CREEPS, STIFFS PLAY ON GULCH AND STRIP

The gambling industry started in Las Vegas 24 years ago in the rough-and-tumble center of town now known as Glitter Gulch and shown at upper right of this animated map. The new and gaudier edifices are mostly on The Strip, south of the Las Vegas city limits, outside the jurisdiction of its tax collectors and along U.S. 91. Frontage along that three-mile stretch of highway, which leads to Los Angeles 292 miles to the southwest, now sells for as much as $1,500 a foot.

Tourists who do not drive in come by train (Union Pacific) or by plane, landing at McCarren airport which has banks of slot machines right in the terminal for passengers too impatient to wait until they can get to a casino. Newcomers soon learn the jargon of the gambling town, which has a glossary all its own (see below).

Gambling is not all the Las Vegas area offers. Atom bombs blow up at the AEC testing ground 100 miles northwest. Skiing is superb on Mount Charleston. Twenty-five miles to the southeast is Lake Mead for sports who believe in boating and fishing. Nearer town is a race track, where no horses run. It just didn't catch on, and, after much thinking, the community leaders hit on the reason. In Las Vegas, they concluded, gambling is purely an indoor sport.

GLOSSARY OF GAMBLERS' JARGON

HOUSE: Management of gambling club
APRON-MAN: A croupier
BOX MAN: Employee who checks on crap table pay-offs
CLIPPING: cheating
CRIMPING: Marking cards by bending
SOFT PLAY: Stupid betting
CREEP: Loudmouthed gambler
STIFF: Winner who doesn't tip
GARLIC: A "stiff"
GEORGE: Opposite of "stiff"
CLAIM AGENT: Player who picks up others' bets
HIGH ROLLER: Big Bettor
JAZZY CHASS: Winner trying to get richer
PIGEON: Loser taking bigger chances