Ben “Bugsy” Siegel (AP)

In 1947, a notorious mobster named Ben “Bugsy” Siegel decided Las Vegas would be the perfect location to lure his famous Hollywood friends, while simultaneously lining the pockets of his other friends back East. Despite what you may have read, Siegel didn’t actually gain control of the town through violence and threats — not exclusively, anyway. Instead, he used information. More specifically, he used horse racing results.

Siegel’s Trans-America Wire service transmitted race results, creating a virtual Vegas monopoly and a vital lifeline for the then-fledgling casinos. It wasn’t long before he had installed his own bodyguards as the wire managers at the Golden Nugget and the Las Vegas Club on Fremont Street — his first step toward taking over casinos in town while building his crown jewel, the Flamingo, on the outskirts. In many ways, gambling on the ponies was the fuel that lit Sin City’s initial fire.

Even after the large casinos were established and The Strip as we know it was born, the sports book still remained an afterthought. This was largely due to the high tax on sports wagers, making it unprofitable to run for the casinos. Instead, sports wagers were handled in small stand-alone “turf clubs.” Casinos may not have been handling sports bets, but that didn’t mean they weren’t looking at sports as a means to drive attention and visitors.

One of the most popular means to do this was boxing. The first championship fight in Las Vegas was held in 1963. By the late 1970’s, Caesars Palace was the center of the boxing universe. Nearly every major fight was held in a temporary arena erected in the Caesars parking lot.

Action on the fights themselves was unimpressive, but that’s not what drew casinos to host boxing. High-profile fights always coincided with a sizable bump in overall casino income. Get them to town and let them watch a fight before they head inside and spend the rest of the night — and their bankroll — at the tables. That was the plan.

Sports Illustrated estimated in 1982 that a high profile fight was worth some $150m to the Las Vegas economy. The same story notes that the month surrounding a Muhammad Ali-Larry Holmes fight in 1980 drove a total take for Caesars nearly two and a half times its monthly average!

Horse racing built the city, but boxing turned it into a destination for people across the country. Unfortunately, times change. Sports gambling taxes were eventually relaxed, and casinos entered the game with their own sportsbooks. As the industry pushed further and further mainstream, the Sport of Kings and the Sweet Science simply faded into the background.