Las Vegas Trivia
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110 free Las Vegas trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
55 free Las Vegas trivia questions with answers. Las Vegas has more stories per square mile than any city in America, and this quiz gets to most of them: the Spanish name that means 'the meadows', the Mormon fort, the 1905 railroad land auction, the year Nevada legalised gambling, the mobsters who built the first Strip resorts, and the tycoons who replaced them with volcanoes, pyramids and dancing fountains. There are questions on Elvis, the Rat Pack, Liberace and Siegfried & Roy, on the Golden Knights, Raiders and Aces, and on the films from Ocean's Eleven to The Hangover that made the city a character. It starts with things any visitor knows and gets to details only a local or a Vegas obsessive will have: which casino has no apostrophe and why, how many people the MGM Grand fire killed, which resort had a lion in the lobby, and what the airport is now called. It works for a bachelor-party bus, a themed trivia night or a solo test of how much you really know about Sin City. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and reference sources, and each question shows its explanation and citation after you answer.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the Spanish name 'Las Vegas' mean in English?
The meadows
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.
Q 02Las Vegas is the county seat of which Nevada county?
Clark
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.
Q 03Which unincorporated town holds most of the Las Vegas Strip, which lies outside the city?
Paradise
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.
Q 04Guy McAfee named the Las Vegas Strip after a stretch of which Los Angeles boulevard?
Sunset 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.
Q 05In 1931, the year it legalised casino gambling, Nevada cut the residency required for what to six weeks?
Divorce
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.
Q 06Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905 when land was auctioned beside what?
The railroad tracks
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.
Q 07Which religious group built an adobe fort at Las Vegas in 1855, the valley's first permanent non-Native settlement?
Mormons
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.
Q 08Downtown's Golden Gate casino began selling which dish for 50 cents in 1959, starting a Las Vegas tradition?
Shrimp cocktail
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.
Q 09What message does the reverse side of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign give visitors leaving town?
Drive carefully, come back soon
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.
Q 10The white circles across the top of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign represent what?
Silver dollars
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.
Q 11The Hoover Dam sits on the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and which other state?
Arizona
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.
Q 12What is the name of the vast reservoir created by the Hoover Dam?
Mead
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.
Q 13The town built to house Hoover Dam workers, about 30 miles from Las Vegas, is called what?
Boulder City
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.
Q 21The Bellagio, opened in 1998, is themed after a village on which Italian lake?
Como
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.
Q 22Which Strip resort's Sky Beam is billed as the most powerful man-made light in the world?
Luxor
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.
Q 23The Eiffel Tower replica at Paris Las Vegas is built at what scale?
One half
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.
Q 14Which mobster took over the building of the Flamingo, which opened in December 1946?
Bugsy Siegel
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.
Q 15The Flamingo's mob builder was shot dead in June 1947 at his girlfriend's home in which California city?
Beverly Hills
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.
Q 16Which billionaire moved into the Desert Inn in 1966, refused to leave, and simply bought the hotel?
Howard Hughes
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.
Q 17Why did founder Jay Sarno leave the apostrophe out of the name Caesars Palace?
Every guest was a Caesar
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.
Q 18Which stuntman's attempt to jump the fountains of a Roman-themed Strip resort ended in a bone-breaking crash?
Evel Knievel
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.
Q 19Steve Wynn's 1989 Strip megaresort was famous for what free attraction out front?
An erupting volcano
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.
Q 20Which Las Vegas magic show ended in 2003 when a white tiger attacked its star on stage?
Siegfried & Roy
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.
Q 24When the MGM Grand opened in 1993 with more than 5,000 rooms, its dominant theme was which film?
The Wizard of Oz
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.
Q 25The 1980 MGM Grand fire, which killed 85, spread through a casino lacking which safety feature?
Fire sprinklers
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.
Q 26Which Las Vegas band named its 2006 album Sam's Town after a locals' casino?
The Killers
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.
Q 27The Venetian was built on the site of which demolished Rat Pack-era casino?
The Sands
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.
Q 28The Big Shot thrill ride fires passengers up a mast at the very top of which Las Vegas landmark?
The Strat
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.
Q 29The Fremont Street Experience, opened in 1995, is best known for what overhead feature?
A giant LED canopy
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.
Q 30Vegas Vic, the 40-foot neon cowboy, was built in 1951 as the sign of which downtown casino?
The Pioneer
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.