How to Win Best of Las Vegas: Nominations, Finals and Voting
Best of Las Vegas voting is won with one nomination under your exact business name, then one vote per category per day from real customers before the count closes. The Las Vegas Review-Journal's 2026 rules ran nominations from July 13 to July 29 and the regular voting period from August 17 to September 10. A third party tallies both rounds. Offering a discount or a drawing for a pick risks disqualification, and nobody, an agency included, can promise a win.
By Victor Brown · Last updated
Who runs Best of Las Vegas, and who counts the picks?
Best of Las Vegas is the Las Vegas Review-Journal's readers' contest, and its official rules hand the counting to a third party. Nominations and votes are tabulated outside the newsroom, and the Review-Journal says neither it nor its affiliates know the results until that tabulation is done. Readers supply the names. The count decides.
Scale is the first thing to absorb. The 2026 edition covers more than 540 subcategories, grouped under 15 topic areas that a nominator picks from before typing a name. A hair salon and a taco truck are not fighting each other. Each competes inside one narrow subcategory, and that narrowness is good news for a small business: you need to win one small room, not the whole city.
Another publisher's poll is easy to mix up with it. Las Vegas Weekly runs a separate Best Of poll with its own rules and its own calendar, and in our tracking that poll has an edition recorded in 9 years between 2018 and 2026. Before you send a single customer anywhere, check which publisher's form they are about to fill in. A pick on the wrong site helps nobody.
When do Best of Las Vegas nominations and voting open and close?
The Review-Journal's 2026 calendar had two windows. Nominations opened Monday, July 13 at 10 AM and closed at midnight on Wednesday, July 29. The regular voting period then ran from Monday, August 17 at 10 AM until midnight on Thursday, September 10, with a gap of about two and a half weeks between the two windows.
Those dates shape the whole plan. The nomination window was short, a little over two weeks, and a business that misses it has nothing to collect picks for in August. The second window was longer, a little over three weeks, and because the allowance resets every day, a day you spend not asking is a day of picks you cannot get back later.
In our tracking, 14 Nevada voting and nomination promotions dated with both a start and an end, from 2016 to 2026, ran a median of 23.5 days. The Review-Journal's 2026 regular period sits close to that figure. Plan for three and a half weeks of steady asking, not a weekend push.
A later edition publishes its own official rules with its own dates. Until those rules appear, a date quoted in a forum post or remembered from last summer is a guess, and the rules page is the only calendar that counts.
One nomination is enough, if your category reaches five businesses
One nomination is all Best of Las Vegas requires to place a qualified business on the voting form, and nominees must be people or businesses that serve Las Vegas. A category appears on the form only when at least five separate businesses are competing in it, a floor for the category rather than a finalist cut.
So the nomination stage rewards accuracy more than volume. One clean nomination under the name customers recognize does more than a pile of them under assorted spellings. I'd take the name exactly as it reads on your sign, choose the one subcategory where you are strongest, and give your regulars that exact pair to type.
The five-business floor has a quiet consequence. If a subcategory draws fewer than five competing businesses, it never reaches the voting form, however many nominations you gathered. A very niche subcategory can simply vanish, and a broader neighbor with more rivals may be the safer place to stand.
Whether any later round narrows the field is a question for the Review-Journal's own rules page; the nomination clauses set only the one-nomination test and the five-business floor. When the form opens in August, find your name under the subcategory you chose and raise any error with the newspaper before customers start looking for you.
What do the Review-Journal's rules forbid before and during voting?
The Review-Journal's Best of Las Vegas rules ban bots, scripts, exchange websites, so-called farming and any other automated means designed to get around the once-per-person-per-day limit. Contestants also risk disqualification for quid pro quo promotions, such as a discount or a prize drawing offered in return for a pick, and suspect votes may be thrown out of the count.
Read the quid pro quo clause twice if you run a restaurant or a shop. The two examples in it are exactly the promotions an owner reaches for first: a raffle entry for anyone who picks you, and a discount for the same. Both are named in the rule. Both put the entry at risk.
Those two clauses target automation and rewards, not the plain request. Telling customers you are in the running, and which subcategory to look under, is ordinary marketing. The line is the reward. Once a pick earns the customer something, the promotion has walked into the clause.
The suspect-vote clause deserves a moment too. It lets the count drop picks that look wrong without proving who sent them, which means an entry can lose support it never asked for if a well-meaning fan starts gaming the form. Tell your loudest supporters, in plain words, to pick once a day and stop.
How do local owners win Best of Las Vegas inside the rules?
Local businesses win Best of Las Vegas by turning one daily pick per category into a habit for customers who already like them. The 2026 regular period gave each person a fresh pick every day from August 17 to September 10, so a regular who returns daily carries far more weight than a stranger who clicks once.
The arithmetic favors depth over reach. A smaller group of regulars who come back day after day can outweigh a much larger crowd that clicks once and forgets. I'd plan for the regulars first and treat everyone else as a bonus.
Here are the moves that fit inside the Review-Journal's clauses, each one a reminder or a piece of accuracy and none of them a reward:
Example scenario (illustrative - not a client result): a family restaurant hears about the program a few weeks before nominations open. It settles one name and one subcategory, prints both on table cards, asks regulars for a single nomination in July, confirms its listing on the first morning of the August window, and spends the rest of that window reminding the same regulars to come back daily, with no discount attached.
- A counter card or receipt line with your exact business name and subcategory, and nothing offered in return
- One message to your existing customer list when picks open on August 17, and one more before the September 10 midnight close
- Staff who can answer 'which category?' in one sentence at the register
- A look at the form on the first morning, so a misspelled listing gets reported before customers waste picks on it
- No raffle, no discount and no freebie tied to a pick, even one framed as a thank-you
Where outside promotion fits the Review-Journal's contest, and where it stops
Voting Now runs promotion for contest entries rather than selling picks: ads, native PR, partner groups, bloggers and our own social accounts that put a Best of Las Vegas entry in front of real Las Vegas residents. The Review-Journal's rules say its advertisers and business associates get no special treatment, so paid exposure buys attention and never placement.
That advertiser clause cuts both ways. Buying an ad in the Review-Journal does not move a business up the contest count, and neither does anything we run. What promotion can do is reach people who would honestly pick you if they knew the poll existed: past customers who never joined your list, neighbors of a new location, followers of a local creator who already eats at your place.
Some things we will not run for this contest at all. No bots, no exchange groups, no accounts that are not real people, and no promotion that offers a discount or a drawing for a pick, because the rules name each of those. And nobody can promise you a win in a count a third party tallies.
If you want a second pair of eyes on the rules page before spending anything, send us the contest link for a free analysis.
| Stage | Rule to check | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Nominations, July 13 to 29 | One nomination places a qualified business that serves Las Vegas, chosen through one of 15 topic areas. | Ask a few regulars to nominate you early, under the exact name on your sign. |
| Category threshold | A category needs at least five separate businesses competing before it reaches the voting form. | Avoid a subcategory so narrow that it may never make it onto the form. |
| Picks, August 17 to September 10 | Each person may pick once per day in each category during the regular period. | Ask regulars to return daily and give them the exact subcategory to look under. |
| Customer promotions | Quid pro quo offers, such as a drawing entry or a discount for a pick, risk disqualification. | Thank customers warmly, but tie no reward of any kind to a pick. |
| Tools and automation | Bots, scripts, exchange websites and farming aimed at the daily limit are not allowed. | Turn down any service that offers automated, traded or farmed picks for your entry. |
| Counting and results | A third party tabulates everything, and picks judged suspect may be disqualified from the count. | Keep a dated record of every request you sent, in case the count is questioned. |
| When outside promotion is the wrong call | Advertisers and business associates of the Review-Journal get no special treatment in the contest. | Skip paid promotion when only a win will do, or when regulars already return daily. |
Step by step
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Save the 2026 rules page
Open the Review-Journal's official rules for Best of Las Vegas and save a dated copy. Mark the nomination window, the regular period, the once-per-day limit and the quid pro quo clause.
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Fix your name and subcategory
Choose the business name exactly as customers see it on your sign and receipts, then one subcategory inside one of the 15 topic areas. Every request you make repeats that same pair.
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Gather July nominations
During the July 13 to 29 window, ask a small group of regulars to nominate you. One qualifying nomination is enough, so extra ones only cover a missed or misspelled entry.
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Confirm the August listing
On the first morning of the August window, find your business on the form under the subcategory you chose. Report a wrong name or a missing listing to the Review-Journal before customers go looking.
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Remind regulars until September 10
Ask the same customers to come back daily through midnight on September 10, with no reward attached. Keep a dated note of each reminder you send, in case anyone questions the count later.
Questions and answers
How does a business get nominated for Best of Las Vegas?
A business gets nominated for Best of Las Vegas when someone submits its name in the right subcategory during the nomination window, which ran July 13 to July 29 in 2026. One nomination is enough if the business qualifies and serves Las Vegas. Owners can take part as well: the Review-Journal describes both its audience and business owners nominating by first choosing one of 15 topic areas.
When does Best of Las Vegas voting start?
Best of Las Vegas voting started at 10 AM on Monday, August 17, 2026, when the regular period opened under the Review-Journal's official rules. Nominations come first, in a separate window that ran July 13 to July 29. A future edition sets its own dates in its own rules, so check that page before planning around a remembered date.
When does Best of Las Vegas voting end?
Best of Las Vegas voting ended at midnight on Thursday, September 10, 2026, the close of the regular period. Because the allowance resets daily, a day missed in August cannot be made up in September. The final day is worth the same single pick per category as the first, which is why steady reminders beat a last-minute rush.
Is a Best of Las Vegas 'vote for us' post allowed?
Yes. A plain 'vote for us' post that asks customers to pick your business is not among the practices the Review-Journal's rules name. Trouble starts when the post adds a reward: the rules give a drawing entry and a discount, each offered in exchange for a pick, as quid pro quo promotions that put a contestant at risk of disqualification.
Who decides the Best of Las Vegas awards?
Readers decide the Best of Las Vegas awards through nominations and daily picks, and a third party tabulates both. The Review-Journal states it does not know the results until that tabulation is finished, and that advertisers and business associates, its presenting sponsor included, get no special treatment. Picks judged suspect can be removed during the count.
How do Las Vegas owners win local business awards like this one?
Las Vegas owners win local business awards like Best of Las Vegas by getting the nomination right and then bringing the same customers back on every day of the voting window. Rewards for picks are out under the Review-Journal's rules, so the work is reminders rather than incentives. Paid contest promotion can widen the circle of real customers who hear about the poll, but it cannot buy a result.
Sources
- shopbestoflasvegas.com. shopbestoflasvegas.com/official-rules.
- shopbestoflasvegas.com. shopbestoflasvegas.com/official-rules.
- shopbestoflasvegas.com. shopbestoflasvegas.com/official-rules.
- shopbestoflasvegas.com. shopbestoflasvegas.com/official-rules.
- shopbestoflasvegas.com. shopbestoflasvegas.com/official-rules.
Voting Now does not nominate businesses, submit picks or run automated tools for the Review-Journal's Best of Las Vegas, and it never offers Las Vegas customers a discount or a drawing in exchange for a pick, since the rules name that as grounds for disqualification. The tally belongs to a third-party tabulator and the outcome to the readers; neither is something we can change or predict. We also turn down political or governmental votes of any kind, in Nevada or anywhere else.
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