Sin City is an urban area (a city or part of) that caters to various vices. These vices may be legal (depending on area) or illegal activities which are tolerated.
Examples of vices include sex-related services (prostitution, strip clubs, sex shops, etc.), gambling (casinos, betting shops, etc.), or drug use (alcohol, marijuana, etc. consumption), and even excessive organized crime and gang activity. If the city is known for prostitution, it is often called a red-light district, as in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Sin Cities in the world
Cities or areas that have this reputation include:
- Asia
- Pattaya, Thailand (prostitution, strip clubs, sex shows, BDSM, brothels, massage parlors, cabarets, go-go bars, drugs, drinking, clubbing, muay thai boxing)
- Bangkok, Thailand (prostitution, strip clubs, sex shows, scams, BDSM, brothels, massage parlors, cabarets, go-go bars, drugs, drinking, clubbing, muay thai boxing)
- Tel Aviv, Israel (strip clubs, drinking, clubbing, parties)
- Beirut, Lebanon (prostitution, strip clubs, cabarets, drugs, drinking, clubbing)
- Manama, Bahrain (prostitution, drinking)
- Macau, China (gambling, organized crime, clubbing, prostitution, drinking)
- Dongguan, China (prostitution)
- Angeles City, Philippines (prostitution, gambling, drinking, clubbing)
- Europe
- Soho, London, England, United Kingdom (prostitution)
- Ibiza, Spain (clubbing, drugs)
- Prague, Czech Republic (prostitution, clubbing, strip clubs, brothels)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (prostitution, brothels, strip clubs, sex shops, sex shows, marijuana consumption)
- Ayia Napa, Cyprus (drugs, drinking, clubbing)
- Moscow, Russia (organized crime, gangs, clubbing, drinking, drugs, police corruption, political corruption, prostitution, strip clubs)
- Baku, Azerbaijan (political corruption, clubbing, drinking, organized crime, bribery, police corruption, prostitution)
- North America
- Los Angeles and its Hollywood district (film, television, modeling, music, (formerly glam metal, New Wave and punk rock, now gangsta rap), bank robberies, porn industry, entertainment and sex publishing industries, tabloids, air pollution, prostitution (Sunset & Vine), formerly police corruption, nightclubs, drugs, drinking, strip clubs, gangs.
- Las Vegas, Nevada, United States (gambling, bookmaking, easy marriage, easy divorce, prostitution [however, prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas and Clark County], strip clubs, cabarets, clubbing, 24-hour liquor sales [as in all of Nevada]; quote: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."). In former days it was known also for organized crime and police and political corruption.
- Reno, Nevada (gambling, drinking, strip clubs, clubbing, easy marriage, easy divorce, prostitution [however, prostitution is illegal in Reno and Washoe County] 24-hour liquor sales [as in all of Nevada]).
- Atlantic City, New Jersey, (gambling, bookmaking, drinking, prostitution, clubbling, and strip clubs) (Known as the World Famous Playground) (In the old days it was known also for organized crime, police corruption, and political corruption).
- San Francisco, California (organized crime, gangs, drugs, and prostitution)
- Newport, Kentucky is the first city within North America to be coined the title due to its role in prostitution, gambling, gangs, gunplay, racketeering, and many others.
- South America
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (male & female prostitution, scams, notorious prison system, police corruption, political corruption, drinking, drugs, favelas, gangs, clubbing)
- Caracas, Venezuela (scams, prison system corruption, police corruption, political corruption, prostitution, organized crime, drinking, drugs, slums, gangs, robbery, clubbing, drug trafficking, violence)
- Australia
- Kings Cross, New South Wales A notorious inner-city of Sydney. (Prostitution, brothels, gambling (illegal and legal), organized crime, gangs (to an extent), police corruption, drugs, strip clubs, squeegee men, drinking, excessive violence.)
Former Sin Cities
- Asia
- Shanghai, China, 1920s and 1930s. (organized crime, opium dens, gambling, police corruption, political corruption, prostitution)
- Europe
- Berlin, Weimar Republic - 1920s and early 1930s (Prostitution, numerous cabarets, decadence in general)
- North America
- New York City in the mid to late 19th Century and 20 century (prostitution, brothels, illegal gambling, notorious slums, pickpocketing, police corruption, political corruption, drugs, gangs, organized crime), Times Square from the mid-1960s until circa 1990 (prostitution, pornography, go-go bars, sex shops, sex shows, squeegee men, strip clubs, clubbing, drugs, organized crime)
- New Orleans from 1897 through 1917, Storyville district (prostitution, brothels, gambling, and speakeasies)
- Chicago in the 1920s to 1930s (prostitution, bootlegging, cabarets, speakeasies, illegal gambling, bank robberies, police corruption, political corruption, organized crime, and gang activity)
- Covington, Kentucky and Newport, Kentucky (brothels, gambling, organized crime)
- Utica, New York in the 1930s through the 1950s for the extent of its corruption and control from political machines, presence of organized crime.
- Galveston, Texas in the 1920s to 1957 (prostitution, organized crime, gambling, speakeasies, drinking, police corruption, political corruption)
- Miami, during the 1970s and 1980s (organized crime, drug trafficking, gangs, strip clubs, clubbing, drinking, police corruption, and political corruption)
- Montreal, Quebec, which earned a reputation for vice through American tourists fleeing the prohibition laws.
- In 1955, Terre Haute, Indiana was labeled Sin City by the monthly magazine Stag. (reputation for being "wide open", with gambling and a well-developed "red light district"). Now the federal death row is in Terre Haute at the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex.
- In the 1980-1990s Michigan City, Indiana was considered Sin City, with the proliferation of massage parlors
See also
- Vice City
- Sodom and Gomorrah
- Red-light district
- Sin City (film)
References
External links
- Top 10: Sin Cities (at AskMen)