5 Little Known Facts About Las Vegas

The Largest Win in Las Vegas

It is every gamblers dream to go to Las Vegas and win big. There are many casino games for visitors to try out, including high stakes poker, blackjack tables and some exclusive rooms that may offer games such as baccarat and roulette with very high buy-ins. While a lot of money can be won from any of these games, the biggest jackpot winners have won their money on the slot machines. It should not really come as a surprise, as there is one slot machine for every 8 people in Vegas and in a city of over 640,000, that is quite substantial.

On March 21, 2003, a 25 year old software engineer was on a trip in Las Vegas and decided to play on the slot machines at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. The player tried the progressive jackpot on the Megabucks machine. The progressive slots are where the jackpots are constantly increasing, as each time any player puts money into one of the machines, a small portion is added to the pot. The software engineer was not playing timidly, betting with $100 stakes, when suddenly the player hit the jackpot. The player won a jackpot of $39.7 million, setting the record for the biggest win in Las Vegas, a record that has yet to be beaten.

The Welcome To Las Vegas Sign

When tourists enter Las Vegas, one of the first things they see is an iconic "Welcome To Las Vegas'' sign. The flashy sign that lights up spectacularly at night was erected in 1959, and it definitely looks like a relic from that era. It is a lesser known fact that the round circular discs on which the letters for the "Welcome" part of the sign are actually enlarged silver dollars. This was to represent the wealth of the city and also to pay homage to its name as the Silver City. Betty Willis was one of the only female commercial artists in a time when all visual artists and graphic designers were men. Her most famous piece of work is the Las Vegas sign, but she also designed signs for motels including the Moulin Rouge Hotel in Las Vegas, and the Blue Angel Motel, Blue Heaven Bar and the Del Mar Hotel. Her designs are made in modernist and Googie architectural styles, which was a hugely popular style in the middle of the last century. These designs were the precursors to the postmodern era, using huge geometric shapes that were inspired by the idea of space ships, flying cars and jets all before the age of space travel.

The Las Vegas sign now is quite dated and has become more of an iconic landmark, reminding people that the Silver City has been a gambling resort since the 1940s.

The Las Vegas Strip Is Not In Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Strip is where the most famous resort hotels and casinos lie, though it is not actually in Las Vegas. The Strip extends through two zones, Paradise and Winchester, which are located in Clark Country, which is just outside the boundaries of the city of Las Vegas. The 6.8 km long boulevard starts on Sahara Avenue, which is located in the southernmost part of the city, though most of the Strip is outside the boundaries. Despite the geographical location, the Vegas Strip is still considered part of Las Vegas.

Starting from the segment of the Strip that starts outside the city of Las Vegas, visitors will be welcomed with the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas'' sign. As they pass through Russell Road, they will see Mandalay Bay, Luxor Las Vegas, the Excalibur Hotel and Casino, the Tropicana as well as the Pinball Hall of Fame and the Little Church of the West, a wedding chapel that is the oldest building on the Strip. After drivers pass Tropicana Avenue, they will see iconic landmarks such as MGM Grand, Marriott's Grand Chateau as well as the Showcase Mall and the T-Mobile Arena. Further down, past Harmon Avenue, there is Bellagio, the Cosmopolitan, Planet Hollywood, Paris and Bally's. The segment of the Strip past Flamingo road has some of the most iconic landmarks, including Caesars Palace, the Palazzo, Treasure Island hotel and casino, the Venetian and Flamingo hotel and casino. The final two junctions, at Sands Avenue and Desert Inn Road have equally large attractions such as the Trump casino, Wynn and Encore, the Hilton Grand Vacations, Resorts World and Circus Circus amongst many more. The Strip ends with a final segment that is in the boundaries of the Silver City, after the junction at Sahara Avenue. This last segment of the Strip contains casinos such as the Strat, Aztec Inn and a number of smaller casinos and hotels.

The FedEx Miracle

FedEx is one of the most popular US courier companies, though if certain events transpired differently there would have been a good chance that no one would have ever heard of FedEx. In 1973, FedEx had been running for three years and nearly went under administration because of the costs of fuel. The company was losing more than $1 million each month and they could not secure any financial aid or find any funds through investment. The situation became truly dire when FedEx founder and CEO Frederick Smith only had $5,000 left in the company funds. After a hugely important business loan was denied, Smith, who was only 29 years old at the time, took all of the remaining company funds and went to Las Vegas. He went around the city, playing blackjack in various casinos. The company had until the following Monday to pay their debts off, or they would face liquidation.

Smith returned to the company headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee on Monday with $32,000. He had won $27,000 from playing blackjack in Las Vegas and could keep his company.

The winnings could only keep FedEx operating for one more week, but this was crucial. Days after the trip to Las Vegas, Smith found investors who would support FedEx with an $11 million investment, and by 1976 FedEx was making multi-million dollar profits.

The Famous Black Book

One favourite legend that went around was that there was a black book in Las Vegas that listed the names of all of the people who were banned from casinos across Las Vegas. Movie buffs may remember the scene in the 1995 classic film Casino, where Sam Rothstein, played by Robert De Niro, finds out his partner Nicky Santoro, played by Joe Pesci, has been written into the black book. This instantly prohibited him from entering casinos and was when he started hiring goons to go in and intimidate the high rolling guests, starting the beginning of the end for both characters.

What may surprise fans of the film and casino goers is that the black book does exist. Only the book is not black, it is silver. Any individual whose name is in the book is banned from all of the gambling venues in Las Vegas and Nevada. The book is accessible to all of the casinos across the state, meaning that there is no way for individuals who are banned from one casino to try and enter another one.

The book is not very long, in fact it is only 36 pages long, but it does contain the names of some of the most dangerous and notorious gangsters and members of criminal organisations. Criminals such as Marshall Caifano, Francis Citro, Wilford Pulawa and many more have been banned for crimes such as grand larceny, extortion, illegal bookmaking, loansharking and slot cheating, not to mention those members who were banned for being affiliated with gangs or the mafia. There are also excluded individuals such as Michael Dibari and accomplice Alphonse Cuozzo, former casino employees who were banned for skimming proceeds from slot machines.