Our features begin with a specific object, place or decision and follow its consequences. Current research files examine the architecture of surveillance, the corporate consolidation of Las Vegas and the transformation of Macau after 2002. Each article separates documented history from later casino mythology.

Key dates in the record

  1. The Strip before the towers reading the low-rise resort
  2. Why Monte Carlo needed an opera house
  3. The end of the coin hopper
  4. Atlantic City’s adapted Boardwalk hotels

The editorial desk

Our features begin with a specific object, place or decision and follow its consequences. Current research files examine the architecture of surveillance, the corporate consolidation of Las Vegas and the transformation of Macau after 2002. Each article separates documented history from later casino mythology.

Casino history is clearest when buildings, regulation and operating technology are read together.

The record also shows that practices did not move uniformly between jurisdictions. Local licensing, transport, land ownership and tourism shaped both the pace and the form of change.

IMAGES IN THE RECORD

Contemporary documentary reconstruction of Fremont Street in Las Vegas in 1952
Contemporary documentary reconstruction of Fremont Street in Las Vegas in 1952. Interpretive editorial reconstruction.
Modern museum display tracing mechanical, electromechanical, video and digital slot machines
Modern museum display tracing mechanical, electromechanical, video and digital slot machines. Interpretive editorial reconstruction.
Contemporary documentary reconstruction of the Atlantic City Boardwalk in 1978
Contemporary documentary reconstruction of the Atlantic City Boardwalk in 1978. Interpretive editorial reconstruction.

Research note & sources

This overview draws on institutional histories, regulatory chronologies, architectural records and established reference works. Dates are used where the documentary record is consistent.

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica, histories of gambling and principal cities.
  • Official municipal, regulatory and property archives relevant to the subject.
  • David G. Schwartz, Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling .