Upon the 1989 opening of The Mirage, Las Vegas and Southern Nevada began a decade-long boom, experiencing a construction and population growth not seen in the United States since the Gold Rush of the 1840s and 1850s. More than 15 major themed casino-hotels opened their doors throughout the Las Vegas Valley. Las Vegas saw a dramatic diversification of entertainment options, including: theme parks like Circus Circus' Adventure Dome, the Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek: The Experience and stage production shows: Cirque Du Soleil and FX. Different properties exchanged hands including The Frontier Hotel, Sands, Vegas World (Stratosphere), Holiday Casino (Harrah's) and Aladdin. New themed hotels like Luxor, New York-New York, MGM Grand and Bellagio opened their doors, each with tremendous attention and excitement.

In Reno, the Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino opened its doors on Virginia Street in 1995. However, with the passage of California's Proposition 5 in 1998, casino-style gambling on Native American reservations was given an open door to compete with Northern Nevada casinos. As Nevada was entering the 21st century, nearly every state had gambling in one form or another and the increased access to Native American casino gaming was dramatically changing the way Nevada approached its tourism economy.