the largest
man-made lake and reservoir in the United States. The legalization of gambling
in 1931 led to the advent of the casino hotels for which Las Vegas is famous.
Major development occurred in the 1940s, "due almost entirely" to the
influx of scientists and staff from the Manhattan Project, an atomic bomb
research project of World War II. Atomic test watching parties were sometimes
thrown. American organized crime figures such as Benjamin "Bugsy"
Siegel and Meyer Lansky managed or funded most of the original large casinos.
The rapid growth of Las Vegas is credited with dooming the gambling industry
development of Galveston, Texas; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and other major
gambling centers in the 1950s
