Gambling Is Illegal in Boulder City, Nevada

Boulder City exists because of Hoover Dam. The federal Bureau of Reclamation built the town starting in 1931 as the reservation community for dam workers, and ran it as a federal camp for roughly 25 years. The government banned both gambling and alcohol as threats to the workforce — you don't want your high-scaler hungover, or broke from the tables, when he's dangling off a canyon wall.

When residents finally incorporated in 1960, they made a choice most Nevada towns would find unthinkable: they wrote the gambling ban into their city charter. Section 128 declares that 'no game, slot machine, pinball machine or gambling device shall be conducted, maintained or operated within the City,' covering 'all games, devices or activities, and any slot machine or pinball machine played for money, or for checks, or tokens redeemable in money or property.' The only exceptions: social games in private residences and council-authorized charitable fundraising events. The alcohol ban, by contrast, was dropped — liquor sales became legal in 1969.

The ban is enforced through Boulder City Code Title 4, Chapter 4, which makes it unlawful to 'allow, operate, carry on, conduct or maintain gambling within the City,' a misdemeanor. The geography tells the story best: Railroad Pass Casino sits just outside the city line, in Henderson, precisely because of the ban. Repeal attempts have gone nowhere — Boulder City is one of only two Nevada communities where gambling is illegal (the other is Panaca), and residents treat the ban as core identity.