The Hoover Dam is nearby and generates a lot of electricity and supplies lots of water, two requisites for densely populating what is essentially a desert.
In 1940, Las Vegas was still a dusty crossroads with about 15,000 population. Then the crime syndicates discovered it, and the fact that gambling was entirely legal in Nevada. The rest, as they say, is history.
When Hoover dam goes dark in 2023, the waster stop flowing, and the SW starts the migration of 40 million people east of the Mississippi. It’s a fact. Without water, there is no life.
“Then the crime syndicates discovered it, and the fact that gambling was entirely legal in Nevada.”
...bet there’s a lot of corpses, under the sand...
Its electricity goes to LA.