Drinking on the street in Las Vegas is also quite acceptable in certain areas.

While gaming is the city’s number one industry, there are also a lot of related activities such as bookmaking, easy marriage, easy divorce, organized crime, cabarets, clubbing, and 24-hour liquor sales.ĭrinking and gaming are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Drinking and gambling are not only legal, they are the centerpieces of Vegas today. The vices that made Block 16 what it once was are still mostly alive and well today in modern day Las Vegas. You know the saying “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”? Well, there’s a good reason why Las Vegas is deserving of that saying. It’s mostly just a parking area behind Binion’s Casino ( google maps).Īll of these elements make it clear why Las Vegas is called “Sin City”. You can still visit the area known as Block 16 today, though it’s nowhere as exciting as it was back in its heyday. So while business was booming and customers had easy access to all of their vices, the owners of these establishments had a lot of trouble with the law.įinally, during World War II, as Nellis Air Force Base was being constructed, the city government decided to shut down the vices happening on Block 16 to keep the military brass happy (the military was a huge source of revenue for the city), effectively ending Block 16’s notorious run. The workers in these establishments had to undergo weekly medical checks, which became a great source of revenue for local physicians, as well. Even then they were still regularly raided and fined, which was really just a way of filling the municipal coffers.

That easy access to a primary vice and a relatively cheap market made Las Vegas the center of “sin” during the first half of the 20th century.Īlthough it was technically illegal, brothel owners could “secure” their businesses by paying a $500 license. and Stewart Ave.īlock 16 and 17 were the only two areas of Las Vegas where liquor could be served without restrictions but Block 16 became much more famous because it openly offered something that Block 17 didn’t have.īlock 16 was the original site of Las Vegas’s bordellos, where you could – starting in 1906 until World War II – easily find a lady of the evening (or morning, or mid-afternoon, or whenever). In the early days of urban development in Vegas, the town was divided into 40 blocks, the most famous of which was Block 16, located on First Street, between Ogden Ave.

Block 16 in Las Vegas: The Original Sin City

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