Question of the Day - 15 March 2025

First, we can dispense with the two towns in Nevada where gambling is expressly prohibited.

Boulder City started out as a government model city, which the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation controlled down to the minutest detail. The city manager answered directly to the Commissioner of Reclamation and his authority was nearly totalitarian. Gambling and alcohol were prohibited. It wasn't until 1960 that an act of Congress established Boulder City as an independent municipality. Drinking was permitted at that time, but gambling is still proscribed within the city limits.

Panaca is the other. A small town in Lincoln County about 170 miles northeast of Vegas, it was founded as a Mormon settlement and has never allowed gambling. 

As for towns where gambling isn't illegal, a number of them don't have any tables or even machines. Most are the real boondocks settlements like Owyhee, Tuscarora, McGill, Unionville, Schurz, and Gabbs; they're just too small. Denio is without any gambling, though Denio Junction a few miles away has a truck stop with machines. 

Places like Ash Springs, Caliente, and Pioche (on US 93), Austin and Eureka (on US 50), Cal-Nev-Ari, Goldfield, Luning, Mina, and Paradise Valley (US 95), Humboldt, Mill City, and Carlin (I-80), Mountain City (NV 226), Rachel (NV 375), and Baker (US 6) all have at least one bar with some bartop video poker and slot machines, though no bona fide casino.

The border towns, no matter how small, all have full-service casinos. Even little McDermitt, way up at the top of US95 on the Oregon border, has the surprisingly large Say When Casino. Heading clockwise around the edges of Nevada are Jackpot, West Wendover, Mesquite, Laughlin, Primm, Pahrump, Topaz Lake, Stateline, Crystal Bay, and Verdi, all with at least one major casino. It's said that you can make out the rough outline of Nevada from space, thanks to the casino lights twinkling from border towns.