Laws are laws, and there is no way around them, although some legal obligations are often plain weird, as is the case with a few Las Vegas rules that you need to always adhere to during your stay there.
Las Vegas is the capital of hedonism and is often flaunted as the city where everything goes. The large sums of money that trade hands here daily plus droves of deep-pocket visitors offer a fertile ground for excesses of all sorts. However, you would be surprised how many things just don’t fly in Sin City, with the prohibited actions often as bizarre as Las Vegas itself.
Here are some of the most whacky rules for you to remember and don’t get into any trouble:
1. No Feeding of Pigeons
Some people think that feeding pigeons is a great idea. But, unfortunately, Las Vegas laws say otherwise. Classified as vermin by the city authorities, feeding pigeons is punishable by a heavy fine or jail time. The reason? Fuelled by millions of visitors that flock to Vegas each year, overfed pigeons defecate all over the ritzy scenery, causing a severe “fowl” mess.
2. No Pawning of Dentures
Las Vegas casinos often see seniors who blow all their money and then proceed to the local pawn shops to obtain more gambling moolah. Of course, since you can’t enter any of the casinos shirtless, we’re assuming that many unlucky old gamblers try to pawn their dentures.
It is hard to believe that pawnshops would take used dentures for monetary compensation. Or, even more disturbingly, that someone would later buy these dentures and stuff them in their mouth. Even so, this must have happened enough times to warrant an actual law prohibiting such activity.
3. No Hip-Hop
During the 90s, the west vs east coast rap rivalry was reaching deadly levels. Drive-by shootings became common, and well-known rapper, Tupac Shakur, was gunned down in Vegas by an unidentified assailant. Unfortunately, the killer was never caught. After the east coast rapper Notorious B.I.G. was also gunned down a few months later, Las Vegas prohibited gangster rap and hip-hop performances.
Sadly, this didn’t stop music-related violence. In 2017, a shooter fired numerous rounds from his hotel room into a crowd attending a country music festival below. The shooter had secretly stocked his room with ammo and assault rifles. After opening fire on the crowd, he managed to kill 58 people and injured more than 800 before taking his own life.
4. No Bath Salts
You would think there’s not much use for good old bath salts in the age of all “green” products like guacamole shampoo and agave oil tampons. For those too young to remember, your grandparents used to sprinkle these powdered “salts” into their claw-footed bathtubs.
However, the party lifestyle ever-present in Las Vegas has evolved from the usual booze, gambling, and hooker weekends, to getting high on bath salts. When snorted, eaten, injected, or smoked, bath salts have sedative effects. Not to mention all the poor (ab)users often ending up in hospitals suffering from heart palpitations and deliriums resulting from chasing the bath salt dragon. As a result, Vegas said goodbye to bath salts with a complete ban.
5. No Vuvuzelas
That noisy, plastic horn popular in the soccer world has no place in Las Vegas. The vuvuzela is an extremely loud trumpet-like instrument from South Africa that was first seen and heard during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Soon they started popping up worldwide and during many sporting events in Vegas, including the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
As a result, a decision was made by UFC president, Dana White, to ban all vuvuzelas during a fight between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. At the time, White said: “Vuvuzelas make the most horrific sound I’ve ever heard. I’d rather let Brock punch me in the face than hear 15,000 people blow on those things.”
6. No Objects Thrown from Chairlifts
You wouldn’t imagine seeing a chairlift outside of a ski resort, even though there is a Las Vegas law prohibiting people from throwing objects from these. However, you will see in Las Vegas people zipping from one building to the other on special ziplines. We’ll presume this law currently applies to them, although chairlifts were used in and around the city a few decades ago.
