No city has come to symbolize poker more than Las Vegas. This is because of a number of factors. One of the main reasons is that fact that the most popular tournament that poker has to offer, the World Series Of Poker, is played each year in the city.
Millions of people each year come to Las Vegas to play the game. Some people come for the fun, some people really hope to make it big and makes a lot of money, while others just want to say that they want to play the game in Las Vegas. While Las Vegas is known for a lot of things, such as Wayne Newton, wedding chapels, and huge hotels, poker remains an important part of the present and past history of Las Vegas.
How did a sleepy, western town become of the most important places for poker not only to survive, but thrive? Taking a look back at history will lead to a number of answers that help to answer this very important question. During the Great Depression in the late 1920’s and the early 1930’s, the Nevada economy was in very poor shape. This was the case for the rest of the country, and Nevada was desperate to try to improve their economy. As a result of the times, Nevada decided to legalize gambling. But even the most passionate supporters of gambling thought that it was only a short term fix that would be revoked when the general economy returned to economic growth.
No one envisioned that the gambling industry would become the main source of revenue for the state for generations to come. In 1970, the World Series of Poker was first played in Las Vegas, farther giving Las Vegas the unofficial title of the poker capital. An impressive marketing campaign also strongly benefited Las Vegas and helped to shape the image that they were going for. With the increasing television exposure of the World Series Of Poker and other poker tournaments, Las Vegas once more has seen its stock raise in the poker world, and this will serve Las Vegas well.
Tue, May 5, 2009
Poker