Posted on: August 26, 2024, 08:05h.
Last updated on: August 25, 2024, 11:55h.
The sipping of frozen cocktails from 3-liter tubes — a common site along the Strip and on Fremont Street downtown — suggests that Las Vegas is a booze Disneyland with no restrictions on how and where it may be imbibed.
In reality, though, the difference between choosing a bottle or a can of Budweiser from your hotel room minibar could be 30 days in jail and a $250 fine — if you consume its contents in public.
It’s not the greatest idea to drink on the streets of Sin City without a quick primer on the strict and weirdly specific laws that govern it here.
As always, we’re happy to clear up any misperceptions about Las Vegas that you might have.
Don’t Be a Glass Clown
The bottle of minibar Bud was the wrong choice.
That’s because Section 12.43.025 of the Clark County Code prohibits carrying open glass beverage containers on the Strip or downtown. The law was passed 10 years ago to prevent people from using them as a weapon and to cut down on broken glass littering the streets.
And yes, your glass bottle is still considered legally open if you reclose the cap!
Only paper or plastic cups, bottles and containers or aluminum cans are allowed to be openly partaken of in Las Vegas. Ordering a drink to go from a casino or standalone bar means that it will be served in a plastic cup or container. And, when you’re ready to walk, the bartender will pour your unfinished Mojito from a glass into a street-legal vessel.
And that applies to any beverage, not just the fun ones. Which means that, on the Las Vegas Strip, you can actually be cited for drinking from a glass bottle of Coca-Cola! (Good luck finding one anymore, though!)
There are specific restrictions pertaining just to alcohol, however…
Dampening Your Spirits
It’s illegal to purchase alcohol from a liquor store, convenience store or supermarket and then open the container, even if it’s a can, within 1,000 feet of its place of purchase. (This law was meant to discourage drunken loitering in front of liquor stores and 7-11s.)
Drinking alcohol is also illegal within 1,000 feet of a public or private school, place of worship, hospital, recovery facility or homeless shelter. Since the Strip has none of these places, this list applies only to public drinking downtown, where open container violations carry a maximum fine of $640.
However, it’s also unlawful to drink in a parking lot or a bus stop anywhere in Clark County, and the Strip has plenty of those.
Finally, just like anywhere else in the US, drinking alcohol inside a car is a huge legal no-no — even if the ignition is off, even if you’re just a passenger, and even if that car is the Uber you called.
All over Nevada, this is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months in jail, a $1,000 fine and 5 points added to your driver’s license — with penalties doubling if you’re caught in a work or pedestrian safety zone.
Where you can drink alcohol legally inside a vehicle is in the back of a taxi (as long as the container isn’t glass) or limo or party bus (from any container). You can also drink from any container you like inside a parked or moving RV — as long as you’re not the driver when it’s moving.
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