From its legal inception in 1931, Las Vegas’ gaming and sports betting industry has been built on the dreams and imagination of people who have had the courage to question the status quo. But while many a daring dreamer has left his legacy in this desert oasis, four men stand out.

Part 1: The Man Who Invented Las Vegas.

It was on the night of June 20, 1947, that nine bullets from a .30-.30 carbine ripped through the living room window of socialite Virginia Hill’s home on 810 North Linden Drive in Beverly Hills. The first shot crashed into the man’s head, driving the victim’s right eye from his skull and hurling it 15 feet across the room. The other shots quickly followed but there was no need. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, the era’s most infamous mobster, already was dead.

Ironically, hundreds of miles away, in a desert outpost called Las Vegas, Siegel’s gambling dream was alive and well and just beginning to prosper.

Ben Siegel first came west in 1937 to California to organize the mob’s lucrative narcotics, prostitution and bookmaking enterprises there. A much-feared New York criminal who by his early 20s already had committed several murders, Siegel had partners in crime including the underworld elite, from Meyer Lansky - with whom he’d formed an execution squad that predated Murder Inc. by seven years - to Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Albert Anastasia, Legs Diamond, Arnold Rothstein, Vito Genovese and Frank Nitti. Except for his movie star good looks, Siegel fit right in.

By 1945 Siegel had used a combination of bribery and deadly force to consolidate his power in California, buying off cops and politicians and killing those who couldn’t be bought. Three years earlier, in 1942, he’d taken over control of Las Vegas’ racewire services, charging the hotels exorbitant fees for the racetrack information.

But Siegel had bigger plans for Las Vegas.

Early in 1946 he decided to build the largest and most lavish casino in the world there. But it wouldn’t be just a casino. There’d be a hotel, too, with carefully manicured grounds, a swimming pool, restaurant, bar and nightclub. There’d be nothing like it anywhere on the planet and as soon as it opened on a patch of inexpensive land at the desolate southern end of what would later be called the Strip - Las Vegas Boulevard - Siegel instantly would be transformed from mobster to mogul. He’d be America’s king of gambling. It’d all be legit, too.

But the casino, which Siegel called the “Fabulous Flamingo Hotel,” was horribly under funded. Siegel had invested his own ill-gotten fortune, about $1 million, in what was estimated to be a $1.5 million venture. But the hotel’s plumbing alone cost $1 million and building supplies, particularly steel and copper, were scarce in post-war America. Siegel paid extra to get them.

The tab for the project quickly soared to $6 million, an incredible sum at the time. Siegel raised $3 million in stock sales and got the rest the Mob, extorting $2 million through the sale of his TransAmerica racewire service, an audacious move that later cost him his life.

On Dec. 26, 1946, with Virginia Hill at his side and Jimmy Durante in his nightclub, Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel. It was a terrible disappointment. Bad weather had grounded many of Siegel’s celebrity friends in Los Angeles and, as luck would have it, the casino lost heavily the first night. Two weeks later, $100,000 in the hole, the Flamingo closed.

On March 27, 1947, Siegel reopened the Flamingo. For three weeks, the casino continued to lose money. Then, finally, as it often happens for those who accept wagers, red turned to black. In May, the casino cleared $300,000.

Three weeks later, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, 41, was dead. But the town he built, the gambling and sports betting Mecca known as Las Vegas, was just coming to life.

This article was written on behalf of OffshoreInsiders.com by Luken Karel for http://www.thegreek.com.

By the mid 1960s, Las Vegas was well on its way to establishing itself as the gaming and sports betting capital of the world. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t room for another visionary to challenge the status quo and expand the concept of those who had come before him. Of the many daring dreamers and schemers who have left their legacy in this desert oasis, here’s a look at one of the four men who really made an impact.

Part 2: The Man Who Bought Las Vegas.

Early in his life he was known as a swashbuckling aviator, a playboy who romanced Hollywood actresses and Las Vegas showgirls, a shrewd and often ruthless businessman who parlayed an oil drilling bit into one of the world’s great fortunes, and the man who had designed a special uplift bra for the actress Jane Russell to wear in the motion picture, “The Outlaw.”

By his twilight years he had degenerated into a pathetic, paranoid, long-haired, straggly bearded, reclusive billionaire so fearful of disease he avoided all human contact, spending most of his time alone in a darkened room, surrounded by boxes of Kleenex and covered only by a bed sheet. When the end mercifully came, April 5, 1976, at the age of 70, at 3,000 feet aboard an airplane out of Acapulco bound for Houston, his once sturdy, 6-foot, 4-inch frame carried a mere 90 pounds.

But somewhere between the genuine genius and the mystifying madness was the real Howard Hughes, the man who tried to buy Las Vegas and mold it in his image. The amazing part is that he nearly got away with it.

Hughes was a month shy of his 61^st birthday when he arrived in Las Vegas by train from Boston and took up residency on the top floor of the Desert Inn, Nov. 27, 1966. Only six months earlier, Hughes had sold TWA, the fledgling airline he had first bought for $1 million in 1939, for $546 million. Meanwhile, his Hughes Aircraft Co., which produced weapons for the US government, was valued at $1 billion and his Hughes Tool Company would fetch an additional $150 million in 1972. There also was a Hughes helicopter division, Hughes Air-West, a television station in New York, an architectural firm, as well as substantial property holdings in California and the Bahamas.

Howard Hughes was a very rich man.

So when Moe Dalitz, the feisty owner of the Desert Inn, sought to make good on a promise from Hughes that the billionaire would vacate his hotel by Christmas, instead of moving out, Hughes bought him out. It was the beginning of Hughes’ attempt to make Las Vegas his own private Monopoly board.

Under the umbrella of his huge conglomerate, Summa Corporation, Hughes quickly acquired the Frontier, Castaways, Landmark, Silver Slipper and Sands hotel-casinos in Las Vegas as well as Harold’s Club in Reno. Hughes also negotiated to purchase Caesars Palace, the Dunes, Stardust and Riviera in Las Vegas, Harrah’s in Reno and Lake Tahoe, and Harvey’s in Lake Tahoe. Pressure from the federal government in the form of possible anti-trust action against him probably prevented those sales but Hughes consoled himself with 2,000 mining claims in the state, 30,000 acres of real estate, including most of the land around the airport, and another TV station.

Because of the hundreds of millions of dollars he invested in the Las Vegas valley, money that revitalized a stagnant if not decaying industry, Hughes expected, and usually received, preferential treatment. Hence, his casinos were dutifully licensed despite the fact that Hughes refused to appear before gaming authorities, much less be photographed—something that hadn’t occurred since 1957 - fingerprinted or interviewed.

After four year, Hughes left Las Vegas, not only annoyed that he had failed to control every aspect of the city’s destiny, but melancholy and fearful that his many contributions to Las Vegas’ growth and prosperity might go unappreciated.

”So now I wind up a supposedly successful businessman who has wrecked his health and consumed the best part of his life in the process,” writes Hughes in Citizen Hughes, a biography by Michael Drosnin which explores the eccentric billionaire through internal memos and notes in Hughes’ own hand. “I can’t help but feel I must have given something to this community.”

Gazing upon the gambling and sports betting wonderland that is today’s Las Vegas, of this there can be no doubt.

Next, Part 3: The Man Who Played Las Vegas.

This article was written by Luken Karel on behalf of OffshoreInsiders.com for http://www.thegreek.com

Entertainment became linked with Las Vegas in the 1940s when savvy city planners and casino entrepreneurs rightly reasoned that even hard-edged gamblers would need an occasional respite from the drudgery of table games and the challenge of sports betting that had lured them to this desert outpost in the first place. Of the many who came to sing, dance and tell jokes was one so unique that he set the standard for the glitzy performances that have become the city’s staple. He joins Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Howard Hughes as the third of four men who helped make Las Vegas the most unique city in the world.

Part 3: The Man Who Played Las Vegas.

Although classically trained and universally recognized as one of the foremost pianists in the world, Walter Valentino Liberace, the recipient of six gold record albums and two Emmy Awards, became even better known as the symbol of Las Vegas entertainment, a flamboyant, over-the-top performer who represented the scorned image of wretched excess often associated with many of Las Vegas’ stage acts.

It is perhaps ironic that Liberace, who first performed in Las Vegas in 1942 and whose talent on the keyboards was without dispute, nevertheless helped pave the way for a succession of marginal performers who offered more style than substance to their audiences. Without Liberace, there probably never could have been a Charo, a Lola Falana, or the slew of Elvis impersonators who continue to earn their livings in the city that brazenly refers to itself as “the Entertainment Capital of the World.”

But marginal musicians and singers weren’t the only beneficiaries of Liberace’s conscious, if insidious, pushing of the Las Vegas entertainment envelope.

In a city where reality is no closer than the next bus ride home and the unexpected now has become the anticipated, illusionists such as David Copperfield, Siegfried & Roy, and Lance Burton owe a measure of their success, if not their very existence, to Liberace’s underrated ability to transcend the boundaries of traditional entertainment.

And it’s something less than a stretch to suggest that the audience’s acceptance of Liberace’s effeminate manner cleared the path for the acquiescence of such long-running gender-bender acts as Boylesque and La Cage.

Through it all - the ostentatious sequined gowns, the ever-present candelabra, the gaudy gems, the spectacular pianos, the shtick that overwhelmed the music - Liberace understood what he was doing.

”I’m the first to admit my stage costumes have become a very expensive joke but I have fun with them and the audience shares that fun with me,” he said.

But Liberace, who died in 1987 at age 67, had a serious side, too. In 1976 he created the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts which, over the years, has funded over $5 million in scholarships to 2,200 students at 110 colleges and universities across the nation.

In 1979, Liberace also built the Liberace Museum, a fantasyland for adults comprised of a trio of buildings located in southeast Las Vegas. Walking through the non-profit museum, one can easily imagine how Alice felt when she first peered through the looking glass. The museum, which is stocked with mementos and items from Liberace’s professional and personal life (though it’s not easy to tell the two apart) has little relevance to most people’s reality. In other words, it fits perfectly in Las Vegas.

Liberace wasn’t a visionary in the mold of Siegel or Hughes but he was as much an innovator, bringing a new, bolder type of entertainment to Las Vegas that transformed the industry and attracted people, many of who didn’t fit the prototype of the average gambler, to the city. After one of his shows, these same folks would hit the slots and table games and engage in sports betting, an unexpected but welcomed part of the legacy that is Liberace’s enduring influence on Las Vegas.

This article was written on behalf of OffshoreInsiders.com by Luken Karel for http://www.thegreek.com.

Las Vegas always has been a city built on hopes and aspirations but only a handful of true visionaries have had a unique and lasting impact of the growth and direction of this desert outpost. Of the four pillars of Las Vegas innovation, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Howard Hughes and Liberace are gone but one architect remains, a man who continues to reinvent this unique city to this day.

Part 4: The Man Who Reinvigorated Las Vegas.

Steve Wynn was still a couple of years shy of becoming a teenager in 1952 when he stood on a dusty patch of desert highway called the Strip and listened intently as his father, a Maryland bingo parlor operator, told him of his dream of expanding his business there. Michael Wynn died in 1963 but his dream - and then some - never left the mind of his innovative son. It would take 26 years but Steve Wynn would realize his father’s dream.

Typically, Wynn’s first steps into gaming weren’t timid ones. In the early 1970s, using money he’d earned in the family business, Wynn purchased a parcel of real estate adjacent to Caesars Palace from Howard Hughes. The next year he sold the land to Caesars for a profit of $760,000. He used the money to accumulate stock in the downtown Golden Nugget and, by 1973, at the age of 31, was the youngest casino chairman in the history of Las Vegas.

Wynn next turned his attention to Atlantic City, paying $8.5 million for the Strand Hotel. He promptly demolished the Strand and built another Golden Nugget which, in 1987, he then sold to Bally’s for a record $440 million.

Flushed with optimism and with his father’s dream still kicking around in his head, Wynn then returned to Las Vegas, a city which, despite its gaming persona, still was in search of an identity. Wynn defined it.

He did it by building The Mirage, a $630 million all-inclusive complex that he promised “would have mystique, like a lady half-dressed.” It did.

The birth of The Mirage in 1989 redefined Las Vegas as the ultimate tourist destination, the home of wondrous new sights and experiences, where casino gambling and sports betting were the main but not the only attractions. A tropic paradise of waterfalls and foliage, luxury accommodations, gourmet restaurants, a rain forest, an exploding volcano, a swanky shopping mall, rare white tigers, an aquarium with bottle-nosed dolphins, and the city’s most spectacular - and expensive - show, Siegfried & Roy, there never had been anything quite like it. In fact, Wynn was forced to add a new term to the gaming lexicon just to describe The Mirage. He called it a “megaresort.”

Suddenly, the Strip, which had not seen significant growth in several years, was awash in megaresort projects. In the eight years immediately after Wynn first unveiled his plans to build The Mirage, other would-be entrepreneurs played follow-the-leader, adding 30,000 rooms and $3 billion worth of investments to the Strip.

The success of The Mirage spawned the Excalibur, the castle-configured casino with 4,000 rooms. Then came Luxor, a pyramid-shaped property next door to the Excalibur. Hardly content to watch others build, in October of 1993, Wynn added another property of his own, Treasure Island, a pirate-themed facility adjacent to The Mirage. Two months later the city welcomed the MGM Grand, with 5,005 rooms, the largest hotel, er, megaresort, in the world.

Wynn would later build Bellagio, on the site of the old Dunes Hotel on the corner of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard and, most recently, Wynn Las Vegas, his high-end signature property that now stands on land where the Desert Inn once stood.

”Nevada’s advantage is... that we have the creative genius of people like Steve,” said former Governor Bob Miller.

Wynn, the architect of the modern Las Vegas gaming and sports betting expansion, just smiled at the remark, comfortable with the presence (and accolades) of elected officials. In fact, Wynn has golfed with many politicians, including Arizona Senator Sen. John McCain, the presumptive 2008 presidential nominee of the Republican Party.

So how did it feel to rub elbows with the power elite?

McCain never said.

Safe to say we are the sports talk radio jinx. Back in September, we wrote an article “touting” (so to speak) the best sports talk shows from the standpoint of the sports bettor. Two of the best, Joe Benigo of WFAN in New York and Rick Ballou of 1010 XL in Jacksonville, were taken off solo gigs and partnered with co-hosts. The two purists were likely watered down in the name of “guy radio,” a bigger ratings winner that adulterates sports discussion with shtick.

Benigo now shares airtime with Evan Roberts while Ballou is diluted by former Jacksonville Jaguar Tom McManus.

In one of the great twists of irony, WPEN in Philadelphia is now part of the ESPN Radio Network. In the process, they are putting behind the mic one of the loudmouths they railed against. Then known as SR950, WPEN often ran commercials taking potshots at their rival 610 WIP.

“You’re a moron, you’re an idiot and if you listen to that, you probably are,” correctly bragged an oft-run commercial on WPEN. Problem is the slam is a not-so-subtle reference to former WIP personality Mike Missanelli, as well as Missanelli’s separated-at-birth mudslinging monger Steve Martorano and sports talk Dean Howard Eskin.

Unfortunately sports talk purist Jody McDonald gets demoted to mid-mornings to make room for the ad hominem merchant Missanelli.

Guy radio is fine, but that’s why we have Phil Hendrie, Dennis Miller and others as viable alternatives. Sadly though, that format continues to debase sports radio.

The anti-smear ads on Sports Radio 950 have been replaced with promos about Missanelli returning to drive time. The irony is duly noted.

The author is Joe Duffy. His sports betting selections are at www.GodsTips.com He is former General Manager of the Freescoreboard scorephone network and CEO of OffshoreInsiders.com, the premier hub of world-class handicappers.

Before burying the recently concluded NFL season, savvy gamblers will want to sift through those decaying bones to determine if the gridiron carcass left any clues that could be used to uncover a successful NFL betting strategy when the 2008 campaign kicks off in September.

One angle that has clicked for several straight years again took the blue ribbon in 2007: If you want to be an NFL betting winner, bet a winner. Simply, teams that were straight up (SU) winners on the field also were highly successful at the windows, against the spread (ATS).

In fact, of the 13 teams that posted regular season winning records, 12 of them also had winning marks against the spread. The 13^th team, the Washington Redskins, was .500 ATS, meaning that no team with a straight up winning record had a losing record against the spread. The overall pointspread log for these 13 teams was 126-77-5, a 62.0 win percentage, a figure for which any NFL betting enthusiast would sell his throwback jersey.

Yes, hindsight always is 20/20 but was it so difficult to predict that teams such as the Patriots, Colts, Chargers, Seahawks and Cowboys would have straight up winning records? Some shrewd bettors even allowed the oddsmakers and bookmakers to do their homework for them, relying on regular season over/under win total propositions as the basis for their wagers. The above-mentioned teams all had totals of 10 victories or more entering last season.

On the other cleat, of the 15 teams that had straight up losing records, only one, the Buffalo Bills, had a winning mark against the spread. Maybe it was the snow that was the great pointspread equalizer in Buffalo.

Those 15 teams were 92-141-7 against the spread, a cover percentage of .394, meaning that those who wisely bet against those teams collected on more than 60 percent of their wagers.

Predictably enough, the four teams that finished with straight up .500 records also were right around that mark against the spread.

So, when it comes to NFL betting, if you want to be a winner, bet a winner.

I’m listening to my main many Jody Mac during the break between games and now they are selling infomercial time to Wayne Allyn Root, sometimes known as Wayne Allan Root or Wayne Alan or just Wayne Root. Whatever happened to Scott Sprietzer and Jonathan Stone? Why not just go with the best at OffshoreInsiders.com?

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The selection committee agrees with the 2008 Men’s NCAA Basketball betting odds in the West Regional. Top seeded UCLA is the heavy favorite to go to the Final 4 as sportsbooks have them at 2/3.

Agreeing with the seedings, the betting odds say Duke is next at 11/4. Where the oddsmakers disagree is that No. 4 seed Connecticut is 9/1, while the higher seeded Xavier is 11/1. “We concur with the bias in favor of major conferences,” says Stevie Vincent, Senior Handicapper at OffshoreInsiders.com. Xavier seems to be a popular Final 4 pick among media members.

The Cinderella team of the regular season is given minimal chance to repeat that role in the Big Dance. Drake is 14/1 to make it to the April climax to March Madness. Purdue is next 20/1.

Cy McCormick tells us of his favorite Calcutta betting value team Baylor. McCormick, head of the online betting syndicate MasterLockLine.com, says that Baylor has been as streaky as any team in the country and is the classic example of a team that “can get hot at the right time.”

Who will cover each individual game? The sports betting experts at OffshoreInsiders.com are the best source for March Madness pointspread winners.

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The Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament in 2008 is like Adrienne Barbeau: quite top heavy. The Wisconsin Badgers, Purdue Boilermakers, Indiana Hoosiers, and Michigan State Spartans are all nationally ranked and likely going the Big Dance.

For sports handicappers who believe in betting the motivational factor, the Ohio State Buckeyes are one of the “last four in” according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology.

The sportsbooks say that Purdue is the slight favorite to win it all at 7/4, with Wisconsin nearly neck and neck at 7/4. Michigan State is only 7/2. If anyone has had almost as much success in March Madness as GodsTips, anchor of OffshoreInsiders.com, it is Tom Izzo, head coach of the Spartans.

Despite all the distractions of the Kelvin Sampson firing, the Indiana Hoosiers are just 5/1 to earn the automatic bid. Purdue and Indiana have the shorter odds as the tournament is being hosted at Conseco Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers will have to play their way in to the 2008 Men’s College Basketball Tournament, but they are 14/1 odds to win it all—the conference title that is.

Once highly regarded Illinois is 20/1, the Iowa Hawkeyes at 22/1. Surprisingly ahead of both is perennial doormat Penn State at just 18/1. At 25/1 Michigan is given little chance and Northwestern at 100/1 no chance. Odds are courtesy of NewBodog.

Considering the Wildcats went 1-17 in conference play, perhaps the bookmakers are being too generous.

The author, Joe Duffy, is former General Manager of the Freescoreboard scorephone network and CEO of OffshoreInsiders.com, the premier hub of world-class handicappers.

Although they are considered in a rebuilding year, Xavier is the favorite to win the 2008 Atlantic 10 Tournament. The Musketeers are posted at even money at NewBodog. “It’s not a good year for the A-10,” says Cy McCormick of MasterLockLine.com. He points to the fact that Temple was second in the conference at 11-5, but has only 18 wins overall.

The sportsbooks say the Massachusetts Minutemen are 5/2 and the aforesaid Temple Owls are 3/1. The erratic Saint Joseph’s Hawks and the Richmond Spiders are next at 5/1. At one time, Temple, LaSalle and St. Joe’s were at an advantage because the tournament was usually at the historic Palestra in Philadelphia, home city of those three colleges.

Though Atlantic City is still a regional advantage for the Philadelphia based teams, it does not give the edge they once had when the game was played at the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Big 5 home.

Charlotte and La Salle are next at 10/1; the slow down Bilikens of Saint Louis and the Rhode Island Rams follow at 15/1.

The Duquesne Dukes at 20/1 and the Fordham Rams at 35/1 are given little chance. “With 11 of the 13 teams within six games of each other in the conference standings, we look for some moneyline dogs to come barking,” says forensic handicapping founder Stevie Vincent of BetOnSports360.com

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The Big East has five teams ranked in the Top 25: Georgetown Hoyas, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Louisville Cardinals, Connecticut Huskies, and whatever the Marquette Warriors are now called. Two more teams have 22 wins: West Virginia Mountaineers and the Pittsburgh Panthers.

To say the least, the 2008 Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament should be one of the most hotly contested ever. This is perhaps why the Vegas odds are so close. John Thompson Jr. and the Georgetown Hoyas, led by Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace, are the favorites at 3/2.

However, Louisville is very close behind at 5/2 and Connecticut and Notre Dame are 5/1. Rick Pitino and his Cardinals have very much rebounded from early season injuries that saw David Padgett miss 10 games, Juan Palacios out for nine and Derrick Caracter have some off court distractions.

Marquette and Pittsburgh are both fairly long shots at 12/1. Pitt though won 3-of-4 to enter the postseason after a midseason conference swoon. Marquette has only one conference tournament win in six years and stumbled across the finish line.

The once highly regarded Villanova Wildcats can be had at 15/1. Bob Huggins current team, the West Virginia Mountaineers are at 15/1 and the team he made his name with, the Cincinnati Bearcats are 30/1, the same odds as Seton Hall. The Providence Friars backed into the tournament, but with a recent win to Connecticut, perhaps the 40/1 odds a a bit steep.

Though most sportsbooks have posted the March Madness tournament lines, these quoted odds are courtesy of NewBodog