The first to be mentioned is Howard Hughes, a man who not only invested money in the Vegas gambling business, but also cleared it of the mafia.
An extravagant billionaire who by that time had tried out a variety of businesses: from the Hollywood film industry to the production of aircraft and air transportation, a former pilot who set several world records, began to show signs of mental instability by the mid-1960s, chaotically traveling around the country. Once in Las Vegas, he settled into a hotel, taking up an entire floor. When he was asked to move over, he simply bought the hotel for $13 million. That was the moment it all began. Starting with the hotel, Hughes bought up several casinos, land plots, media outlets, and transportation facilities in Vegas. The billionaire moved the bulk of his business empire to Nevada, where he spent most of his time. He set himself the task of “cleaning up” the image of Las Vegas, a city of sin with its Wild West morals, and ridding the gambling industry of regular accusations of ties to the mafia. Using his connections with the state leadership, Hughes ousted the mafiosi from the casinos, giving them the respectability of his name. Ill-wishers, however, hinted that Hughes was drawn to Las Vegas not by philanthropic considerations, but by the desire to enter the industry, which at that time was weakly controlled by the government. And the entrepreneur always had an obsession with minimizing taxes.
However, Howard Hughes’s Las Vegas period ended as suddenly as it began. In 1970, his psyche finally faltered, he left Nevada in an unknown direction, even his family members and close assistants did not know where he was. Mental problems were aggravated by the abuse of strong drugs. Hughes devoted the last years of his life, until his death in 1976, to desperately spending the money he earned, which he spent on all sorts of trifles and whims. His example served as further proof that money, even a lot of it, does not bring happiness.