Where else could organized crime build a Vegas?

Delaware, the state that is supposedly a tax haven and 'corrupt'?

Weird idea - the island and territory of the USA who is not set to be a state anytime soon, Porto Rico?
 
States that have places like Miami Beach are conservative?

Common saying about Florida: the further north you go, the further South it gets. It doesn't help that the state capital is much closer to the Redneck Riviera than the Magic City.

To make Miami into the Vegas of the South, perhaps the mafia could get involved with the Seminole tribe and build some casinos on their land. Then, by the time South FL becomes the port-of-call for drug traffickers in the '70s, gambling won't seem as unappealing to the politicians (locally, at least) as before.

This scenario still verges pretty far into implausible territory. Even so, Miami was already a significant city in the decades before the drug cartels were trafficking their material through it en masse.
 
Isn't Macau technically the gambling capital of the world nowadays? :p Their revenues were five times more than Las Vegas last year. Lately their total revenue has been about 2-3 billion per month.

Back to the question, maybe somewhere in Mexico?

Yup, Macau is no 1, Singapore is no 2, overtaking Vegas. Quite an achievement seeing as we only have 2 casinos.
 
Beaver Island in Lake Michgan, close to big population centres, Detroit, Chicago and Toronto. The place was a mormon strong hold in the 19th century, then went very outlaw for a period around the turn of the century before being incorporated into a neighbouring county. Maybe it stays a separate county until the 20's when bootlegging booze from Canada brings it to the attention of the Chicago mob who start building casinos there. The big problem would be the weather not as warm as Vegas in Winter.
 
Isn't Macau technically the gambling capital of the world nowadays? :p Their revenues were five times more than Las Vegas last year. Lately their total revenue has been about 2-3 billion per month.

Back to the question, maybe somewhere in Mexico?

Macau had gambling before Vegas did, so it doesn't count. When I'm talking about another Las Vegas, I'm also talking about the same time frame.
 
Maybe Havana after a failed Cuban Revolution, maybe Panama, back when Noriega ruled it. Or maybe some spot in Africa, similar to Linkwerk's TL about Katanga.
 
Chinese really like to gamble.

With regard to the OP, how about Hong Kong?

I doubt the rather modest British would have permitted the jewel in their crown to become a seedy Las Vegas.

Here's another one: because casinos are illegal in mainland China, in many of China's neighboring countries there are casino resorts. In northern Laos, a Las Vegas-like resort is already under construction. Casinos have become an important revenue source for any Burmese anti-government militia who control a border with China. There are casino projects under development in the Russian Far East. North Korea has even established special zones for casinos for gamblers from you-know-where.

Every one of these projects are funded through organized crime, corrupt and oppressive dictators, and other shady characters.
 
I so want to see this happen somehow. :D
You know, I am actually serious on this.. supposedly, Delaware since a good time, deliberatly passed laws amongst the most pro-(this form of) business of the USA, and have an intense lobbying which made it according to an anti-Tax heavens organisation one of the big players on the world...

Apparently, Tax heavens are not always eitheir small european states or sunny islands or such, there is somes in *USA* by example, and not far from london...

So, I can see it easily that maybe a second Vegas at least could have happened there, maybe...


To add to Flocculencio's comments, why not the 'infernal city' (Souten no Ken), Shangai?
 
I doubt the rather modest British would have permitted the jewel in their crown to become a seedy Las Vegas
.

You do realise you're talking about Hong Kong, one of the seediest ports in Asia? Hong Kong has a massive underworld, was full of money laundering, prostitution, human and drugs trafficking and illegal gambling. Basically everything that Shanghai was in the 1930s, Hong Kong became in the 50s and 60s.
 
Chinese really like to gamble.

With regard to the OP, how about Hong Kong?

How far back are we talking? Post-WWII isn't gonna do the trick, since there weren't that wealthy people around to gamble. And AIUI in the 60s the local economy's doing well enough to convince the British that isn't necessary. Also, the Brits don't need more gangsters that might be infiltrated by both KMT and CCP in the city.

Marc A
 
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