Las Vegas in the context of "Southwestern United States"

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⭐ Core Definition: Las Vegas

Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the seat of Clark County. It is the 24th-most populous city in the United States, with 641,903 residents at the 2020 census. The Las Vegas metropolitan area has an estimated 2.4 million residents and is the 29th-largest metropolitan area in the country. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. Most of these venues are located in downtown Las Vegas or on the Las Vegas Strip, which is outside city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester. The Las Vegas Valley serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center in Nevada.

Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated North American city founded within that century. Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s and into the 21st century, and between 1990 and 2000 the population increased by 85.2%.

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👉 Las Vegas in the context of Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. The largest cities by metropolitan area are Phoenix, Las Vegas, El Paso, Albuquerque, and Tucson. Before 1848, in the historical region of Santa Fe de Nuevo México as well as parts of Alta California and Coahuila y Tejas, settlement was almost non-existent outside of New Mexico's pueblos and Spanish or Mexican municipalities. Much of the area had been a part of New Spain and Mexico until the United States acquired the area through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the smaller Gadsden Purchase in 1854.

While the region's boundaries are not officially defined, there have been attempts to do so. One such definition is from the Mojave Desert in California in the west (117° west longitude) to Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the east (104° west longitude); another says that it extends from the Mexico–United States border in the south to the southern areas of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada in the north (39° north latitude). In another definition, the core Southwestern U.S. includes only the states of Arizona and New Mexico; others focus on the land within the old Spanish and Mexican borders of the Nuevo México Province or the later American New Mexico Territory.

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Las Vegas in the context of The Entertainment Capital of the World

The Entertainment Capital of the World is a nickname that has been applied to several American cities, including:

  • Las Vegas, because of its "broad scope of entertainment options including nightlife, shows, exhibits, museums, theme parks, pool parties, and so on."
  • Los Angeles (or, more specifically, Hollywood), due to its central role in the film, television, and music industries.
  • New York City (or, more specifically, Broadway), due to the city's theater and television productions.

In a variation on the phrase, Branson, Missouri, United States, is known as the "Live Entertainment Capital of the World", owing to its array of approximately 50 theaters.

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Las Vegas in the context of Nevada

Nevada (/nəˈvædə/ nə-VAD; Spanish: [neˈβaða] ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It is also sometimes placed in the Mountain West and Southwestern United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, the 32nd-most populous, and the ninth-least densely populated U.S. state. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's population live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area, including three of the state's four largest incorporated cities. Nevada's capital is Carson City. Las Vegas is the largest city in the state. Nevada is the westernmost U.S. state without coastline and also the westernmost landlocked first-level country subdivison in the Americas.

Nevada is officially known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the "Battle Born State" because it achieved statehood during the Civil War (the words "Battle Born" also appear on its state flag); due to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the Union benefited immensely from the support of newly awarded statehood by the infusion of the monetary support of nearly $400 million in silver ore generated at the time by the Comstock Lode. It is also known as the "Sagebrush State", for the native plant of the same name; and as the "Sage-hen State". The state's name means "snowy" in Spanish, referring to Nevada's extensive number of mountain ranges capped with snow in winter, which help make Nevada among the highest US states by mean altitude. These include the Carson Range portion of the Sierra Nevada (and about 1/3 of Lake Tahoe by surface area), as well as the Toiyabe Range, Ruby Mountains, and Spring Mountains (which exemplify the sky islands of the Great Basin montane forests), in western, central, northeastern, and southern Nevada, respectively. Nevada is the driest U.S. state, both lying in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada and receiving among the highest solar irradiance of any U.S. state, and is thus largely desert and semi-arid. Nevada comprises the majority of the Great Basin, as well as a large portion of the Mojave Desert. In 2020, 80.1% of the state's land was managed by various jurisdictions of the U.S. federal government, both civilian and military.

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Las Vegas in the context of Utah Territory

The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state. At its creation, the Territory of Utah included all of the present-day State of Utah, most of the current state of Nevada save for a portion of Southern Nevada (including the metro area of the city of Las Vegas), much of modern western Colorado, and the extreme southwest corner of present-day Wyoming.

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Las Vegas in the context of Clark County, Nevada

Clark County is the southernmost and most populous county in the U.S. state of Nevada, with 2,265,461 residents as of the 2020 census. The county is the location of the state's three largest cities, Las Vegas (the county seat), Henderson, and North Las Vegas, as well as the Las Vegas Strip, Nellis Air Force Base, and Hoover Dam. Clark County has 8,061 square miles (20,880 km) of land area, roughly the size of New Jersey.

Although the county has 70% of Nevada's population making it the 11th-most populous county in the United States, Clark County covers only 7% of Nevada's land mass. Despite having the name Las Vegas as part of their address, over 1 million residents live in unincorporated Clark County, with municipal services provided by the county. The county plays a role much larger than is typical in the US as it has direct jurisdiction over the Las Vegas Strip and such a large population.

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Las Vegas in the context of Las Vegas Valley

The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Statistical Area is coextensive since 2003 with Clark County, Nevada. The Valley is largely defined by the Las Vegas Valley land formation, a 600 sq mi (1,600 km) basin area surrounded by mountains to the north, south, east and west of the metropolitan area. The Valley is home to the three largest incorporated cities in Nevada: Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas. Eleven unincorporated towns governed by the Clark County government are part of the Las Vegas Township and constitute the largest community in the state of Nevada.

The names Las Vegas and Vegas are interchangeably used to indicate the Valley, the Strip, and the city, and as a brand by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to denominate the region. The Valley is affectionately known as the Ninth Island by Hawaii natives and Las Vegans alike, in part due to the large number of people originally from Hawaii who live in and regularly travel to Las Vegas.

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Las Vegas in the context of Spring Mountains

The Spring Mountains are a mountain range of Southern Nevada in the United States, running generally northwest–southeast along the west side of Las Vegas and south to the border with California. Most land in the mountains is owned by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and managed as the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

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Las Vegas in the context of Slot machines

A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), puggie (Scots), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers.

A slot machine's standard layout features a screen displaying three or more reels that "spin" when the game is activated. Some modern slot machines still include a lever as a skeuomorphic design trait to trigger play. However, the mechanical operations of early machines have been superseded by random number generators, and most are now operated using buttons and touchscreens.

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