110 Fun Facts About Las Vegas

What does the Spanish name 'Las Vegas' mean in English?

Las Vegas means 'The meadows' in Spanish: a vega is a fertile lowland, and the name described the grassy ground around the area's natural springs on the Old Spanish Trail.

Las Vegas is the county seat of which Nevada county?

Clark County was carved out of Lincoln County in 1909 and named for William A. Clark, the Montana copper magnate and senator who had auctioned off the Las Vegas townsite four years earlier.

Which unincorporated town holds most of the Las Vegas Strip, which lies outside the city?

Paradise was created by county commissioners in December 1950 at the urging of casino bosses, to stop the city of Las Vegas annexing the Strip and taxing its resorts.

Guy McAfee named the Las Vegas Strip after a stretch of which Los Angeles boulevard?

Sunset Boulevard's nightclub stretch, the Sunset Strip, was home ground for Guy McAfee, who ran the Los Angeles police vice squad before moving to Las Vegas to open casinos; he is credited with naming the highway after it.

In 1931, the year it legalised casino gambling, Nevada cut the residency required for what to six weeks?

Divorce needed only six weeks' residency from 1931, the last in a series of cuts from six months, so out-of-staters came to wait it out and first Reno, then Las Vegas, was billed as the divorce capital of the world.

Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905 when land was auctioned beside what?

The railroad tracks came through because the valley's springs made a good water stop for trains; on May 15, 1905 the railroad auctioned the lots beside its line, and they became downtown Las Vegas.

Which religious group built an adobe fort at Las Vegas in 1855, the valley's first permanent non-Native settlement?

Mormons sent from Salt Lake City built the fort as a mission and way station on the road to California, then abandoned it within three years; part of it survives as a state historic park.

Downtown's Golden Gate casino began selling which dish for 50 cents in 1959, starting a Las Vegas tradition?

Shrimp cocktail was partner Italo Ghelfi's idea, said to be a taste he missed from California; at 50 cents a glass it packed the Golden Gate with gamblers and became a staple of cheap casino eating.

What message does the reverse side of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign give visitors leaving town?

Drive carefully, come back soon is what departing motorists read; designer Betty Willis never copyrighted the 1959 sign, calling it her gift to the city, which is why it turns up on so many souvenirs.

The white circles across the top of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign represent what?

Silver dollars back each letter of 'Welcome' across the top of the sign, designer Betty Willis's nod to Nevada's nickname, the Silver State.

The Hoover Dam sits on the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and which other state?

Arizona and Nevada each hold one end of the dam in Black Canyon, and to build it the Colorado was first sent around the site through four tunnels, two driven through each state's canyon wall.

What is the name of the vast reservoir created by the Hoover Dam?

Lake Mead, named for Reclamation commissioner Elwood Mead, is the largest reservoir in the United States by capacity, and the Las Vegas valley draws about 90 percent of its water from it.

The town built to house Hoover Dam workers, about 30 miles from Las Vegas, is called what?

Boulder City was built by the federal government from 1931 for the dam's workforce; because President Hoover ordered work to start months ahead of plan, many families first camped by the river in a shanty settlement known as Ragtown.

Which mobster took over the building of the Flamingo, which opened in December 1946?

Bugsy Siegel took over the Flamingo from Billy Wilkerson, founder of The Hollywood Reporter, and its budget ballooned from about $1 million to $6 million before the December 26, 1946 opening.

The Flamingo's mob builder was shot dead in June 1947 at his girlfriend's home in which California city?

Beverly Hills: he was sitting in Virginia Hill's living room when shots came through the window, and within minutes mob associates walked into the Flamingo and announced that they were in charge.

Which billionaire moved into the Desert Inn in 1966, refused to leave, and simply bought the hotel?

Howard Hughes arrived by private train on Thanksgiving 1966, took over the Desert Inn's top floors and bought the hotel rather than move out; his buying spree is credited with easing Las Vegas into its corporate era.

Why did founder Jay Sarno leave the apostrophe out of the name Caesars Palace?

Every guest was a Caesar in Jay Sarno's scheme, so he made the name a plural rather than one emperor's possessive; his Roman fantasy opened in 1966 and helped begin an era of ever more lavish casinos.

Which stuntman's attempt to jump the fountains of a Roman-themed Strip resort ended in a bone-breaking crash?

Evel Knievel cleared the water but came down short on the landing ramp and was thrown over the handlebars, skidding into the grounds of the hotel next door; his son Robbie made the same jump cleanly in 1989.

Steve Wynn's 1989 Strip megaresort was famous for what free attraction out front?

An erupting volcano gave passers-by a free show every night; the resort's success set off the megaresort building boom of the 1990s, and it closed in July 2024 to be rebuilt under the Hard Rock name.

Which Las Vegas magic show ended in 2003 when a white tiger attacked its star on stage?

Siegfried & Roy had played the same Strip showroom since 1990 when the tiger seized Roy Horn by the neck on his 59th birthday; Horn insisted the cat had been trying to help him and asked that it not be harmed.

The Bellagio, opened in 1998, is themed after a village on which Italian lake?

Bellagio is named for the town on Lake Como; Steve Wynn opened it in 1998 on the site of the Dunes, with fountains whose 1,214 nozzles shoot water up to 460 feet.

Which Strip resort's Sky Beam is billed as the most powerful man-made light in the world?

Luxor's beam is focused from 39 xenon lamps in the tip of its pyramid; it is bright enough to draw clouds of moths, which in 2005 swarmed so thickly that they showed as dark patches in the light.

The Eiffel Tower replica at Paris Las Vegas is built at what scale?

One half scale still means a tower of about 540 feet, with three of its four legs planted on the casino floor; it is welded where the original is riveted, so fake rivets were added for looks.

When the MGM Grand opened in 1993 with more than 5,000 rooms, its dominant theme was which film?

The MGM Grand opened in December 1993 with an Emerald City entrance themed on The Wizard of Oz; then the largest hotel in the world, it shed the Oz décor in a renovation begun in 1996.

The 1980 MGM Grand fire, which killed 85, spread through a casino lacking which safety feature?

Fire sprinklers had been waived for the casino because it was occupied around the clock; flames crossed the floor in minutes, most victims died from smoke in the hotel tower above, and Nevada rewrote its fire codes.

Which Las Vegas band named its 2006 album Sam's Town after a locals' casino?

The Killers formed in Las Vegas in 2001 when singer Brandon Flowers answered a newspaper ad placed by guitarist Dave Keuning; Sam's Town, their second album, borrows the name of a casino east of the Strip.

The Venetian was built on the site of which demolished Rat Pack-era casino?

The Sands, where Sinatra and the Rat Pack played the Copa Room, was bought by Sheldon Adelson, who shut it, had it imploded in 1996 and opened the Venetian on the site in 1999.

The Big Shot thrill ride fires passengers up a mast at the very top of which Las Vegas landmark?

The Strat's 1,149-foot tower is the tallest observation tower in the United States, with Big Shot on its 921-foot deck; builder Bob Stupak wanted it far taller, but aviation officials objected and the city said no.

The Fremont Street Experience, opened in 1995, is best known for what overhead feature?

A giant LED canopy arches 90 feet above four blocks of Fremont Street; downtown casinos backed it in the 1990s to win back visitors lost to the Strip, and its bulbs gave way to LEDs in 2004.

Vegas Vic, the 40-foot neon cowboy, was built in 1951 as the sign of which downtown casino?

The Pioneer Club put up Vegas Vic in 1951, a waving cowboy whose recorded voice greeted passers-by; he has outlived the casino, which closed in 1995 and was turned into a souvenir shop.

The Hand of Faith, found with a metal detector in Australia and shown in a downtown Las Vegas casino, is what?

A giant gold nugget of about 60 pounds, the Hand of Faith is the biggest ever found with a metal detector; the Golden Nugget casino paid more than $1 million for it and keeps it in the lobby.

The Sphere, opened in 2023, was launched with a residency by which band?

U2 opened the Sphere on September 29, 2023 without drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who was recovering from surgery, the first time since 1978 that the band had played without him; Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg sat in.

Las Vegas's High Roller was the world's tallest Ferris wheel until 2021, when a taller one opened in which city?

Dubai's 820-foot Ain Dubai took the record from the 550-foot High Roller in October 2021, then shut to the public within months and did not reopen until December 2024.

Which pianist, first booked in Las Vegas in 1944, became the city's best-paid headliner?

Liberace made Las Vegas his base for four decades and was earning a reported $300,000 a week there by 1972; he took his trademark candelabra from a prop in A Song to Remember, a 1945 film about Chopin.

Which Paris-born showgirl revue ran at the Tropicana from 1959 to 2009?

Folies Bergère opened at the Tropicana on Christmas Eve 1959 and ran for nearly 50 years; the hotel outlasted its show by only 15, closing in April 2024 to be imploded that October.

Elvis Presley's 1969 comeback engagement in Las Vegas was at which newly opened resort?

The International, opened that July by Kirk Kerkorian, became Elvis's Las Vegas home: he came back year after year and never played another showroom in the city.

Wayne Newton's signature song, later used in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, is which?

Danke Schoen was meant for Bobby Darin, who heard the young Wayne Newton at the Copacabana and gave him the song instead; after decades of Las Vegas shows, Newton is known as Mr. Las Vegas.

Which team began play in 2017 as Las Vegas's first major-league franchise?

The Golden Knights began play in 2017, reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first season and won the Cup in 2023, their sixth; the WNBA's Aces arrived in 2018 and the Raiders in 2020.

The Raiders arrived in Las Vegas in 2020 from which city?

Oakland lost the Raiders twice: the team spent 1982 to 1994 in Los Angeles, came back, then left for good in 2020 for a black-glass stadium beside the Strip nicknamed the Death Star.

Super Bowl LVIII, the first played in Las Vegas, was won in overtime by which team?

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 when Patrick Mahomes found Mecole Hardman for a touchdown in overtime, only the second Super Bowl ever to need it.

Which Aces star, the first pick of the 2018 draft, led Las Vegas to its first WNBA title in 2022?

A'ja Wilson arrived as the top pick in 2018, the year the franchise moved from San Antonio; it had been swept in both of its earlier Finals, in 2008 and 2020, before she led it past Connecticut in 2022.

Formula One's first Las Vegas races, in 1981 and 1982, used a track laid out where?

A casino car park at Caesars Palace held the flat, repetitive circuit for two seasons; Formula One then left Las Vegas and came back only in 2023, this time to race down the Strip itself.

The World Series of Poker traces its origin to a 1970 tournament at whose Horseshoe casino?

Benny Binion invited seven of the best players to his Horseshoe in 1970, and the first champion was chosen by ballot rather than by the cards: the players voted for Johnny Moss.

Which 2003 WSOP Main Event winner had qualified through an online satellite?

Chris Moneymaker, an accountant playing his first live tournament, turned a cheap PokerStars satellite seat into the $2.5 million first prize, and the rush of amateurs that followed was dubbed the Moneymaker effect.

The Mob Museum, opened in 2012, is housed in what kind of former building?

A post office and courthouse from 1933 houses the museum; in its upstairs courtroom the Senate's Kefauver Committee questioned Las Vegas witnesses about organised crime in November 1950, and that room is now the centrepiece.

Las Vegas's airport, formerly McCarran, was renamed in 2021 after which senator?

Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who led the Senate majority from 2007 to 2015, replaced Pat McCarran on the airport in December 2021, after county commissioners voted to move away from McCarran's legacy.

In Ocean's Eleven (2001), the crew robs the shared vault of the Bellagio, the MGM Grand and which third casino?

The Mirage, the MGM Grand and the Bellagio all belong to Terry Benedict in the film and keep their cash in one vault; Danny Ocean's crew builds an exact replica of it to rehearse the job.

In Scorsese's 1995 film Casino, Robert De Niro's Sam 'Ace' Rothstein is based on which real casino boss?

Frank Rosenthal, known as Lefty, secretly ran four casinos for the Chicago Outfit in the 1970s without ever being granted a gaming licence, and in 1982 survived a bomb that went off as he started his car.

Which boxer appears as himself in The Hangover, the 2009 comedy about a Las Vegas bachelor party?

Mike Tyson plays himself, knocking Alan out cold and demanding the return of the tiger the friends took from his mansion; both he and the tiger were added when the script was rewritten.

Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas follows Raoul Duke and his attorney, known by what name?

Doctor Gonzo, the Samoan attorney of the 1971 book, was really Oscar Zeta Acosta, a Chicano lawyer and activist who vanished on a trip to Mexico in 1974 and was never found.

Las Vegas became a wedding capital because Nevada marriage licences come without a blood test or which other hurdle?

A waiting period is not required: Nevada lawmakers kept marriage quick on purpose to draw tourists, and the Las Vegas licence bureau issues licences until midnight, so couples can wed the day they arrive.

Which technology trade show, first held in New York in 1967, moved its winter edition to Las Vegas in 1978?

CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, grew out of a Chicago music-trade fair and for years split itself between winter in Las Vegas and summer in Chicago; the first home VCR and the Xbox were both unveiled there.

Area 51, about 83 miles north of Las Vegas, was acquired in 1955 to test which aircraft?

The Lockheed U-2 spy plane began test flights at Groom Lake in 1955, yet the government did not officially acknowledge the base until 2013, when the CIA released a declassified history of the U-2 programme.

Las Vegas is nicknamed the 'ninth island' because so many people have moved there from where?

Hawaii has eight main islands, so islanders count Las Vegas as the ninth: thousands have settled there, and the downtown California Hotel caters largely to Hawaiian visitors.

Nevada joined the Union on October 31, 1864, earning which nickname?

The Battle Born State won statehood in the middle of the Civil War, eight days before the 1864 presidential election; to make the deadline its whole constitution was sent to Washington by telegraph.

Las Vegas sits on the floor of which desert?

Las Vegas lies in a basin of the Mojave, the smallest of North America's deserts; the mountains ringing the valley block moisture from the Pacific and leave it in a rain shadow.

Which singer's residency A New Day... opened the Colosseum, a 4,000-seat Strip theatre built for it, in 2003?

Celine Dion signed a reported $100 million contract to perform five nights a week; planned for three years, A New Day... ran on until December 2007.

In 1950s Las Vegas, hotels threw viewing parties so guests could watch what light up the sky?

Atomic bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles away, became a draw: the Chamber of Commerce handed out calendars of detonation times and viewing spots, and the town styled itself Atomic City.

Which hotel, opened in 1955, was the first racially integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas?

The Moulin Rouge opened in May 1955 on Bonanza Road as the city's first racially integrated casino-hotel, with Joe Louis as a host; it closed within months, and the 1960 desegregation agreement was signed there.

Which desert park near Las Vegas holds the official world record for the highest air temperature, 134 °F, set in 1913?

Death Valley's 134 °F, logged at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913, is still the official record, though some meteorologists doubt the reading; Las Vegas's own high is 120 °F, set on July 7, 2024.

The Statue of Liberty replica at Las Vegas's New York-New York resort was mistakenly featured on what in 2010?

A US postage stamp meant to show the real statue in New York Harbor used a stock photo of the casino's copy instead. The Postal Service kept printing it even after the mix-up was spotted.

Which Las Vegas burger restaurant let anyone over 350 pounds eat free?

Heart Attack Grill named its burgers after bypass operations and had them served by waitresses dressed as nurses. Anyone who failed to clear the plate earned a paddle-spanking.

Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967 at which Las Vegas hotel, later rebuilt as Planet Hollywood?

The Aladdin had carried that name for barely a year, after a $3 million makeover of an English-themed hotel called the King's Crown Tallyho.

Circus Circus opened on the Las Vegas Strip in 1968 as a casino lacking what, which it added only in 1972?

Hotel rooms were missing for four years, so gamblers under the big top slept elsewhere until a 15-storey tower went up. Trapeze artists swung above the tables from the start.

Which unbeaten boxer outpointed Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in 2015 in a bout billed as the Fight of the Century?

Floyd Mayweather won on all three judges' cards, ending a saga that began in 2009, when the two camps first failed to agree terms.

Which actor won the Academy Award for Best Actor as a self-destructive alcoholic in the film Leaving Las Vegas?

Nicolas Cage's film was shot on cheap super 16 mm stock rather than the usual 35 mm. The novelist whose book it adapts died shortly after learning it would be filmed.

Which singer's residency Piece of Me played 248 shows at Planet Hollywood between 2013 and 2017?

Britney Spears sold more than 900,000 tickets for $137.7 million, and signed a two-year extension partway through the run.

Allegiant Stadium, the domed home of the Las Vegas Raiders, is nicknamed after which science-fiction creation?

The Death Star tag came from team owner Mark Davis, who used it to welcome his players to their first practice inside. One end holds an 85-foot torch in memory of Al Davis.

Las Vegas is easily the biggest place in Nevada, but which far smaller one is the state capital?

Carson City takes its name from the mountain man Kit Carson, who scouted for the explorer John C. Frémont.

Which video game series set its 2010 entry in New Vegas, a city built from the remnants of Las Vegas?

Fallout: New Vegas casts the player as a courier who survives an assassination attempt, on a map that stretches out to the Hoover Dam.

Which CBS crime drama, launched in 2000, follows Gil Grissom's team of forensic investigators in Las Vegas?

CSI used Who Are You by The Who as its theme song, and grew into a franchise that began with a Miami spin-off in 2002.

Which Swedish-born actress starred opposite Elvis Presley in the 1964 musical film Viva Las Vegas?

Ann-Margret's chemistry with Presley helped make the musical one of the top-grossing films of 1964, at No. 14 on Variety's year-end list.

Which Rat Pack singer starred as the gang leader Danny Ocean in the 1960 Las Vegas heist film Ocean's 11?

Frank Sinatra and his co-stars were playing two stage shows a night during the shoot, so much of the location footage was filmed between 3am and dawn.

Which tennis champion, born in Las Vegas in 1970, later opened a charter school for at-risk children there?

Andre Agassi won eight major singles titles and an Olympic title. He was raised in Las Vegas by a former Olympic boxer from Iran who worked in a casino.

Which Las Vegas-based combat sports company did the casino-owning Fertitta brothers buy for $2 million in 2001?

Ultimate Fighting Championship's previous owner was on the brink of bankruptcy when the brothers and their partner Dana White stepped in.

Which poker variant decides the World Series of Poker Main Event, whose winner is considered the world champion?

Texas hold 'em became the Main Event's game in 1971. The year before, the first champion was simply elected by a vote of his fellow players.

Which History reality series follows Rick Harrison's family business buying and selling curios in Las Vegas?

Pawn Stars is filmed at the Harrisons' 24-hour shop, opened in 1989 and first run by the family patriarch, known on screen as the Old Man.

The 2008 film 21 follows blackjack card counters from which university as they win big in Las Vegas?

MIT gave its name to a real blackjack team of students and ex-students who beat casinos from 1979 into the 21st century.

Which Strip resort is home to the Shark Reef aquarium and an 11-acre pool complex with its own beach?

Mandalay Bay follows a tropical South Seas theme across 120 acres, and its aquarium holds 1.3 million gallons of water.

Mystère, the longest-running Cirque du Soleil show, opened in 1993 at which Las Vegas Strip resort?

Treasure Island staged free pirate battles in a lagoon out front for two decades. In the original show, the pirates sank a full-size British navy ship.

Which Strip resort was imploded in 1993 to clear the site where the Bellagio opened five years later?

The Dunes, the tenth resort to open on the Strip, came down in a highly publicised ceremony emceed by its new owner, Steve Wynn.

Which 1941 resort, conceived by hotelier Thomas Hull, was the first on Highway 91, the future casino Strip in Nevada?

El Rancho Vegas aimed at motorists driving in from Los Angeles and later popularised the all-you-can-eat buffet. Its main building burned down in 1960.

Which castle-themed Strip resort was the largest hotel in the world from 1990 until the MGM Grand opened?

Excalibur takes its name from King Arthur's sword, and its design team toured castles across Europe for inspiration before building it.

The visitor centre of Las Vegas's Neon Museum is the relocated lobby of which former Strip motel, moved there in 2006?

La Concha was the work of Paul Williams, one of America's first prominent Black architects, and its lobby is a swooping shell-shaped pavilion.

The Mob Museum in Las Vegas owns the brick wall from the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, a 1929 killing in which city?

Chicago's garage was demolished in 1967 and a Canadian businessman bought the bricks. Many were later sold off one by one, and the rest ended up in the museum.

Which magic act began at the Rio in 2001 and became the longest-running headliner at any one Las Vegas hotel?

Penn & Teller split the talking unevenly: Teller generally stays silent on stage and communicates through mime.

Which coach, nicknamed after a shark, led UNLV's Runnin' Rebels to the 1990 national basketball title?

Jerry Tarkanian's side beat Duke 103–73, the widest margin ever seen in a title game, and started the next season 34–0.

Which sport's National Finals moved from Oklahoma City to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in 1985?

Rodeo's showpiece comes with Cowboy Christmas, a cowboy gift show that runs alongside it at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Which conservation area about 15 miles west of Las Vegas is known for a 13-mile scenic loop past sandstone peaks?

Red Rock Canyon draws more than three million visitors a year to walls that were pushed up along the Keystone Thrust fault.

Which band behind the hit Radioactive is based in Las Vegas, the hometown of its singer Dan Reynolds?

Imagine Dragons built their first following in Provo, Utah, before moving to Las Vegas, where they recorded their first three EPs.

Which peak about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas has a ski area and can be seen snow-capped from the Strip?

Mount Charleston tops out at 11,916 feet, the highest point in the Spring Mountains, and keeps its snow for most months of the year.

Which online retailer moved its headquarters into the former Las Vegas City Hall building in 2013?

Zappos had been based in nearby Henderson, and by then belonged to Amazon, which bought it in 2009 in a deal worth about $1.2 billion.

Which former mob defence lawyer, seen as himself in the film Casino, was mayor of Las Vegas from 1999 to 2011?

Oscar Goodman became the first Las Vegas mayor to have his face put on casino chips, and his wife Carolyn succeeded him as mayor.

Which future National League MVP left Las Vegas High School after his sophomore year to start college early?

Bryce Harper switched to a local community college, and the Nationals made him the first overall pick of the 2010 draft.

Which US president dedicated the Hoover Dam in 1935, when his administration was calling it by another name?

Franklin Roosevelt followed the ceremony with the first visit any American president had ever paid to Las Vegas.

Which Native people used the Las Vegas Valley as a winter home before moving to higher ground each summer?

Southern Paiute communities are still based at Las Vegas itself, as well as at Pahrump and Moapa elsewhere in Nevada.

Which mathematician's book Beat the Dealer proved that card counting could overcome the house edge at blackjack?

Edward Thorp worked out his counting schemes on an IBM 704 computer, then tried them out at the tables in Reno, Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas.

The Old Spanish Trail, a trade route that crossed the Las Vegas Valley from 1829, linked Los Angeles with which town?

Santa Fe merchant Antonio Armijo opened the route, leading 60 men and a caravan of mules through to California to trade.

Fremont Street in Las Vegas honours the explorer John Charles Frémont, the first presidential nominee of which party?

The Republicans picked him in 1856, after five expeditions into the West had earned him the nickname The Pathfinder.

Which singer reached the US top ten in 2009 with Waking Up in Vegas, a single from One of the Boys?

Katy Perry recorded the song for an earlier album that her old label shelved, and it reached a Capitol executive on a three-song demo.

Which Ghost Adventures host opened The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas in 2017, filling it with supposedly cursed objects?

Zak Bagans filled its 33 rooms with pieces such as Bela Lugosi's mirror, a doll named Peggy and the van once used by Jack Kevorkian.

Which supposedly cursed object, the inspiration for the 2012 film The Possession, sits in a Las Vegas haunted museum?

The Dybbuk box is an old wine cabinet whose chilling backstory was written for an eBay listing. In 2021 the seller said he had made the whole thing up.

Patrick Tierney, last on the Hoover Dam's official fatality list, died 13 years to the day after which relative?

His father, the surveyor John Tierney, drowned in a flash flood on 20 December 1922 while scouting sites for the dam. Patrick fell from an intake tower on the same date in 1935.

In which Stephen King novel does the villain Randall Flagg build his society of followers in Las Vegas after a plague?

The Stand, first published in 1978, wipes out most of humanity with a superflu nicknamed Captain Trips before its survivors pick sides.

Which 2021 Zack Snyder film sends mercenaries into a zombie-overrun Las Vegas to empty a casino vault?

Army of the Dead gives its crew a deadline: recover $200 million before the military wipes out the city with a tactical nuclear strike.

Which reporter, played by Darren McGavin, hunts a vampire on the Las Vegas Strip in the 1972 TV film The Night Stalker?

Carl Kolchak's first outing became the highest-rated original TV film America had seen, with a script by the novelist Richard Matheson.

Which outlaw pair were killed in the bullet-riddled car later displayed at a casino resort in Primm, near Las Vegas?

Bonnie and Clyde's car has been shown behind glass beside the shirt Clyde Barrow was wearing when the pair were killed in 1934.

Which Hollywood star died in 1942 when TWA Flight 3 hit Potosi Mountain minutes after leaving Las Vegas?

Carole Lombard had boarded in Indianapolis with her mother, and all 22 people on the plane died when it flew into a sheer cliff.

Legend says the bootlegger Whiskey Pete, namesake of a casino near Las Vegas, asked to be buried in what way?

Upright, with a bottle of bootleg in his hands, so he could keep watch over the area. Builders dug up his unmarked grave by accident decades later.

In the 1960 Twilight Zone episode The Fever, a tourist in Las Vegas is hounded by what, which calls his name?

A slot machine hooks a penny-pinching husband after a drunk hands him a coin to play, then seems to chase him down the hotel hallway.