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Las Vegas. The City of Second Chances. Gluttony Central. The adult playground. Perhaps most famously known as Sin City.

With gambling, booze, and now legal pot, Las Vegas offers a lot of vices for a lot of people. And yet you can look as much as you want and you’ll never see a strip club on the Las Vegas Strip.

What’s up with that?

First, a little history lesson – how Las Vegas got its nickname of Sin City.

Some people believe that Dick Taylor and Pat Howell, two local local casino executives, were the first ones to use the moniker, when they published a book in 1963. It was called, Las Vegas: City of Sin?

But some people think the nickname actually dates back even further, going as far back as the early 1900s.

Probably hard to believe nowadays, but Nevada outlawed gambling in 1910. And, of course, as soon as something is deemed illegal, people will figure out ways to do it anyway (i.e. Prohibition, abortion, etc.). So, not surprisingly, a bunch of underground casinos popped up and stayed in business until gambling became legal again in 1931.

Anyway, during those 21 years that there was legally no gambling in Las Vegas, the original two blocks of Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas became renowned to both locals and visitors as a place to get relatively easy access to gambling, alcohol, and hookers. Over time, those two blocks eventually (and allegedly) became known as Sin City.

Wait, so all that “sin” and there aren’t any strip clubs?

Nope.

You’d think there would be. I mean, it fits right in there with all the gambling and booze, right? But no, you won’t find one strip club or even “adult entertainment” anywhere on the Strip.

How come?

Welp, first a little background on nudity, being topless, and the general welfare:

Clark County ordinance defines “nude” as the “showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area or anus with less than a fully opaque covering.” The code also considers male genitalia in a “discernibly turgid state, whether covered or not” as nude. In other words, a man can be penalized for having an erection in public.

“Topless” is defined as fully exposing the female breast and areola. However, entertainers along the Strip and Fremont Street can get around this rule by wearing pasties. And the only reason why topless pool clubs are allowed to stay open is because they’re on private property.

And there are even more rules than that:

• According to state statute, if a business serves alcohol, dancers aren’t allowed to be fully nude. This also applies to shows in the city and along the Strip.
• Topless strip clubs: These are legally called “erotic dance establishments.” Here, dancers can expose their breasts but must keep their genitalia covered. Topless clubs may have licenses to serve alcohol.
• Adult night clubs: Full nudity is acceptable, but these clubs aren’t allowed to serve alcohol (the one exception to this is The Palamino Club in North Las Vegas. They got their strip club license before July 19, 1995, when an ordinance was amended to include the prohibition of alcohol within businesses with full-nude erotic dancing).

And then there’s Nevada’s statute 463.0129, which states, in part:

All establishments where gaming is conducted and where gaming devices are operated, and manufacturers, sellers and distributors of certain gaming devices and equipment, and operators of inter-casino linked systems must therefore be licensed, controlled and assisted to protect the public health, safety, morals, good order and general welfare of the inhabitants of the State, to foster the stability and success of gaming and to preserve the competitive economy and policies of free competition of the State of Nevada.

That pesky “general welfare” gets ’em every time.

The main reason

So, what’s the main reason why there aren’t any strip clubs on the strip?

Zoning laws.

Strip clubs are only allowed on property zoned for industrial uses that are within the adult-use overlay district. The resorts on Las Vegas Boulevard are on property zoned for resort hotels, not industrial uses, so they’re outside the adult-use overlay district. Therefore, they can’t have strip clubs.

Whomp whomp. Sad trombone.

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