# Is it true that most casino employees in Vegas are Mormons?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 11, 2023, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430 "2023-08-11T23:12:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/1 "2023-08-11T23:12:11Z")
A friend dropped this nugget on me at a party. Apparently it’s because they’re a pretty strait-laced and moral lot and therefore ideal employees. My Google-fu isn’t great today.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/2 "2023-08-11T23:37:16Z")
First off, it’s not exactly legal to be asking someone their religion on a job application, right?
Next, I did a quick online search for “What percentage of the population of Las Vegas residents are Latter-day Saints?” The result I got from University of Las Vegas is 6%. Wiki tells me the total population of Las Vegas is 641,903. 6% of that number is 38514 (assuming my calculation is correct). Doing a search for “How many people work in Las Vegas casinos” sent me to a ChatGPT answer of 150,000. That is four times the total population of Latter-day Saints in the city.
Given that latest calculation, I’ll have to say it’s another urban legend.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/3 "2023-08-11T23:44:03Z")
> [@Monty](#):
>
> Given that latest calculation, I’ll have to say it’s another urban legend.
He seemed pretty sure, but you’re right that it would be unverifiable without actually checking in person.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/4 "2023-08-11T23:49:08Z")
They’re right because the numbers just don’t add up.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/5 "2023-08-11T23:49:17Z")
Sadly, you didn’t have the time to run those searches on the spot. And even if you did, you’d’ve likely got the response of, “You can’t trust everything on the Internet”. But the size of the industry population being four times the size of the LDS population is kind of telling, IMHO.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/6 "2023-08-11T23:50:55Z")
I don’t know about “most”, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the fraction of casino employees who are LDS is considerably higher than the fraction of LDS in the general population.
For one thing, the percentage of LV that is Mormon is three times the national average.
Also, casinos and LDS institutions (aka, BYU) have long had similarly strict grooming standards for employees. Until fairly recently, it was common in both for mustaches to be banned.
Finally, it’s right next door to the heavily Mormon state of Utah.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/7 "2023-08-11T23:52:38Z")
These articles indicates that:
- LDS bankers have historically been financial backers of Vegas casinos, and helped support legislation which led to Vegas’s growth
- Howard Hughes, when owned several Vegas casinos, preferentially hired Mormons, at least for his personal staff in Vegas, and to manage his casinos
- Many Mormons do work in the casinos; gambling is apparently frowned upon, though it isn’t forbidden in the way that alcohol and caffeine are
> **[The Untold Story of How The Mormon Mafia Built Las Vegas Into What It Is Today](https://www.ranker.com/list/how-mormons-built-las-vegas/philgibbons)**
>
> The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a fascinating history. From its founding in the 1820s by Joseph Smith to the its modern-day prevalence in Utah, the religion continues to intrigue believers and skeptics alike. Aspects of...
> **[Gambling Is Against Their Religion, So How Can Mormons Work in Casinos | Las...](https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/question/mormons-gambling/)**
>
> Since gambling is against their religion, how can Mormons work in casinos?
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/8 "2023-08-11T23:52:42Z")
Are they commuting daily from all over Utah?
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/9 "2023-08-11T23:56:02Z")
I figure that they find it easier to move from Utah to LV than if they lived on the East Coast.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2023, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/10 "2023-08-11T23:57:17Z")
In 1855, the Mormons built a fort midway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. It was a place for travelers to rest and re-stock supplies.
The city was founded in 1905, and officially incorporated in 1911. Since a lot of its trade came from Salt Lake, a large percentage of its population was Mormon. It still had a large Mormon population in 1931, when Nevada legalized casino gambling.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/11 "2023-08-12T00:00:44Z")
The question was whether most of the casino workers were Mormon, and unless there is a secret second city under Las Vegas consisting almost entirely of Mormons, the answer is no.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/12 "2023-08-12T00:53:18Z")
Las Vegas has a very large LDS community. Has had since the early days. After Salt Lake City it’s the single largest concentration of LDS folks anywhere. Or at least was back in the 1980s-90s when I lived there.
Having said that, across the whole USA the LDS folks’ absolute numbers and percentage of population are not large. Mormons are a _tiny_ minority on a national scale. And even if concentrated e.g. 10x in Las Vegas, it’s 10 times a very small number yields a still-small number.
Do a hefty fraction of Mormons work in the casino industry or the casino support industry? Sure. And more than one might suspect from their strait-laced image. A hefty fraction of _all_ Las Vegans work in those industries. Are the Mormons a hefty fraction of those industries? Not really. At least not when I was there.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/13 "2023-08-12T01:50:34Z")
Precise data is hard to come by, but that ChatGPT figure of nearly 1/4 of the city’s population working in casinos seems dubious.
Las Vegas has a pretty diversified job base, though a fair percentage of those jobs especially in service industries are dependent on casinos and tourism.
It wouldn’t surprise me if quite a few Mormons worked hotel or restaurant jobs in places that also have gambling, so technically casino employment. I doubt that many are dealing blackjack or spinning roulette wheels.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/14 "2023-08-12T05:15:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> unless there is a secret second city under Las Vegas consisting almost entirely of Mormons, the answer is no.
So maaaaybe?
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/15 "2023-08-12T06:19:57Z")
Mole-mons?
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/16 "2023-08-12T12:49:49Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> In 1855, the Mormons built a fort midway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. It was a place for travelers to rest and re-stock supplies
Still an interesting historical site.
> **[Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Las_Vegas_Mormon_Fort_State_Historic_Park)**
>
> Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park is a state park of Nevada, containing the Old Mormon Fort, the first structure built by people of European heritage in what would become Las Vegas fifty years later. In present-day Las Vegas, the site is at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue, less than one mile north of the downtown area and Fremont Street. This is the only U.S. state park located in a city that houses the first building ever built in that city. Th Mormo...
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Mole-mons?
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RLdI4wJSE)
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-most-casino-employees-in-vegas-are-mormons/988430/17 "2023-08-12T14:27:02Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> ChatGPT figure of nearly 1/4 of the city’s population working in casinos seems dubious.
It isn’t necessary for the casino workers to be residents of the city of Las Vegas (population 642,000). Most of the large famous casinos aren’t even inside the city limits of Las Vegas, they’re in the nearby unincorporated town of Paradise (population 191,000). Many casino workers live in the nearby cities of Henderson (population 320,000) or North Las Vegas (population 217,000) or the unincorporated town of Spring Valley (population 216,000). The population of Clark County is over 2.25 million, though parts of the county like Bullhead City are too far away to commute.