Las Vegas is the gambling capital of the United States. It is home to, per About.com, about 200,000 slot machines across about 1,700 licensed gambling locations. Those "licensed gambling locations" aren't necessarily "casinos," though -- you can find slot machine at the airport, for example, as well as random other places throughout the area. If you really want to gamble in Vegas, it's pretty easy to find someone who will take your money. It can be a very lucrative business.

Casino operators are changing blackjack payouts to give the house an even greater advantage. Is this a sign that Vegas is on its way back from the recession, or that the Strip’s biggest players are trying to squeeze some more cash out of visitors before the well runs dry?

When FedEx was Federal Express, a struggling, young company with only $5,000 left in the bank, founder Fred Smith boarded a plane for Vegas.

In February, an attack ad titled "Don’t Let the Games Begin" started popping up in online gambling forums. The ad opens on two shadows shaking hands in a dark city alley. We see a distraught mother at her laptop, a young child at a computer in a dim bedroom, police cars with sirens. A narrator with a scaly voice comes on. "An established al-Qaeda poker network could extract enough untraceable money from the United States in just a few days to fund several 9/11-sized attacks," he says.

In the 1990s, Las Vegas began building storm-drainage tunnels to protect the tourist destination from raging flash floods. The plan was to construct 1,000 miles of tunnels within 20 or 25 years. Today, the tunnels house the city’s homeless population.

Two shooters reportedly killed three people, including two police officers, before committing suicide during a shooting spree in Las Vegas today.

Las Vegas saw more visitors in March than in any other month in its history, thanks to college basketball tournaments, car races and conventions. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Tuesday that 3.7 million people visited the city last month, up 4.3 percent from March 2013.

In 2011, the Justice Department targeted online-poker operators for violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Since then, many guileless amateurs, known to poker pros as “fish,” have been moving back to casinos. 

Frank Cullotta, a former mob hitman, has found a new avenue for his knowledge: showing tourists in Las Vegas around old mafia haunts

Forget Britney Spears and Cirque du Soleil. For many gamblers, the hottest attraction in Sin City is an outdated three-reel slot machine that hasn't produced a jackpot in nearly two decades. It is called the Lion's Share, and in this city with no shortage of losing bets, the 20-year-old slot has attracted a legion of ever-hopeful devotees on the floor of the MGM Grand, the Strip's second-biggest casino.

A Cirque du Soleil performer was in stable condition after falling from the "Wheel of Death" during a Las Vegas performance.