24 Things You Must Understand About Las Vegas and the Nearby Strip

What happens in Vegas ... well, you understand the rest. However here are 24 facts about Sin City you likely have not heard.

1. Most of Vegas' renowned hotels aren't technically situated in the city of Las Vegas. A good portion of the Las Vegas Strip-- and the famous "Invite to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign-- are really situated in an unincorporated township called Paradise, Nevada.

2. One attraction that is within Las Vegas city limits: Vegas Vic, the large neon cowboy that commands downtown's renowned Fremont Street. It's the largest mechanical neon check in the world.

3. More than 41 million visitors cycle through Sin City each year ...

4. ... So it's an advantage the town boasts 14 of the world's 20 biggest hotels.

5. There's so much real estate for travelers to make the most of, it would take a person 288 years to spend a night in every hotel room in the city.

6. There's a secret city beneath the city. Miles of tunnels-- initially constructed to protect the desert town from flash floods-- house hundreds of homeless citizens.

7. The strip's Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Gambling establishment got its name from creator-- and legendary mobster-- Bugsy Siegel's girlfriend. Actress Virginia Hill passed the label "The Flamingo" due to the fact that of her red hair and long, thin legs.

In the mid-20th century, Las Vegas possessed its own set of discriminatory Jim Crow laws, which-- with the exception of low-wage service jobs-- kept African Americans out of the growing city's hotels and gambling establishments. In 1952, acting legend Sammy Davis Jr. took a dip in the whites-only swimming pool at the New Frontier Hotel & Gambling Establishment.

9. In May 1955, the Moulin Rouge made history when it ended up being the city's first interracial casino. Legendary boxer Joe Louis, a part owner, stated, "This isn't the opening of a Las Vegas hotel. It's history."

10. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Las Vegas was known for putting on a different kind of program. At the Nevada Test Website, simply 65 miles northwest of the city, the U.S. Department of Energy would test nuclear devices. Las Vegas' Chamber of Commerce saw a moneymaking opportunity, and chose to disperse calendars marketing detonation times and option watching areas.

Famous recluse Howard Hughes examined into the strip's Desert Inn on Thanksgiving Day 1966, leasing the whole leading two floors. When he overstayed his 10-day reservation, he was asked to leave.

12. FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith conserved the shipment business with a journey to Vegas. In 1974-- 3 years after he developed the business-- the Yale graduate took the endeavor's last $5,000 and turned it into $32,000 with a weekend of blackjack. His, er, gamble offered the business enough loan to survive.

13. Do not disrupt: Vegas has more unlisted telephone number than other city in the United States.

14. Factor to hope? Nevada law mentions that video fruit machine must pay back a minimum of 75 percent of the money deposited usually. (Though it deserves keeping in mind that in New Jersey, house to betting capital Atlantic City, it's 83 percent.).

15. It takes approximately 10 minutes to catch a marital relationship license at the bureau in downtown Las Vegas, which is open every day from 8 a.m. till midnight. No surprise some 10,000 couples this page wed in the city every month.

16. Let them consume ... shrimp mixed drinks? More than 60,000 pounds of the shellfish are consumed in the city every day. That's greater than the remainder of the nation-- integrated.

17. The half-scale design of the Eiffel Tower, situated outside Paris Las Vegas, was initially prepared to be full-size, however due to the close distance of the airport-- simply 3 miles-- it had actually to be diminished down. On the other hand, the Luxor Las Vegas' Sphinx is in fact bigger than the initial Terrific Sphinx of Giza.

18. At 50 lots, the bronze lion outside the MGM Grand Hotel is thought to be the biggest bronze sculpture in the western hemisphere.

19. The unique gold color of the windows at the Mirage Hotel originates from actual gold dust.

20. There are 3933 guest rooms at Bellagio Las Vegas-- more than the number of locals in the city of Bellagio, Italy.

21. Not into casinos? The city also features a heavy equipment playground where construction enthusiasts can drive around bulldozers for enjoyable.

22. Prior to his death in 2009, Michael Jackson was checking out doing a Vegas residency. He planned to promote it with a 50-foot robot-likeness of himself that would wander the Nevada desert.

At Vegas diner Heart Attack Grill, waitresses dress in nurses garb and clients can buy an 8000-calorie quadruple bypass hamburger with a side of flatliner french fries. In 2013, one of the area's regular patrons passed away ... from an apparent heart attack.

24. From deep space, the Las Vegas Strip looks like the brightest spot on Earth. Who cares if it's not in fact in Las Vegas?


Many of Vegas' renowned hotels aren't technically situated in the city of Las Vegas. A great portion of the Las Vegas Strip-- and the well known "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign-- are actually located in an unincorporated township called Paradise, Nevada.

One destination that is within Las Vegas city limitations: Vegas Vic, the extra-large neon cowboy that administers over downtown's well known Fremont Street. The strip's Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Gambling establishment got its name from creator-- and legendary mobster-- Bugsy Siegel's girlfriend. In the mid-20th century, Las Vegas possessed its own set of inequitable Jim Crow laws, which-- with the exception of low-wage service tasks-- kept African Americans out of the growing city's hotels and gambling establishments.

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