Illegitimate Guys Bring Legitimacy

There were plenty of advances made by the Mills Company on the slot machine in the 1930's that contributed to their explosion in popularity. For one thing, the machines themselves were a little quieter, and that made them somewhat less distracting for other players close by who were either playing at their own machines or at one of the table games. Double jackpots were also introduced, and that obviously made the winning possibilities bigger.

These days, one can hardly run across a slot machine, either in a land-based casino or on the internet, that doesn't have a certain "theme" as part of its general makeup. These themes were introduced back in the 1930's - with the Lions Head, the War Eagle and Roman Head in 1931, and the Castle Front two years later.

The slot machines found their way into some of Nevada's "sawdust" joints (the more informal establishments) during this period, but they were really nothing more than a novelty. The feeling was that they were not what serious gamblers engaged in, and back then the accent was on dealing with the more high-line gambler, rather than work on pure volume..

Then came the arrival in Las Vegas of the notorious Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

The New York mobster, who was associated with Meyer Lansky and bankrolled by the syndicate in his construction of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, was not the first casino impresario on the Las Vegas Strip, nor was he the first of them to utilize slot machines. But their presence in his establishment brought the game of slots into a new era, in a sense. In terms of those establishments that were open to the general public and legal (and there were not many of them in the 1940's), the Flamingo set the standard for glitz and glamour. Consequently, the inclusion of the slots on the gaming menu gave them a certain cachet; that they were acceptable for even the "classiest" of joints, right alongside the "roller" games like baccarat.

It was a subtle, but significant step in enhancing the respectability of the game.

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