Other big annual gay events include the Matinee Las Vegas Festival with 8 parties and 20 DJs over a four-day Memorial Day Weekend. The Night Parade in downtown is a glamorous, glittering spectacle that is a tribute to the kitsch city. The gay scene in Las Vegas is growing stronger every year and the annual pride a celebration offers a host of parties and pageants. In the popular imagination this city always held the allure of larger than life, forbidden, unrestricted and risqué experience, with just sufficient hints of danger, attracting millions from more conventional hometowns to this “magic kingdom” for adults. Unfortunately poor Bugsy was caught skimming off construction funds and, unable to pay them back, was unceremoniously whacked and the precedent was set Las Vegas is still definitely not for lightweights. The city’s first casino, the Flamingo Hilton, was first opened in 1946 by Mafia don Ben ‘Bugsy’ Siegel with mobster funds.
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Marriage and divorce laws were also relaxed, creating the basis for the “Sin City” allure.
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Las Vegas’ fortunes began to change with the legalisation of the Nevada State gambling laws in 1931, which set the ball rolling for the development of what would become the cities Las Vegas Boulevard. A walk down the strip takes in the skylines of New York and Paris, the Pyramids of Egypt and the canals of Venice complete with gondola rides. Located in the middle of the Mojave Desert, Vegas has been catapulted in just 70 years from a rural backwater of only 1,000 inhabitants, to a lavish resort that attracts 35million thrill seekers and high-rollers lured by the bright lights of the famous ‘Strip’. Tourists flock here in droves every month lured by the glitzy casinos and glamour of this psychedelic city of sinister delights and outrageous entertainment. Las Vegas was built for pleasure plain and simple.