Gangsters go there to make money, gamblers to lose money, and showgirls to build character.
In the movies, Vegas is where dreams are decimated, where greed and cheese overwhelm the talented gladhander, the reckless schmoozer, the ambitious naif. Scorsese's film is, of course, meticulous and often mesmerizing. It's nostalgic but with an edge, that is, the good old days are excessive all over, too much color, too much size, too much Vegas-ness. The movie is about seduction and confusion, large scale. Sam is a lug, in the end, not unlike Henry, undone by his pride, his crazily outsized sense of his place in the world.