Nevada lawmakers revisit court that barred offenders from Strip

Nevada judges instituted a unique court two years ago to penalize crimes such as petty theft, assault, drug offenses and loitering committed on the Las Vegas Strip by barring offenders from the state’s marquee tourist area for a year.

The program was hailed as a success by the state’s powerful casino and resort owners. Others questioned its legality, and judges voted to disband it a year and a half later.

But now with tourism in Las Vegas slumping and resorts and convention centers reporting fewer visitors compared with last year, lawmakers are poised to revive the idea in a special session that began Thursday even as crime has been dropping.

Major casinos and labor unions have teamed on the amendment to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s sweeping crime package to bring back the Resort Corridor Court, saying it’s necessary to make the Strip safer for workers and more appealing to tourists.

“It’s important for the safety of our guests and for our employees in the workplace,” said Virginia Valentine, president of the influential Nevada Resort Association — one of the key backers of the proposal. “It’s also important for the whole guest experience.”

Lombardo’s crime package, called the “Safe Streets and Neighborhoods Act,” also proposes increased penalties for repeat offenders as well as a long list of crimes, including smash-and-grab robberies, possession of child pornography, assault and battery against hospitality employees, and DUIs involving a death. It also would expand crimes such as stalking to include cyberstalking.

Corridor court critics, however, have questioned the legality of barring people from an area, and say this is more about optics than reality.

Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the now-defunct court unfairly targeted homeless people living in the area and was an attempt to privatize public streets — since people violating the order could be arrested for walking on the sidewalk outside of a resort.

“The reality is that if this is about protecting what’s happening inside of resorts, that’s one thing, because it’s private property, but we’re talking about people who are on the street,” Haseebullah said. “And targeted enforcement actions toward people whom resort properties may deem undesirable is not in line with how the Constitution should operate.”

Banishing offenders from the Strip

No other cities with a significant tourist destination — including Orlando’s Disney World or New York City’s Times Square — have a separate court to handle crimes originating from its tourism hubs. The closest parallels could be Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, which have federal courts to deal with crimes that occurred in the parks.

The Resort Corridor Court handled low-level cases originating on the Strip and nearby resorts like the Palms and the Rio.

More than 4,100 people were barred from the Strip, nearly all by the Resort Corridor Court, according to published reports. The Las Vegas Justice Court did not respond to requests from The Associated Press seeking to verify the information.

Any offender barred from the corridor could be jailed if they returned.

The amendment proposes requiring the court to submit an annual report that includes the number of people barred from the corridor, their crime and the rate of successful completion of their sentence. No public data was available on the previous court’s operation.

Safety for tourists, workers

Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union Local 226, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, said the union had been supportive of the corridor court because it acted as a deterrent for crime and thus kept the union workers safe when commuting to and from work, as well as while working in the casinos.

The Strip is the economic engine for the state, Pappageorge said, and it’s important to make sure customers feel safe, or else they’d go somewhere else and workers could lose their jobs.

The proposal comes as Las Vegas continues to experience a decline in tourism. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported an 11% decline in visitors between June 2024 and June 2025,

Crime also dipped across the board on the Strip from last year, according to data from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. As of November, violent crimes like assault and homicide were down 6% from 2024. Trespassing makes up the largest number of reported crimes this year, but even that is down 35% from last year.

Targeting homeless people

Opponents argue many of the people the court barred from the corridor were living on the streets.

Nearly 8,000 people experienced homelessness in Clark County in 2024, according to the county’s annual homelessness census, with some living in the hundreds of miles of storm drains underneath the Strip.

People entering the tunnels on the edge of the Resort Corridor have been repeatedly arrested for breaking court orders barring them from the area, according to Nick Shepack, Nevada state director at the Fines and Fees Justice Center, an organization aiming to reform the justice system through the elimination of fines and fees that it claims are unjust.

The process becomes a “revolving door for our most vulnerable population in that area,” Shepack said. “We’re adding new layers of punishment and supervision onto individuals who are deeply struggling, and we can’t fine, fee and arrest our way out of these problems.”