Once it is time to test your luck -- and possibly make your fortune -- follow the locals downtown to the original "Glitter Gulch", where the magic all began.

BBC: Vintage Las Vegas

When Robbins was fifteen, he began to study magic seriously, after seeing a local magician at a county fair.

NEWYORKER: A Pickpocket��s Tale

In 2002, after the first arena push failed, DeVos announced the Magic was for sale and began to entertain buyers.

FORBES: Orlando's Magic New Kingdom: How Owner Rich DeVos Scored A $380 Million Arena

For the majority of Japanese, the norm for centuries was grinding poverty, disease and incipient malnutrition until the post-war reconstruction, kick-started by the allied occupation, began to work its magic.

ECONOMIST: Japan observed

After working behind the scenes for the Victoria Cricket Association and the state's Institute of Sport, he went back to his country of birth where he began to weave his magic.

BBC: Whatmore builds for success

Thirty years after Thatcherism began to work its cruel magic in Britain (see article), continental Europe still tends to favour a larger state, higher taxes, heavier regulation of product and labour markets and a more generous social safety-net than freer-market sorts like the Iron Lady would tolerate.

ECONOMIST: Europe's economies

Not easily discouraged in our hunt for the magic and history of the post barrel, we began sorting through the piles of postcards.

BBC: The world��s most charming mailbox

It was also the year that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird joined the NBA and it began its staggering ascent over the next three decades.

FORBES: Lakers' Jerry Buss Leaves Legacy As The NBA's Greatest Owner

When the NBA began to explode in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s (thanks to Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and, eventually, Michael Jordan), television rights fees escalated in concert.

FORBES: Revisiting 'The Greatest Sports Deal Of All Time'