Before long the Mafia looked to Vegas, where Bugsy Siegel and his cronies were already established. It posed the perfect solution as to where the vast Mafia Empire could invest, launder, build and perhaps most importantly, have fun.

The Mafia has featured prominently in many movies and books regarding the casinos of Las Vegas, most notably the Godfather series. In the book, Moe Green’s character is based on Bugsy Siegel. The film, The Godfather Part II, delves into the politics behind the establishment of Las Vegas as we know it today; the involvement of Cuba and the backhanded antics of the Mafiosi.

In the Martin Scorsese film Casino, we are offered an insight into the actual running of a casino, and the manner in which money is skimmed off the profits in order to line the pockets of the Dons and their cohorts.

Nowadays the Mafia presence in Las Vegas casinos is limited and quite probably legitimate, if indeed it exists at all. It was in the 1960’s when Howard Hughes started buying up property all over town that Las Vegas started to become respectable once more, as the authorities made it increasingly difficult for the Mafia to operate. In the mid 1980’s operations had all but ceased.

Never before or since has the US Mafia, or any organized crime syndicate, been as influential as they were in 1950’s to 1970’s Las Vegas. It was a golden era for organized crime, but a tarnished era for the rest of the United States.