It's Illegal to Pawn Your Dentures in Las Vegas

In a city where you can legally bet on almost anything, marry a stranger at 3 AM, and walk down the street with an open container, there's one thing you definitely cannot do: pawn your dentures. Nevada state law explicitly prohibits pawnbrokers from accepting false teeth as collateral, making Las Vegas one of the few places on Earth where your pearly whites—even fake ones—are off-limits at the pawn shop.

The weirdest part? Someone had to try it first. Laws don't materialize out of thin air. At some point in Nevada's colorful history, enough people attempted to exchange their dentures for quick cash that lawmakers decided this needed to be codified into law. Just imagine the scene: a desperate gambler, fresh off a losing streak, walking into a pawn shop with a plastic smile in hand.

Why Ban Denture Pawning?

The prohibition exists for several practical reasons. Hygiene concerns top the list—dentures are custom-fitted medical devices that spend all day in someone's mouth. Unlike jewelry or electronics, they're not exactly easy to sanitize and resell. There's also the matter of identity theft and fraud. Dentures are personalized items that could theoretically be used to impersonate someone or commit fraud, though admittedly that's a stretch of the imagination.

More likely, the law addresses theft. Dentures are valuable (often costing thousands of dollars) and relatively easy to steal from vulnerable populations like nursing home residents. By making them illegal to pawn, Nevada created a deterrent against denture theft.

Not Just a Vegas Thing

While the law is often attributed specifically to Las Vegas, it actually appears in Nevada state statutes governing all pawnbrokers. The city of Mesquite, Nevada has its own municipal code that explicitly bars pawn shops from accepting "medical devices such as dentures." So whether you're in the bright lights of the Strip or a small desert town, your false teeth are staying with you.

The law joins Nevada's collection of bizarre regulations, including prohibitions on riding camels on highways and driving camels on public streets (Nevada really has it out for camels, apparently). These oddball laws often persist because nobody bothers to repeal them—they're harmless, rarely enforced, and provide endless entertainment value.

What Else Can't You Pawn?

Dentures aren't alone in the "too weird to pawn" category. Most states prohibit pawn shops from accepting:

• Firearms without proper licensing and background checks
• Stolen property (obviously)
• Certain medical devices and prescription items
• Items with removed or altered serial numbers
• Baby formula and infant products in some jurisdictions

The denture ban fits into this broader framework of protecting public health and preventing the resale of items that could be used fraudulently or pose hygiene risks. Still, it remains one of the most memorably strange entries in the pawn shop rulebook.

So next time you're in Vegas and find yourself short on cash, stick to pawning your watch, your wedding ring, or that expensive camera you bought on a whim. Just keep your teeth—real or otherwise—right where they belong.