Nevada's legal gaming as well as the paradoxical increased scrutiny by local and federal law enforcement in these other locales during the 1950s made their demise inevitable. Along with their connections in Hollywood and New York City, these interests in Las Vegas were able to use publicity provided by these media capitals to steer the rapid growth of tourism into Las Vegas thereby dooming Galveston, Texas Hot Springs, Arkansas and other illegal gaming centers around the nation. Only through the power and influence of Nevada's Senator Pat McCarran did the proposal die in committee. This led to a proposal by the Senate to institute federal gambling control. The hearing concluded that organized crime money was incontrovertibly tied to the Las Vegas casinos and was becoming the controlling interest in the city thereby earning for the groups vast amounts of income which was strengthening their influence in the country. The cornering of the gambling market in the city by suspected mob members sparked a two-year investigation by Senator Estes Kefauver and his Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce in 1950–51. While Las Vegas in 1940 had a population of 8,422, by 1950, it had increased to 24,624 people.

In 1957, the first topless show 'Minsky's Follies' was started here. Gambling was no longer the only attraction by the 1950s the biggest stars of films and music like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Andy Williams, Liberace, Bing Crosby, Carol Channing, and others performed in intimate settings and brought a whole new brigade of Hollywood film stars and others in the entertainment business to the city. įrom 1952 to 1957, through money and institutional lending provided by the Teamsters Union and some Mormon bankers, they built the Sahara, the Sands, the New Frontier, the Royal Nevada, the Showboat, the Riviera, the Fremont, Binion's Horseshoe, and finally the Tropicana.

The population grew dramatically from 8,422 during World War II to over 45,000. Over 8 million people were visiting Las Vegas annually in 1954, pumping $200 million into casinos, which consolidated its image as 'wild, full of late-night, exotic entertainment'. By the 1950s, there were 44,600 living in the Las Vegas Valley. The 1950s was a time of considerable change for Las Vegas.

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