Thomas Hawk / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Over the decades, Las Vegas has come to be known as Sin City; a city which proclaims to be a place where anything goes and the unimaginable occurs every single day. With focus on vices rather than virtue, it’s said that if you’re looking for a good time you can find what you’re looking for in Vegas.

In the early 1930s, there was a surge in the population of Las Vegas from 5000 to 25,000 due to the construction of the Hoover Dam (or Boulder Dam as it was once known) as men traveled across the country in search of work. It was due to this rapid increase of working men with no attachment to the area that a market of entertainment and debauchery was born. With business owners and crime lords seeing opportunity in a city with a highly concentrated and targetable demographic of young men, it wasn’t long before Las Vegas was swelling with places of drinking, gambling, and showgirl theatres to appeal to the mass amount of men working in the surrounding area.

With the growing number of casinos popping up in Las Vegas throughout the following couple of decades, organised crime quickly became abundant in the city and Las Vegas soared to notoriety with its image of being the Sin City, seducing the rich and famous, and their herds of fans along with them, to revel in all the city has available. Vegas’ expanding popularity with tourists and celebrities alike helped to establish the city as a Mecca for adult entertainment and a playground for the wealthy.

Ever heard of “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas”?

Or have you watched the recent blockbuster movie The Hangover? Las Vegas has become internationally renowned for its casinos, clubs and other extravagant luxuries, luring thrill seeking tourists to the Sin City with promises of fiendish fun and mischief. Excessive drinking and acts of hedonism and over-indulgence are what the majority of tourists usually associate with a trip to Las Vegas as they gamble their wealth with hopes of gleefully returning home a great deal richer than they had arrived. Many also flock to the city for its easy divorce and marriage processes, subsequently making Las Vegas one of the highest rates of both marriage and divorce in the United States.

Vegas is in the top three most popular destinations in the United States for business trips and conventions and one of the top tourist destinations worldwide, attracting casino junkets and high class vacations from all over the world.

If visiting Las Vegas, make sure to check out the Las Vegas Strip, home to the largest casinos, hotels and resort the city has to offer. Tourists often find themselves in awe as they stand beneath the towering heights of The Strip hotels and resorts that illuminate the breathtaking scene surrounding them. In addition to this, Las Vegas now boasts the world’s largest ferris wheel, the aptly named “High Roller”, further adding to its voluminous collection of tourist attractions.