When one considers that the City of Las Vegas ranges all the way west to the 215 Beltway and as far north as the fringes of Mount Charleston, it’s not lacking in casinos for its tax base. However, it is no secret that the higher tax cost of doing business within the city lines is a powerful incentive to keep one’s developments in unincorporated Clark County.
Despite seeing so much money being made at its doorstep, Las Vegas has made no move to annex additional, casino-enriched acreage in the last 15 years. If it did, the pushback would be fierce. Even relatively simple attempts to exercise eminent domain within the city have resulted in bitter and protracted litigation. To attempt a land grab of the dimensions you suggest would require an audacity that even ex-Mayor Oscar Goodman never showed, even at his fiercest.
According to Michael Green, professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada, "The city looked into it in the late 1940s. That's what inspired the legislation that permitted the creation of Paradise and Winchester townships -- the Strip bosses didn't want to be annexed, so the legislature granted their wish. Consequently, an unincorporated township can be annexed only with voter approval."
