The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of road, specifically that of Las Vegas Boulevard South, along which all the casinos and hotels are located, spanning from Sahara Casino at the northernmost end of the Strip to Mandalay Bay which rounds out the southernmost border of the Strip. This Strip of area is generally what attracts so many tourists to Las Vegas every year. This area of Las Vegas, Nevada alone has a really interesting history, some part of which even involves the Mafia. Wanting to capitalize on the gambling business, Mobster members such as Bugsy Siegel and Jimmy Hoffa actually funded and managed a large portion of the original casinos and hotels after World War II, before being run out by authorities.

The history of the Las Vegas Strip may be really interesting, but the entire city of Las Vegas, Nevada has a really rich history as well. The earliest inhabitants of the Las Vegas valley were Paleo-Indians. Later, the Anasazi Indians and the Pauite people lived near and explored the area that is now Las Vegas. In fact, the ruins of the Anasazi community can be found northwest of Las Vegas, referred to as the "Lost City." The first settler of the region that was of European descent was a young man named Rafael Rivera in 1829. The area contained artesian wells and lots of greenery, which is why it was named Las Vegas, which means "The Meadows" in Spanish.

Las Vegas was established as a city on May 15, 1905 when a stretch of land spanning 110 acres was auctioned off. It was incorporated on March 16, 1911. In the early 1900s, it became a popular railroad town, which had experienced a downturn due to the Great Depression. However, it made a comeback with the construction of the Hoover Dam in 1931. March of that year is when gambling became legalized in the city, and the first casino that was built along what is now known as the Las Vegas Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941. Soon after, many of the large casinos and hotels that people are still going to today were constructed.

Las Vegas became the highest-grossing gambling center in the world, although it lost that status in 2006 to Macau in the People's Republic of China. However, it remains one of the top entertainment tourist attractions in the world, and many people come to Las Vegas every year to enjoy the gambling and other entertainment that the Las Vegas Strip has to offer.