VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Casino Lights Trace Out Nevada’s Border from Space

Posted on: March 31, 2025, 07:35h. 

Last updated on: March 31, 2025, 10:25h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.
  • So many Nevada border towns feature casinos, their lights are said to trace out the state’s shape from space
  • Not everything that’s said is true
Your first clue that this image was fabricated by AI should have been the lack of any lights emanating from where Las Vegas is. (Image: GROK3)

Nearly all Nevada border towns, no matter how small, have full-service casinos. They exist to entertain the residents of border towns in states where casino gambling is illegal and there isn’t much action other than the two or three minutes per day of hope, followed by depression, provided by their state lottery drawings.

This recent Las Vegas Advisor article claimed that so many casino lights emanate from Nevada’s border, “it’s said that you can make out the rough outline of Nevada from space.”

So we went looking at satellite images because triggers don’t get any bigger for us than “It’s said that…”

Similar images helped us a while back to bust the myth that the Strip is the brightest place on Earth. (Sorry, it’s just not the brightest, and neither is the Luxor’s light visible from space.)

No Trace

Being able to make out Nevada’s familiar shape — sort of a lopsided trapezoid with a diagonal bite out of the northeast — from space at night seems reasonable enough.

The lights emanating from this 2012 Suomi NPP satellite photo reveal no outline of Nevada’s border. (Image: NASA)

But whatever that shape is, it’s approximately 483 miles long and 321 miles wide. And, from low earth orbit 250 miles up, Nevada’s border town lights are far too dim and spread apart to accomplish this monumental act of cartography.

The Say When Casino greets visitors from Oregon in McDermitt, Nev., where US 95 meets the Silver State’s northern border. (Image: sunrise.maplogs.com)

Of course, you can clearly make out Las Vegas and Reno from space, but neither really helps trace out Nevada’s border because they’re 35 and 20 miles away from it, respectively.

Actual border towns with casinos contribute only tiny isolated pinpricks of light to satellite images, if that. Starting from the bottom of the state clockwise, the biggest include Laughlin, Primm, Pahrump, Topaz Lake, Stateline, Crystal Bay, Verdi, McDermitt, Jackpot, West Wendover and, circling back around, Mesquite.

Each of their neon casino lights may blaze like supernovas to visitors crossing their state’s borders ready for action.

But from space, they leave literally no trace.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.