By What Other Names Has Las Vegas Been Known?

updated May 22, 2023

Sin City is the most common synonym or nickname for Las Vegas.

(As far as we can tell, the first reference to Las Vegas as Sin City or City of Sin was in the title of a 1963 book penned by two casino executives, Dick Taylor and Pat Howell, Las Vegas: City of Sin? This book was one in a succession of similar "exposés" of Las Vegas released in the early to mid-1960s that combined a wide-eyed view of the city’s glittery surfaces with a peek at its slimy underbelly. The whole era is remembered today as "the Diatribe.")

Other nicknames for Las Vegas include: the Entertainment Capital of the World, the Gambling Capital of the World, the Marriage Capital of the World, the Neon Capital of the World, the City of Lights (along with Paris), the City that Never Sleeps (along with New York), the City of Second Chances, Lost Wages (credited to Milton Berle), Adult Disneyland, Bargain City (the title of Anthony Curtis' guide from the 1990s), Comp City (the title of Max Rubin's classic), and the new one, Gouge City.