The Infamous Origins of Sin City

Who could have foreseen that two events as disparate as the repeal of Prohibition and construction of the Hoover Dam a few years later would lay the foundation for a town so steeped in infamy that the tag “Sin City” would seem downright provincial.

Or at least that’s the provocative contention of “Las Vegas: The Money and the Power,” an eye-opening two-hour documentary airing tonight at 9 on A&E.;

The program, based on the book “The Money and the Power” by Sally Denton and Roger Morris, assembles facts, rumors and smoking guns to finger the Mob for its role in shaping politics not only in this country but across the globe.

And it explains that all this has happened because more than half a century ago, some East Coast crime bosses stumbled upon the ideal environment for growth in a sun-scorched patch of Nevada desert.

Funds from illegal booze-running dried up after Prohibition, and a push was on to find a replacement source of cash. Meanwhile, near Las Vegas, card parlors were popping up in the shantytowns that housed the thousands of men called in to build the Hoover Dam. Gee, who could run the burgeoning gaming operations?

The connect-the-plots web of allegations in “Las Vegas” is nothing short of jaw dropping. Assassinations, the proliferation of nuclear power, election-fixing--it’s all there.

And the Mob was always there, too, the program asserts, funded by gambling’s unstoppable revenue stream and some brashly creative bookkeeping that could put Enron to shame.

The extensive research and scores of on-screen interviews are impressive for their scope, even if some of the conclusions and extrapolations of logic seem a bit overreaching.

They are far-fetched ... aren’t they?