Many of the largest hotels and casinos in the world are to be found on the Las Vegas Strip, a 4.2-mile (6.8km) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in the US state of Nevada.
Known as The Strip, the Sahara Casino is located at its most northern tip and Mandalay Bay at its most southern tip. In between these two, more than thirty other resorts comprising of hotels and casinos line the walkways. Caesar’s Palace, known to just about everyone, sits on the intersection with Flamingo Road, while other casinos take the name and style of places such as New York-New York and Luxor. Confusingly, there is even a hotel resort and casino called the Monte Carlo.
Gambling is the number one business in this town in the middle of the desert. Since its inception in 1931, millions have flocked here to bet at the tables and play the slots.
Recent attempts to appeal to a wider market have failed, with golf courses and water parks going belly up and ending up being demolished. You have to face it; this is not a family holiday town.
Even casinos have felt the pinch with older and smaller venues getting the chop, unable to compete with the new, large-scale resorts. About thirty casinos have been demolished in the last ten years, although many of them have been rebuilt and renamed as part of a new complex.
Once the highest-grossing gambling centre in the world, it has recently been overtaken by Macau, the former Portuguese colony situated beside Hong Kong.