Last year, the North Las Vegas Code Enforcement Department received a shocking complaint.
People were living “all around” the Silver Nugget casino property, but “most troubling” was a rear encampment that was under the building, according to the complaint from a city homeless services director.
It appeared that someone, or a few people, “tried to break into the casino.”
“Also keep in mind that the gentleman with the backwards black hat can be verbally aggressive and profane,” he reported, according to city records.
Code enforcement personnel went to the property and did not encounter any homeless people, but they did on previous visits, records show.
All told, the Silver Nugget casino, a staple of North Las Vegas for decades, is now a blighted property in the city.
The casino is boarded up, and the base of its tall sign has been vandalized, with panels torn off. City records also show homeless people have camped out at the property, which adjoins North Las Vegas City Hall, in recent years.
By late 2024, several large boxes outside were being used as a homeless encampment, and a utility box had been opened and was being used to store some clothing, bags and other items, according to a code enforcement report.
A month later, according to city records, the clerk told property management that homeless people or trespassers were there.
“I explained that this is an ongoing problem,” reported police, who the next day found several homeless people sleeping around the box, city records show.
Silver Nugget operator Fifth Street Gaming, led by founders Jeffrey Fine and Seth Schorr, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
North Las Vegas spokeswoman Liz Abebefe said Monday the city had not received notice that the Silver Nugget would reopen or any demolition permit applications for the property.
“No one bothers me here”
Paul Wiebers, who is homeless, sat on the ground of the Silver Nugget’s covered entrance on a recent Tuesday, with bags, food and other belongings at his side. He was one of three people seen hanging outside the building – in the shade near plywood cladding – that morning.
Wiebers told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he doesn’t go into the building but has lived at the property on and off for a couple of months.
Sometimes people come by and tell him it’s private property and he has to leave, he said. But overall, he said, it’s quiet.
“I like this place because nobody bothers me here,” Wiebers said.
The Review-Journal could not confirm how long the casino, on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of Lake Mead Boulevard, has been closed. But the main entrance was apparently closed in the fall of 2024.
Nevada Gaming Control Board spokeswoman Jennifer Morton said the Silver Nugget remains “operational,” as it periodically opens its casino floor and event center to the public.
Generally speaking, Nevada businesses can keep their gaming license active on shuttered or even vacant properties by operating temporary on-site casinos.
Homeless in place
Through a public records request to the city, the Review-Journal obtained code enforcement reports about the Silver Nugget property, 2140 Las Vegas Blvd. North. The reports were issued between 2021 and 2025 and show that the property sometimes had piles of rubbish and homeless encampments.
As described in these documents:
In the spring of 2022, two or three people lived along the fence at the back of the property; the summer of 2022 saw “heaps of rubbish”; and in early 2024, a possible homeless camp was discovered, with such things as a car bumper, clothes, garbage bags and blankets.
In early 2025, several homeless people were found sleeping around a box. And a few months later, a man was found sleeping in a makeshift homeless camp on the property.
The most eye-catching report, however, was from mid-2025.
According to the report, Jason Lilly, North Las Vegas Homeless Services Coordinator, emailed the code enforcement department to say his team had been working on this property for more than a month.
They were able to get some people to accept resources and referrals, but those who remained were “fiercely service-resistant,” Lilly wrote, according to the report.
“There are people living all around the property, but most disturbing is a camp in the back of the casino that is UNDER the casino,” he wrote. “It also appears that someone (or people) is trying to break into the casino.”
He provided photos showing homeless people and camps, as well as a gaping hole in a wall that led to a dark, dusty area inside.
Code enforcement personnel inspected the property and did not encounter any homeless people, the report shows.
“Case closed at this point,” it said.
“The lump in the sky!”
In the summer of 1964, Dune casino owner Major Riddle held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Silver Nugget, saying that North Las Vegas was “certainly one of the most dynamic areas” in the rapidly growing state.
“Watch out for the nugget in the sky!” The Review-Journal declared in the fall of 1964.
According to the report, the new property would include a casino, bar, lounge and such restaurants as the Seafood Palace (featuring fresh lobster and Louisiana frog legs), the Chicken Shack, a hot dog stand and a coffee shop.
The Silver Nugget opened in 1965. More than two decades later, in 1989, casino owner Gary Mahoney bought the Silver Nugget out of bankruptcy and spent months upgrading and remodeling the property, the Review-Journal reported.
Then, in 2007, Fine Silver acquired Nugget.
Fine — whose father, developer Mark Fine, helped launch the Green Valley and Summerlin master-planned communities in southern Nevada — soon sold part of the site for a hefty sum.
In 2008, the city of North Las Vegas purchased 12 acres from Fine for approximately $15.8 million. North Las Vegas’ new city hall was eventually built on the site.
“A fixed part of our society”
Fine upgraded the Silver Nugget, but he acquired the casino not long before the economy imploded. He envisioned expanding the location but had to navigate a serious financial storm, as the Review-Journal reported in fall 2008.
At the time, Fine said he believed his team was working much harder than previous owners just to “get the same results.”
In early 2015, as the local economy continued to recover from the Great Recession, Fifth Street Gaming said it was looking at a “significant redevelopment” of the Silver Nugget.
And in October 2019, Councilman Isaac Barron recognized the Silver Nugget as the North Las Vegas Business of the Month.
At a City Council meeting, Barron said the Silver Nugget was North Las Vegas’ premier Latin entertainment destination, that it had “big plans for 2020” and that it had been “extremely generous” in supporting events in the city.
Then-Mayor John Lee said at the presentation that he worked as a busboy and then as a dishwasher at the Silver Nugget decades earlier.
“It’s been a fixture of our community,” Lee said.
Several months later, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, leading to forced casino closures across the country and a devastating effect on Southern Nevada’s economy.
“It was a neighborhood place”
Fifth Street Gaming says on its website that the Silver Nugget has a 24-lane bowling alley, a sports book and a 14,000-square-foot event center.
Overall, it says the property is a “true survivor of the pioneering days of Las Vegas gaming” and is classic old-school Vegas.
UNLV history professor Michael Green, who grew up in Las Vegas, said his grandparents played nickel slots at the Silver Nugget and his father briefly worked there as a card dealer.
“It was a neighborhood,” Green said. “Everyone knew everyone else.”
But, he said, the casino is in a part of North Las Vegas that over the years has not received the attention that suburban areas Aliante has received.
Green also noted that the Silver Nugget faced increased competition from other North Las Vegas casinos, including Fiesta Rancho and Texas Station — both of which were demolished after the pandemic.
As he described it, the Silver Nugget used to be in the heart of the city.
“When I was a kid, it was North Las Vegas,” he said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@ theplayerlounge.com or 702-383-0342. Review-Journal staff writer Richard N. Velotta contributed to this report.
