They were once on street corners, at bus stops, in convenience stores, courthouses and casinos.
In the pre-cell phone era, everyone from executives to children to criminals used them.
But the golden age of the payphone ended many years ago as cell phones took hold, becoming ubiquitous and affordable.
Today, few remain and even fewer are in use. A recent Las Vegas Review-Journal search for payphones in the Las Vegas area found five: one at Centennial Hills Hospital, another at the Clark County detention center, two at Jerry’s Nugget and one on display at the Mob Museum.
Early history
The first time the phrase “pay phone” appeared in the Review-Journal, at least according to the digitally searchable archives, was February 12, 1931.
The story was a brief about a pay phone stolen by thieves “evidently bent upon taking from it whatever money there might be in the machine.” It ran under a photo of a remodeled gas station and next to an article about a peddler of a “narcotic weed” called “marihuana.”
The payphone’s history stretches back to 1889, when the first one was installed on a corner in Hartford, Connecticut after being invented by William Gray.
Ron Knappen, who wrote a book about payphone history and owns a Wisconsin-based company called Phoneco that sells payphones to customers like a prop company and a museum, said early payphones were bulky wooden machines called “pay stations.” In rural areas, people might have to turn a crank to contact the operator.
A call cost a nickel in the 1910s and 20s, he said, increased to a dime in about 1940 and eventually jumped to a quarter.
The survivors
At Centennial Hills Hospital, there’s still a payphone near the emergency department. A four minute call costs $1, which one can pay with coins or a credit card.
Hospital spokeswoman Gretchen Papez said its intended users include people who don’t have cell phones or whose phone batteries have died. The phone is owned by WiMacTel, which didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Officer Robert Wicks, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson, said the Clark County detention center has a non-working payphone in the booking area.
Next to the restrooms at Jerry’s Nugget Casino in North Las Vegas, there’s a payphone that’s missing its receiver and has an out-of-order sticker covering part of the coin slot. A second payphone in an entryway appears to be in better shape, but no longer has a dial tone. A WiMacTel label advertises local calls at a rate of 50 cents for 15 minutes.
Martha Diaz, a casino manager, can remember when people made calls on the phones frequently, but said she hasn’t seen someone use them in about eight or nine years.
But at the Mob Museum, a payphone is still a popular attraction.
The museum has a phone booth that was once in the Four Deuces, the Chicago headquarters of Al Capone, said Claire White, the museum’s director of education. The museum acquired it from a collector in 2019 for an amount she said she could not disclose. The booth contains a 1920s payphone, but not the original one.
“There’s always been a connection between payphones and organized crime,” White said. Using a payphone was a way to avoid wiretapping, she said.
Most of the museum’s artifacts are behind glass, but visitors are allowed to get in the booth and open and close the door.
“It’s definitely one of the most unique artifacts we have on display,” she said.
It’s also one of the museum’s most popular sites for photos.
Big business
Before they were relics of the pre-digital age, payphones were lucrative.
“They made obscene amounts of money and then all of a sudden, they didn’t,” said Las Vegas attorney Robert Bolick, who represented a payphone company called Pay Phones of Nevada.
Gregory Balelo, who is still listed as an officer of a company called Interwest Payphone in state records, said his small company once had about 150 to 200 payphones, mostly in indoor locations like casinos, taverns and convenience stores. Interwest was incorporated in 1987.
Most of its income came from casinos, he said, but business was also good in the employee areas of hotels and in sportsbooks. Long distance calls were lucrative too.
The business began declining around 2000 as cell phones became cheaper and more reliable. He got rid of his last payphone in about 2008 and thinks it was probably at the South Point.
“It was part of my life for a long time and it was very good to me,” Balelo said of the payphone business.
And payphones can still inspire nostalgia.
Posters on Las Vegas Reddit threads have attempted to track down payphones and share sitings. Some of the suggestions for where a person might find payphones are tongue-in-cheek: “in jail” or “Back in the 1990s.”
Balelo said he still has some payphones that he hasn’t scrapped and recently found some handsets in storage.
“I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away,” he said.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com, especially if you know of a payphone we missed. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
Mojave (Nev.) head football coach Wes Pacheco announced on Sunday morning that he’s stepping down from his position, according to a social media post.
Pacheco announced his resignation after six seasons at the helm of the Rattlers, putting together a 29-22 overall record from 2020-2025.
“I have officially stepped down as Head Coach of the Mojave Football Program,” Pacheco said in his social media post. “Thank you to Principal Cole for giving me the opoortunity make an impact on the lives of Mojave Student-Athletes. I am grateful and blessed to have labored through a 6-year journey of successes, failures, life lessons, character building and growth with the student-athletes myself and my coaching staff have served. I will forever love my Mojave Family, the Mojave Community and believe in the notion that SUCCESS can be attained by showcasing character, treating everyone with respect, and always have the courage to dream big and trust that “ATTACKING THE HARD WORK” & “HIGH MOTORING EVERYTHING” can yield SUCCESS that you want to achieve in life!”
During Pacheco’s half dozen seasons leading Mojave, his best record came in the 2024 season when the Rattlers finished with a 12-1 record. Located out of North Las Vegas, Mojave had to compete against the likes of national high school football powerhouse Bishop Gorman during the regular season.
Mojave ended the last season with a 4-6 record and as the state’s No. 23rd ranked team, according to the final 2025 Nevada High School Football Massey Rankings.
Mojave High School, located in North Las Vegas, NV, is a dynamic public high school that fosters academic excellence, personal growth, and community involvement. Home of the Rattlers, MHS offers a wide range of academic programs, athletics, and extracurricular activities. With a strong commitment to student success, Mojave emphasizes leadership, college and career readiness, and a supportive school culture that prepares students for life beyond graduation.
For Nevada high school football fans looking to keep up with scores around the nation, staying updated on the action is now easier than ever with the Rivals High School Scoreboard. This comprehensive resource provides real-time updates and final scores from across the Silver State, ensuring you never miss a moment of the Friday night frenzy. From nail-biting finishes to dominant performances, the Rivals High School Scoreboard is your one-stop destination for tracking all the high school football excitement across Nevada.
A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
click to expand photos
Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
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