, but I find it worth the effort. Next time you're here, make it a point to seek out all the hidden art in plain sight.