The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-O-Dice Club in 1931, but the first casino-resort currently on the Strip was El Rancho Vegas,

which opened with 63 rooms on April 3, 1941 (and was destroyed by fire in 1960). was destroyed). Its success led to a second hotel on the

Strip, becoming Hotel Last Frontier in 1942. Organized crime figures such as New York's Bugsy Siegel took an interest in the growing gaming

center, and funded other resorts such as the Flamingo, which opened in 1946. , and the Desert Inn, which opened in 1950. Funding for

several projects was provided through the American National Insurance Company, which was based in the then-infamous gambling empire

of Galveston,Texas.Las Vegas Boulevard South was formerly called Arrowhead Highway or Los Angeles Highway.The Strip was named by Los Angeles

police officer and businessman Guy McAfee after his hometown of the Sunset Strip.In 1950, the Mayor of the City of Las Vegas,Ernie Cragin,

sought to add to the Strip,an unincorporated area,to expand the city's tax base to fund his ambitious building agenda and

pay off the city's growing debt. . Instead, Gus Greenbaum of Flamingo leads a group of casino officials to lobby the Clark

County commissioners for the city's status. Two unincorporated cities were eventually created, Paradise and

Winchester. More than two decades later, Nevada's Supreme Court struck down a 1975 Nevada state law that

would have combined the Strip and the rest of the urban areas of Clark County into the city of Las Vegas.