West Wendover, Nevada: Where Utah Sends Its Gamblers

West Wendover, Nevada exists because of a state line. In the early nineteen hundreds, William Smith opened a service station on the Nevada side of the Utah border at the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats. When Nevada legalized gambling in nineteen thirty-one, Smith expanded into a hotel and casino.

The location was almost comically convenient. Utah drivers heading toward Salt Lake City could pull off Interstate Eighty, step across the state line, and gamble legally. Utah then, and to this day, prohibits casino gambling.

West Wendover incorporated as an independent city in nineteen ninety-one. Today it is home to five casinos and draws a steady stream from the Salt Lake Valley, about two hours east. The whole enterprise runs on geography, and the geography has never changed.