Las Vegas: Then and Now

Ended

It's the town of fortunes lost and won. Millions go there to try their luck, but most people don't realize it was once just a dusty crossroads in the trackless desert -- a way station for GIs headed to California embarkation areas. But Las Vegas became a glittering adult playground after some visionaries (including mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel) discovered how to turn the city into a virtual gold mine.