No Brothels Within 400 Yards of a Church or School — Fine: $500
Nevada's red-light-district zoning laws from 1911 are still in force: no brothel within 400 yards of a church or school, no brothel door opening onto Main Street — and the maximum fine has been frozen at $500 for over a century.
Before Nevada formalized its county-option brothel licensing system, it ran on a tolerated-vice compromise: brothels could exist, but they had to stay out of sight. The statutes that enforced that bargain, dating from 1911 to 1947, are still on the books. NRS 201.380 makes it unlawful to keep a house of ill fame "within 400 yards of any schoolhouse or schoolroom" or "within 400 yards of any church, edifice, building or structure erected for and used for devotional services or religious worship."
NRS 201.390 handles street frontage: no one may keep or rent "any house fronting on the principal business street or thoroughfare of any of the towns of this state, for the purpose of prostitution" — and it's separately illegal even to cut a door or entrance from a brothel onto the main street. The supporting cast is just as colorful: NRS 201.420 makes keeping a "disorderly house" a misdemeanor, and NRS 201.400 allows a house's "general reputation" as evidence of its character — frontier hearsay, codified.
The punchline is the penalty. Both siting statutes carry a maximum fine of $500 — a serious sum in 1911, unchanged ever since. These laws were never repealed when Nevada built its modern licensing regime, so in the handful of rural counties with licensed brothels, the 400-yard buffer and the Main Street ban remain a live siting constraint that county licensing boards still observe. A legal brothel 399 yards from a church would still violate state law — to the tune of five hundred dollars.
Current Penalty
A fine of up to $500 under NRS 201.380 and 201.390 — an amount unchanged since 1911. Keeping a disorderly house under NRS 201.420 is a misdemeanor.
Has Anyone Actually Been Cited?
No modern prosecutions found, but the 400-yard and main-street rules remain a live siting constraint in the roughly six rural counties with licensed brothels, where county licensing boards observe the buffers.
The Attorney's Take
Thomas Boley, Las Vegas Criminal Defense Attorney
“A $500 maximum fine frozen since 1911 shows what happens when the Legislature never revisits a statute — and Nevada's criminal code is full of these fossils sitting next to modern laws with real teeth. The practical lesson: penalties for similar conduct can vary wildly depending on which statute applies. Part of my job is knowing the whole map, because the difference between a century-old fine statute and a modern felony charge is the difference between a check and a cell.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
Verified against the primary source: 2026-07-02