What is the economy of Las Vegas, a city in the middle of the desert where you can get fabulously rich or squander your entire fortune, based on, and to whom does it owe its fame
The American national character closely intertwines two almost opposite traits: Puritanism and a passion for money. More precisely, the Puritans consider wealth a reward from God, but for them, “honest” sources of income are fundamentally important. Accordingly, they have long fought decisively against the “filth” in the form of gambling – this devilish creation that allows you to get rich without making any effort, and, on the contrary, squander money earned by honest work in an instant.
In the history of the United States, periods of comparative moral licentiousness alternated with eras of piety and ostentatious moralism. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, another onslaught of Puritans began (no longer under purely religious slogans, but rather from the standpoint of protecting public morality). As a result, gambling in any form was banned throughout the United States. This, let us recall, was the era in which the famous prohibition was born. Casinos were associated with moral decline, the corruption of public morals, prostitution, and the corruption of conscientious Americans.
But the Great Depression, which broke out in 1929, brought the moralists back to reality. They had to look for additional sources of income – prohibition was repealed in 1933. There was another task: not only to replenish the budget, but also to cope with the rampant organized crime. Both the alcohol market and gambling came under the control of the mafia, which rose up by smuggling alcohol and maintaining underground gambling establishments. Thus, the moralists, without wanting to, contributed to crime.