Alternate locations for a US Sin City?

The two OTL examples are Las Vegas and Atlantic City, both are close geographically to southern California and the Northeast (Las Vegas was often described as LA's biggest suburb). So you need to keep in mind the simple geography.
 
My bet would be on the Free State of Galveston

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Would that be with or without the 1900 Hurricane?

The article states the 'roaring twenties', so a dozen years after the city basically rebuilt itself from scratch after the 1900 hurricane. Back to @ejpsan 's analysis of Las Vegas, this would take care of the first point: Galveston would still be a city with room to build an infrastructure tailored to gambling. It has a motorway and a rail line connecting it to Houston and an airport that up to WWII was first-rate.

For it's disadvantages:
First off, it's an island. So building space is limited.
Second. It is at the mouth of the Houston Ship Chanel- before Houston it even was the main harbour of the region. Even without actual port business loading and unloading boats, Galveston will still need pilots, shipping lane maintenance crews, radar operators... So there still will be a second industry competing with gambling and 'sin industry' will never get the same carte blanche it will get in Vegas.
Third: this is the 1920's. So even if gambling was legal in Texas, you still had nationwide prohibition to deal with.
Fourth: Sadly Houston is not LA and certainly not Hollywood. So Galveston will never get the celebrity attention Vegas got.
 
Havana was a gambling center for Americans before Castro.

Have you ever seen the end of Godfather III?

Perhaps Havana would have been even more of a gambling center if it weren’t for Las Vegas, and the US would have prevented Castro from taking over.
 
Actually, that makes me think of a different scenario that doesn't, technically, fulfill the OP's request: Honolulu as an alt-Las Vegas in a surviving Kingdom of Hawaii.
You can probably get that a half step closer by assuming that a surviving Kingdom of Hawaii would end up with a fairly close relationship to the US, IIRC even before the coup they had an agreement that granted the US access to and basing rights at Pearl Harbor in return for waivers on tariffs and duties on their exports. It might not be quite as close as the Compact of Free Association that the US has with several Pacific nations but I could see free trade and movement of people as being part of it, which greatly simplifies getting the tourists in.
 
You can probably get that a half step closer by assuming that a surviving Kingdom of Hawaii would end up with a fairly close relationship to the US, IIRC even before the coup they had an agreement that granted the US access to and basing rights at Pearl Harbor in return for waivers on tariffs and duties on their exports. It might not be quite as close as the Compact of Free Association that the US has with several Pacific nations but I could see free trade and movement of people as being part of it, which greatly simplifies getting the tourists in.
Yes, you are remembering correctly. The royals did make some moves towards Japan, but my assessment (based on my admittedly limited knowledge) is that these were more about trying (obviously unsuccessfully) to balance out American influence than a serious attempt at alliance. Although who knows exactly what would have happened later. Certainly nowadays there are a lot of Japanese tourists here, so there’s a reasonable possibility that the Kingdom will try to facilitate that as well as mainland tourism.
 
As we explore the alternatives to Las Vegas as Sin City it becomes even more apparent why what happened, happened.
The Flamingo Hotel opened up in 1946 and by that time all of our other alternatives are well established localities, the closest possible alternative is at this time is Atlantic City which considered itself as a family attraction place at this time.
It was only in the fifties when the decline started in that Atlantic City wanted legalized gambling.
Another problem with Atlantic City is that it is really too close to the New York City and Philadelphia metro areas so that people can spend a couple of hours gambling there and be back home to go to their own bed, while Las Vegas is close enough to Southern California to drive there but too far to drive back in the same day.
 
Certainly nowadays there are a lot of Japanese tourists here...
Didn't the joke back in the 1980s during the economic boom years use to be that they'd tried invasion and now decided to simply buy they islands? You'd be in a better position to know about how the end of the boom affected the islands.


... so there’s a reasonable possibility that the Kingdom will try to facilitate that as well as mainland tourism.
Oh absolutely, their location pretty much mandates it. That's one of its drawbacks compared to Las Vegas – it's much harder to run short gambling junkets from the eastern, or to a lesser extent even the western, US. That throws up the thought that it could change the character of the industry since if it costs more to get there then you might not see it move as much to the more commercialised family-friendly stance as Las Vegas did in our timeline but retain more of an adult high-class one. Alternatively the casinos might just have to subsidise more flights to pack people in, could go either way.
 
Didn't the joke back in the 1980s during the economic boom years use to be that they'd tried invasion and now decided to simply buy they islands? You'd be in a better position to know about how the end of the boom affected the islands.
Well, not really--I was only a few years old when the bubble burst and also several thousand miles away on the mainland. All I can say is that today Japanese seem to be the most common tourist population other than mainlanders, and are clearly catered to more than any other foreign group aside from those from other English-speaking nations (for obvious reasons).

Oh absolutely, their location pretty much mandates it. That's one of its drawbacks compared to Las Vegas – it's much harder to run short gambling junkets from the eastern, or to a lesser extent even the western, US. That throws up the thought that it could change the character of the industry since if it costs more to get there then you might not see it move as much to the more commercialised family-friendly stance as Las Vegas did in our timeline but retain more of an adult high-class one. Alternatively the casinos might just have to subsidise more flights to pack people in, could go either way.
On the other hand, Hawai'i IOTL has a pretty "family-friendly" stance despite those drawbacks...I think the attraction of the beaches, weather, and terrain will help pull it away from being purely an "adult playground". Casinos (much less other vice) would be more of a "value add"--surf during the day, gamble at night!--than the primary attraction.
 
Like I said above, the best candidate for alt-Las Vegas is Reno. Serviced by railroads to points east as well as San Francisco, already considered somewhat morally suspect by outsiders (at least until CA legalizes no-fault in the 1960s, by which time intertia might keep it a Sin City), and already has a bustling hospitality industry. Heck, they already have legal gambling. Sure, it was segregated, but so was Las Vegas.

Another alternative might be Key West, Florida, to a limited extent. Close enough to Miami once the land boom comes in, a history of being somewhat of a frontier community, and close enough to Cuba that until Castro anyone that gets in trouble with Tallahassee can simply lay low in Havana for awhile.
 
Like I said above, the best candidate for alt-Las Vegas is Reno. Serviced by railroads to points east as well as San Francisco, already considered somewhat morally suspect by outsiders (at least until CA legalizes no-fault in the 1960s, by which time intertia might keep it a Sin City), and already has a bustling hospitality industry. Heck, they already have legal gambling. Sure, it was segregated, but so was Las Vegas.

Another alternative might be Key West, Florida, to a limited extent. Close enough to Miami once the land boom comes in, a history of being somewhat of a frontier community, and close enough to Cuba that until Castro anyone that gets in trouble with Tallahassee can simply lay low in Havana for awhile.
Reno does not really change much tho neither would Tahoo
 
I'd say New Orleans for two reasons. It is in a fairly central (in the east/west direction) and easy to get to location. It is both a port city and it's on the Mississippi River. Also that House of the Rising Sun song fits quite well.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Salt Lake City, in a universe where the Mormons made it to California or Oregon?


Salt Lake City in a TL-191 like scenario with a military commander who really hates the Mormons and legalizes as much vices as he can get away with.


Or:

- Boulder City, but that's really only Las Vegas a little further south.


- An Indian tribe builds such a city, reservations can ( and do) legalize gambling after all.

- a border town in Mexico
 
One of the things that make Las Vegas Las Vegas is how close the casinos are to each other on the Strip and Fremont Street and how people can go from one casino to another and if you want another location to be Sin City you may need to clear out space and designate it a casino district and have casinos be in walking distance to each other.
From what I have seen in other cities that have casinos, the casinos are spread out from each other with the exception of Atlantic City.
 
New Orleans would have a head start. As a port city it has a long history of providing whatever entertainment the ship crews wanted. You then add in rich planters and merchants traveling to New Orleans on business and then fun without the people back home knowing what they were doing. It is part of the culture of New Orleans.

AS a PoD, New Orleans, Storyville Red light district is not closed down during WW I. That gives a basis for 'Sin City" just build on that.. Sex, Gambling, Blues , and Jazz.. It was all there in Storyville!
 
Doesn't Honolulu have a long tradition for strict vice control? They don't even participate in the PowerBall lottery.

Now they do. Prior to and During WW II and a few years later, the Brothels of Hotel St. were well organized and approved of by thMilitary, and the bribe happy Honolulu police!
 
Well, not really--I was only a few years old when the bubble burst and also several thousand miles away on the mainland.
Ah right, don't know why but for some reason I was under the impression that you were a native – well not native native, but you know what I mean – Hawaiian.
 
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