Headquarters of a trillion-dollar worldwide empire, site of unprecedented political and economic power -- Las Vegas, according to the authors, is hardly an aberrant sin city. Rather, it is the outgrowth and reflection of corruption and a worship of money pervasive in America since the end of World War II. In unequivocal support of this argument, the authors trace the funds for the founding of the Las Vegas we know today to the proceeds of nationwide narcotics traffic. They explain the amazing rise and reach of Meyer Lansky, the mind behind the city; how a syndicate of criminals, politicians, and businessmen came to control Las Vegas; the remarkable interplay of the city with the fates of Joseph, John, and Robert Kennedy; how Howard Hughes and J. Edgar Hoover helped to further the city's corruption; how Mormon bankers and Wall Street financiers have bankrolled and profited from casinos ruled by organized crime; how a handful of journalists and law enforcement officers have been destroyed before they could expose the city's secrets; how the success of Las Vegas has both mirrored and changed the nation's governing values.

A detailed and illuminating chronicle of an extraordinary place and time -- and a provocative reinterpretation of 20th-century American history.