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The Flamingo: History and Times - The Birth of a Gambler's Paradise

The commercialization of betting lines and crap shoots, counting cards and staging fights - it was the beginning. The bright lights of America's playground, birth of legalized sins in emerging cities - it all got started at the nitty gritty Flamingo Hotel. Not a motel or the Holiday Inn. It was the first glittering operational Las Vegas casino, built off bloody mob money and run by Bugs - but not the bunny. Bugsy Siegel put lights in the desert and filled it with grown man games. He built a hotel while others were playing twister. He named it the Flamingo, his favorite mistress' nickname. Not the most discreet gangster of his time.

In order to understand the plan one needs to start with the man - Benjamin 'Bugs' Siegel. Hailing from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he started a law firm of sorts with Meyer Lansky, the mastermind. In the 20's they expanded their gang and called it Bug and Meyer Mob; they ran bootleg operations across the Tri-state. A decade later the gang morphed into Murder Inc. What's up Ashanti?

Back to the casino:
The hotel started off slow, with Bugs skimming most of the money off the top. It was more of a base for La familia - Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Vito Genovese. Del E. Webb, the construction tycoon in charge of building the hotel, started getting nervous with the influx of all these high profile gangsters. He ate some Wheaties and came to Siegel to complain. Bugs took it in stride and calmed Webb down with one of the most classic mafia lines - 'Don't worry - we only kill each other.' Bugs is timeless, right?

Indeed. The mob proceeded to invest 6 Million into the casino and, like any civilized investor, wanted some tangible return. But Siegel Siegel was pocketing most of the profit. He had his woman, Virginia Hill, moved money to Swizz bank accounts and bought diamond studded pinky rings - they just wanted to shine. She was a ride or die chic though, ounce by ounce and trick by trick. By the end of 1946, the mob was losing their money and your boy Bug-a-boo was making a fury of bad moves.

Solution:
Meyer Lansky called a meeting in Havana, Cuba where Lucky Luciano made an executive decision. It's murddda!
Fast forward 6 months to June of '47. The crime scene: $500,000 Beverly Hills mansion of Virginia 'Flamingo' Hill. 2 steel-jacketed slugs from an army carbine tore through the window and smashed Bugsy's face. Read that line over again. Then say grace. One crashed through the bridge of his nose and drove into eye, and the other through the back of his neck. And what the heck, now to throw salt in the wound, authorities later found his right eye 15 feet away on the floor of the dining room.

The Flamingo was Under New Management
Over the next year they reported 4 Million plus in earnings, plus all the money skimmed off the top. The mob began pouring millions into the money machine of Las Vegas - building casino after casino. Next time you - I advise you ask around for the Bugsy Siegel Brunch Special at the Bellagio. Let me know how that works out.

Vivaaa Las Vegas!