Las Vegas is a city that sprang out the
desert thanks to millions of people
flocking to the siren song of Lady Luck
ever since the early 30s the city's
unique selling point has been legal
gambling and today the City of Vice
still offers people like me a vacation
experience unmatched anywhere in the
world fast money fast women fast
weddings free drinks but of course there
is life beyond the casinos there's an
urban sprawl which is undergoing changes
that are shaping the city's future I've
come here
offseason it's freezing to try to escape
the hordes of tourists and focus on
local life Charleston Boulevard also
known as State Route 159 is a 31 mile
highway running east to west through
Southern Nevada and in this episode of
streets by Vice it will serve as the
conduit for a colorful history lesson in
the city of cinn
Charleston Boulevard you splay off of it
kind of shows you how Las Vegas is in a
way the beginning and end of Charleston
Boulevard is all of our history the
first people to settle this area were
Native American if you're going to talk
about euro American settlers really the
first ones were Mormons from Salt Lake
City who came here in 1855 and built a
mission
the Mormon population here is well into
the six figures Las Vegas ended up with
a temple there in Frenchmen mountains
if you drive all the way up Charleston
Boulevard from west to east the
landscape completely changes as you get
to the end it becomes more residential
it's quieter and you start to notice
these like white Peaks dotted around the
landscape which are actually Mormon
churches and then you get up here right
to the top where there's these amazing
mountains and you're confronted with
this great big structure which is
basically the mack daddy of Mormon
churches it's a temple everybody who
knows Las Vegas history including the
casino and hotel owners knows that the
Mormon people were part of the community
it's responsible for the explosion of
Las Vegas as a true city years ago
Perry Thomas the banker came here with
fellow Mormon bankers and played a
crucial role in the development of the
area lending money to casinos you could
not get a bank loan if you were in the
casino business and it was because
elsewhere had been illegal and it was
known in many cases to be connected to
the mob the irony is the Mormon Church
opposes gambling and Perry Thomas once
was asked how can you lend money to
gangsters and his answers essentially
went like this if you treat a person
right he'll treat you right and their
bank was amazingly successful if you had
to imagine that the Mormons had never
had a place in Vegas and had never been
there in the beginning how do you think
Vegas would be different today Las Vegas
would be probably a truck stop there are
Mormons who say there wouldn't be a Las
Vegas without them there are mobsters or
people connected to the mob from the old
days who say there wouldn't be a Las
Vegas without them and the answer is yes
the unlikely alliance of the mobsters
and the Mormons laid the foundations for
Sin City as we know it you can't talk
about the history of Vegas without
talking about the mob and when people
talk about the mob here they're usually
referring to the infamous Chicago Outfit
who were immortalized in Scorsese's
casino the Chicago Outfit is an
italian-american crime syndicate based
in Chicago Illinois that moved out to
Las Vegas in the 30s to take control of
the casinos it was their shady dealings
and criminal activity which laid the
groundwork for the city as we know it to
grow there's not too many of those guys
left standing but of those who are is a
gentleman named Tony Montana yeah that's
his real name Tony Montana spent the
early 70s working for notorious Las
Vegas gangster Anthony Spilotro who was
played by Joe Pesci in casino
Tony served as Palacios main driver as
well as managing his money laundering
sites throughout the city
Tony picked me up on the strip for a
drive down Charleston Boulevard tell me
about Tony was he anything like Joe
Pesci job Pesci touched on it but he
didn't get into it he killed almost 40
people that's I went to jail before they
got him they got me before he got him
the FBI came to me do you know where
Tony's Palazzo as I said I sure don't
cuz we don't know where he's that we
either think he got out of the country
or he's dead I said I hope you got out
of the country that's what I told that a
couple days later was all over TV the
reputed leader of Las Vegas operations
for the Chicago mob was found in a
cornfield with his brother well one day
he told me just before he got killed
Tony if you know if you're with me and I
get whacked you're gonna get away so I
hesitated for a few seconds and I looked
at him I said Tony is this a good time
there's for a race the question is
you're making big money so what do you
do when you make big money you try to
save it yeah because you know there's
gonna come a days your hair turns gray
type change overnight they drop me off
at the long-standing Golden Gate casino
so I could try my luck on the slot
machines let's not forget that Vegas is
known as the gambling mecca of the world
with over 250 casinos to choose from in
2015 the strip alone raked in over six
billion dollars in gaming revenue which
is not surprising when the odds of
hitting the jackpot on a stand a machine
is just one in two hundred and sixty two
thousand gambling prostitution the
things that Las Vegas is famous for they
do have an effect on those of us who
live here though the city prospers from
legal gambling the lure of the casinos
can prove difficult for locals dealing
with gambling addiction antony mcdu
describes himself as a recovering
gambling addict
his is an all-too-familiar story that
affects about 6% of residents in a town
that can make or break you as a way to
try to understand his addiction Tony
picked up a camera and began filming
himself playing the slots and posted the
videos online his story spread to many
news outlets
yet he still finds himself here in Vegas
renting a room by the week in the shadow
of the strip when did you realize that
the gambling was actually a problem you
know when you start using Bill money to
gamble that's when you know it's a
problem I lost my house I lost my cars
and I decided that my story was
important i play the slot machines it's
something in the psyche where you think
okay you're gonna win you're gonna win
you're gonna get hit it bake one time
you're gonna hit it big it's like a trap
but I'll say oh come here we got our
we're gonna give you some free slippers
today the freebies and the billboards
when you drive by and you say oh wow win
$10,000 or 100,000 the way the casino
system is set up when you walk in
there's no clocks there's no way of
looking at time time goes by I've been
in there for five hours have you ever
thought that maybe if gambling didn't
exist if it was illegal for example if
it was illegal yeah I wouldn't have
anything to do with it and I think my
life would have been way different it
said that the Las Vegas tourist industry
was founded on two key ingredients
gambling obviously and prostitution
Nevada state law permits counties with a
population below 700,000 to offer
brothel prostitution
there are currently 19 legal brothels
here if he stay on Charleston Boulevard
long enough and you drive all the way
out of town into the desert at some
point across the county line then the
law changes which means that you can
we paid to have sex with somebody so
that's where all the brothels come in we
took a detour to the far west end of
Charleston Boulevard where you can find
friendly establishments such as the
alien cathouse
this particular brothel is alien-themed
and I'm gonna head inside and find out
what goes on once you stop for gas and I
mark out some time to get it in hey
how're you this is one of seven brothels
owned by businessman Dennis HOF it's
alien-themed to reflect its proximity to
area 51 but it's unclear whether the
girls here have actually ever knowingly
serviced any extraterrestrials you look
great
thank you so I've dressed okay I'll show
you my room so yeah each one of us
ladies we get our own rooms we can stay
watch your stuff we could stay however
long we like so like a day or a week
well because this is a smaller house
were only licensed for five girls so
when you do come you have to commit to
at least two weeks this is so this is my
room and the cool tools and these are my
emia edible body pains oh my god
softer strength strap-ons more hardcore
restraints something for everyone yes
most of the gentlemen who come in are
very nervous at first once you can make
somebody smile a laugh you pretty much
cracked ice so it's kind of insane to me
that in spite of everything that's all
you still have to drive 100 miles into
the desert to pay for sex and now that
I'm done I have to do the hundred mile
walk of shame back to Vegas maybe the
biggest misconception of Las Vegas is
that there is a Las Vegas it isn't just
the strip it is adjust what the tourist
sees Las Vegas has to live with an image
is whether or not the image is still
true like any other City Las Vegas is
vulnerable to economic crisis when you
talk about the recession hitting Las
Vegas the strip suffered there's no
question about but if you want to see
the effects of the crash I think you go
through East Las Vegas during the
nationwide housing crash of 2008 Nevada
had the highest foreclosure rate in the
country over 67,000 properties faced
this fate
this is Main Street which is right off
Charleston Boulevard in downtown Las
Vegas I'm headed now to El Sombrero
a cafe just on the edge of the Hunt
Ridge neighborhood that has managed to
survive the recession it's been standing
for 64 years all right come on cheeky
thought let me put you to work a little
bit here yeah this is our wonderful
brisket that we use for our amazing
chriskate enchiladas I'm gonna get to
try some you are
grab some in what we do is you just
shred everything very very finely these
are all of the little details that make
Mexican food so delicious and
spectacular I know and then I always
have to cheat we're gonna give a little
bit to the chef's chef can you make some
beef brisket enchiladas and can you stop
torturing me can we eat yeah absolutely
let's give it interesting in the oldest
Mexican restaurant in Vegas history
actually Nevada history water melon
sangria that is wicked so what do you
think is gonna happen to save this
stretch of the street if you look
outside our windows you will see
construction cones and what is already
happening on the south of Charleston on
Main Street is a lot of entrepreneurs
are coming and putting very quaint very
charming little bars little coffee shops
restaurants boutiques the once barren
downtown area is also showing signs of
promising growth thanks to new
businesses outside of traditional Vegas
industries
Tony Hsieh the founder of online mega
retailer Zappos took a gamble investing
three hundred and fifty million dollars
into downtown Vegas moving his
headquarters into the former City Hall
building and revitalizing the
neighborhood with affordable housing and
offices for his 800 local employees
drawing in a new cash flow and 200
million visitors I've managed to
infiltrate the airstream compound of
Tony Shea and his colleagues Tony Shea
is concerned with building
infrastructure the locals as opposed to
the tourists
one of the favorite things I love about
Vegas is that there's the sense that
anything is possible we moved in an
entire company from San Francisco to
Vegas because we wanted to build the
Zappos brand to be about their very best
customer service and Vegas as a service
focused town it's 24/7 why did you
decide to embark on this regeneration of
downtown we wanted to build a permanent
campus for Zappos and really help build
a city that really cater to the
entrepreneurs and artists and creative
types it was more about helping amplify
that energy I think that's that whole
energy can be really contagious
Electric Daisy Carnival is an electronic
dance music festival that moved from Los
Angeles to Vegas in 2011 since then
Vegas has been firmly on the map for its
thriving EDM scene with DJs from around
the world flocking here
to try to land residency and some of the
biggest clubs in the United States
DJ JCO is no stranger to the Vegas EDM
scene and currently holds a residency at
the light Vegas at Mandalay Bay
just south of Charleston Boulevard I
would say that Vegas definitely you know
was one of the first cities to really
push the DJ as the rock star he could
kind of do anything you want and I love
that aspect because I like to DJ kind of
like off the cuff and kind of freestyle
my sets and read a room so it's like
playing electronic music is there
rewarding in that way
the Vegas crowd is here to turn up
essentially you know they're here to
blow money we're here to dress up
they're here to impress girls
they're here to party the fact that
there's so much money in Vegas the
casinos are willing to throw huge money
around to have these guys names and
bring them in week in and week out so
it's made Las Vegas such a hub for for
electronic music when you play Vegas you
kind of gotta gotta engage these people
and keep them in the club and keep them
spending money and buying bottles
because at the end that's what these
casinos and talent buyers want that's
why they're paying us all this money to
fly in and we can we gather because they
know that we're gonna keep a crowd in
there Las Vegas is a city powered by an
industry selling escapism to millions of
tourists each year but among the crowds
are the residents who are part of the
city's rich history Charleston Boulevard
is the conduit that connects the ex
the Las Vegas Strip with communities
that have both struggled and thrived
despite living in the shadow of Simpson
if these pockets of eccentricity and
innovation that are fueling new business
and helping to shape Las Vegas future