Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was a gangster straight out of a Hollywood central casting. He was just under six foot tall with thick black hair and piercing blue eyes. He was athletic, good looking, a charmer with the ladies and above all fearless. Siegel moved from the slums of Brooklyn and then on to Hollywood and finally set himself up in Las Vegas by building the first major casino The Flamingo.

The name "Bugsy" is a term of endearment or honor in the gangster world and is given out to those that show no fear in sticky situations, or who are willing to do the jobs that others are afraid to take. Bugsy Siegel hated the name and anyone who used it to his face risked their own personal health as Siegel was not a man to mess with. Siegel preferred to be called Ben and if you didn't know him "Mr Siegel" would be your best way of addressing him.

Benjamin Siegel went down in crime history as the man who made Las Vegas into the gambling Mecca of the United States. Siegel didn't invent Las Vegas, he wasn't even the first person to look at the desert area and its two track railroad junction. Ben merely saw a standard mob related opportunity and decided to act on it. Bugsy Siegel is associated with gambling in Las Vegas and people will be surprised that his work in Vegas came at the very end of his life. His project of building the finest casino ultimately lead to his death.

Initially Siegel didn't see any worth in Vegas at all, it was hot, arid and in the middle of nowhere. However Vegas did have one major thing going for it and that was it was in the state of Nevada and in Nevada it was legal to gamble. His friends and associates on the East Coast already ran a couple of floating casinos that operated outside the 3 mile US territorial limit but setting up a permanent lavish casino in Las Vegas would give them a chance to set up a business that was both legitimate and a license to print money.

Siegel tried to buy up some established gambling joints in Vegas but this proved unsuccessful until he met Billy Wilkerson.

Wilkerson was trying to build the the most luxurious hotel that Vegas had ever seen. It would have individual air conditioning, tiled bathrooms and swimming pools. However Wilkerson had a cash flow problem with his ambitious project and this is where Bugsy Siegel stepped in and took a controlling interest in the venture. Siegel had it in his mind to create an oasis in the desert where travelers from both the East and West Coast could come for gambling, fine food, luxury accommodation and great entertainment.

The dream was called "The Flamingo" and Bugsy convinced his fellow gangsters to stump up a million dollars to build it. Some of the gangsters used their own money in the project as well as the mob's and it was this factor that would ultimately lead to Bugsys death.

The cost of the project soon spiraled out of control as Bugsy was being ripped off left right and center behind his back. The original $1.2 million price tag quickly went up to $6 million and the investors became increasingly worried.

By December 1946 a year after the start of the project the casino had not produced any revenue at all and was sucking the mob dry. The mobsters were deep in in debt and Siegel was going back to his Hollywood friends to get more cash.

The mob were not pleased with Siegel and wanted something done about him. They felt that something should be done, but were persuaded by Meyer Lansky to give Bugsy a chance by waiting until The Flamingo opened at Christmas. If it didn't make money when it opened then the mobsters could issue a contract on Siegel's life.

Christmas came and went and The Flamingo opened. Siegel pulled out all the stops in hiring the best live entertainment but the casino was a flop. Although everything was a great lavish spectacle just as intended, no locals came as Vegas was a cowboy town. The weather around opening time was atrocious which didn't help and with no hotel rooms the guests gambled in the casino and took their winnings back to the Frontier or to some of the downtown casinos. Most of the celebrities left after a few days leaving the place virtually empty.

The mob were furious and were baying for Siegel's blood but Bugsy was again saved by Meyer Lansky who was convinced that Las Vegas could become profitable. It was agreed that the original Flamingo corporation should be put into receivership to stop the losses and then the mob could buy out the original partners. Bugsy had a reprieve.

The Flamingo limped through the month of January until Siegel ordered it closed until the hotel could be finished. No rooms meant the customers were leaving with their winnings. The Flamingo reopened in March with the hotel mostly finished and it appeared that Bugsy had got away with it when the resort reported a profit of over $250,000 for the first half of 1947 despite the disastrous start.

On the evening of June 20th 1947 Ben Siegel was at home in his bungalow happy with himself that his dream The Flamingo was now showing a healthy profit when he was shot in the head. Four more bullets hit his body and at 42 years of age Bugsy Siegel was dead.

It appeared that the mob never really forgave him for the financial problems that he put them through and with many investing their own money it appears that revenge was the motive for the killing. No one really knows who killed him but there were none of his so called friends at his funeral.

The Las Vegas that Bugsy knew doesn't exist anymore. The big hotel chains and developers eventually moved in to build the new hotels and casinos that dwarfed the image of The Flamingo. For many years The Flamingo did represent the best of Las Vegas and with more than 3,500 rooms it was one of the largest hotels in the world. In the 1980's Bugsys Flamingo disappeared for good when the Hilton Corporation pulled it down to make way for a new Flamingo.

Although long since dead Bugsy Siegel did start the trend of luxury resorts in Vegas and now you can play in BugsysClub the online version.