The underworld of sin city: a homeless life in the dark tunnels of Las Vegas

Las Vegas — the city of fun and luxury, extravaganza, and unforgettable experiences, but its seamy side affects of hopeless poverty and hopelessness. Hundreds of homeless people survive in dangerous urban tunnels, which constantly floods. They share their shelter with the rats and eat the waste from the bins of the casino.

See how it looks dazzling Las Vegas deep inside.

Flickering signs and the neon lights, the best shows and entertainment and the millions who despise visitors luxury casino is Las Vegas, which we used to see in movies. But if you come down to 7.5 meters below the roulette table, you can get into a hidden world, where hundreds of homeless people struggling to survive in a network of underground tunnels.

About a thousand homeless people exist below the poverty line, subsisting on scraps from trash cans. Sometimes they manage to get alms from the hands of a truly rich man, who got lucky in a casino.

Each of the inhabitants of the dungeon might be carrying a dangerous disease, living with rats in unsanitary conditions, die from the bites of poisonous spiders or drowning during a flood, when the tunnels flooded.

Despite the fact that Las Vegas is in the middle of the Nevada desert, where rains are rare, 965 metres of tunnels for protection against floods, built in 1980, during a thunderstorm quickly filled with water.

In 2016, during the rapid floods killed three residents of the tunnels, including Sharon, which was shot for a documentary video to YouTube just over a year before the tragedy.

One of the homeless, Craig, says that it might be a good idea to be homeless in Las Vegas — better than in any other city.

The wide entrance to the tunnels is under the Expressway on the roadside which are 40-storey casino and bright lights. If you make a few steps deeper into the dark, damp space, stumble upon broken glass, bottles of urine and eaten by rats in the mattress that lay on the old plastic boxes from McDonald's.

Local authorities forbid to feed vagrants, however, of the stroller for shopping filled with sausages from the supermarket, sandwiches, canned fruit and pasta, are the inhabitants of the tunnels, pull out garbage cans throughout the city.

Some of the homeless there are small refrigerators that allow you to protect products from rats roaming the tunnels of the night. The inhabitants of the tunnels kindle fires to drive away intruders.

Among the inhabitants of the dungeons there are couples who are trying to make their shelter more comfortable. Steven and Kathryn put in your "home" double bed and bookshelf.

Homeless people bring water in buckets, but in the absence of toilets, the hygiene level is extremely low and dangerous to health.

In 2018, Las Vegas was visited by over 42 million visitors. About 4 billion pounds (324 billion) annually spinning at the casino. Rich tourists is a good opportunity to make money for crooks. Some residents of the tunnel cheat in a casino, taking money from the machines, when drunk players fall asleep or lose tokens.

But gambling is booming and the poverty of the tunnels. 54-year-old Netro says that losing the last money received as social assistance in the machines. Although sometimes winning ten times more.

Some of the inhabitants of the tunnels are working at a normal job. They were forced to flee their homes in 2012, when rental prices have soared. Had to move in the dungeon. 59-year-old John Acheson work in shifts at a convenience store and said that his salary is not enough to rent an apartment, pay bills and purchase products.

In the Nevada desert rains occur around the 21st day of the year, however heavy rain can flood the tunnels and take the life of its inhabitants. When it starts raining, people are grabbing the most valuable and run away in order not to drown. All their belongings washed away by water flow.The inhabitants of the dungeon Las Vegas exist in a different reality, far from the luxury and splendour of the city of lights. To them came only sparks violent fun that happens at the top, in the form of scraps, handouts and garbage. They are accustomed to such a life in the neighborhood with the rats and worry only about the fact that the flood did not deprive them of this refuge. Poverty the inside sin city are also impressive, as its striking appearance, and reminds us that a gold shell could be hiding a rotten core.

A similar situation exists in London. Here luxury shopping center found shelter homeless people who eat here, bask and sleep. To expel them, the police has no rights, and the homeless to go nowhere.