A different Las Vegas

Instead of Las Vegas, what other US cities could have become centers for gambling and entertainment?
 
Only if they are smart enuff to prevent Casinos from operating Restaurants, or Hotels.

Could you explain this? I thought Atlantic City was known for gambling. And Las Vegas allows restaurants and hotels and gets by quite fine.

But, I would say that Atlantic City (and Galveston) has a disadvantage of existing in an area where gambling has to compete with numerous other industries and population centers for state support. This is probably true of a lot of other states as well. While they may be able to keep gambling legal there, it won't draw as much tourism as Las Vegas.

I'm almost thinking there's something about the culture of Nevada ("wild west" permissiveness), plus its low population density, that make it a prime spot for this sort of thing.

Other cities in Nevada would work, so you could easily have Reno-Sparks be the big center while Las Vegas is a smaller city in the south where you can "also" gamble, but whose primary industry is the military. Of course, with the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead (if Hoover Dam gets built) so close, it's going to end up being a popular tourist mecca anyway, and the casinos are almost bound to follow that as long as Nevada allows gambling.

In a world without Mormon settlement in Utah, I could easily see a similar culture to Nevada's growing up in the Salt Lake Valley, also along the trail to the California gold rush. Although SLV has a lot more potential farmland than Las Vegas valley.

How about Phoenix?

Would a city be able to support this sort of industry if the tourism drops substantially for half of the year: Then maybe Juneau or Anchorage. Or, maybe some place in North Dakota or Wyoming?
 
Las Vegas was made because it is a city close to the California border that intersects two major highways. It is warm year-round and has a good supply of water and electricity. Therefore if the California doesn't allow something, Nevada just needs to alter it's laws a bit in order to attract its people.

If Nevada had more conservative laws, then Arizona may try to attract tourism with legalized gambling. However, there is nothing as perfect as Las Vegas for a travel hub. Flagstaff and Phoenix are both great travel hubs but are too far from California. Kingsman is close to California and has two major roads cutting through it. However, it is on a high elevation and gets too cold in the winter.

My guess for a new Vegas would be some place like Franconia Arizona. Its a tiny town in the Mohave Desert near California. It is on I-40 so it would be easy for people from LA or San Diego to get there. Elevation is around 1000 feet so it won't get cold and the Colorado river is nearby for fresh water. Right now it is nothing (no offense Franconians) but dump a few billion from gambling there and you've got a nice little town there.
 
I really like the idea of a constantly moving boat being the only place to legally gamble in the US. That would be so cool!
 
Las Vegas was made because it is a city close to the California border that intersects two major highways. It is warm year-round and has a good supply of water and electricity. Therefore if the California doesn't allow something, Nevada just needs to alter it's laws a bit in order to attract its people.

If Nevada had more conservative laws, then Arizona may try to attract tourism with legalized gambling. However, there is nothing as perfect as Las Vegas for a travel hub. Flagstaff and Phoenix are both great travel hubs but are too far from California. Kingsman is close to California and has two major roads cutting through it. However, it is on a high elevation and gets too cold in the winter.

My guess for a new Vegas would be some place like Franconia Arizona. Its a tiny town in the Mohave Desert near California. It is on I-40 so it would be easy for people from LA or San Diego to get there. Elevation is around 1000 feet so it won't get cold and the Colorado river is nearby for fresh water. Right now it is nothing (no offense Franconians) but dump a few billion from gambling there and you've got a nice little town there.
So Lake Havasu, Arizona.
 
So Lake Havasu, Arizona.

I find two problems with Lake Havasu:

1. Its not on a major road heading towards big Californian cities.

A big gambling city needs one of the first cities you see when driving into a state where gambling is legal. To get to Lake Havasu you need to turn off I-40. If a tourist heading there sees some casinos before getting there he may think "Hey, why don't I just gamble here?" This is why the most expensive items at a grocery store are at eye level. People go for the first thing they see.

2. There's stuff to do other than gamble.

Casino owners don't want people having fun in the water. They want them gambling. As a result, they would be hesitant to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into casinos if people aren't going to blindly drop cash into the colorful boxes. If gambling was legal in Arizona there would be casinos near Lake Havasu but the big casinos would be elsewhere.
 
Branson, Missouri, or just perhaps Santa Fe/Albuquerque New Mexico, although distance and terrain might constitute an obstacle?
Gambling trains would be an interesting variation.
 
Only if they are smart enuff to prevent Casinos from operating Restaurants, or Hotels.
Could you explain this? I thought Atlantic City was known for gambling. And Las Vegas allows restaurants and hotels and gets by quite fine.
When the Casino people where pushing for allowing Gambling in Atlantic City, The talk was about how all the new Tourists would rejuvenate the Hotel and Restaurant Businesses in town.
Two Years after the first Casino opened, the bankruptcy among Hotels & Restaurants in the City reached a new High.

The Casino People opened High Tech Self Contained Boxes, And all the Tourists entered and didn't leave till the Visit was over.
Even some of the Beach/Boardwalk Tourists got sucked into the Casinos, leading to the Bankruptcy of the non Casino Business.

There is a large segment of Atlantic City that believe the Casinos were the worst decision the City ever made.

Las Vegas OTOH grew up around the Casinos. Despite Attempts to diversify, the Casinos are the Main Industry in Town.
 
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