Although ethnic organized crime figures had been involved in some of the operations at the hotels, the Mafia bosses never owned or controlled the hotels and clubs which remained monopolized by hard-bitten local Las Vegas families who were unwilling to cede ground to the crime bosses and proved strong enough to push back. This changed in post-war Las Vegas when Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel, with help from friend and fellow mob boss Meyer Lansky, poured money through locally owned banks for cover of legitimacy and built The Flamingo in 1946. Siegel modeled his enterprises on the long-running gambling empire in Galveston, Texas, which had pioneered the high-class casino concepts that became mainstays on the Strip.