Dear College Students,

It seems most of your time well-spent at “Little Waldorf Saloon” has come to an end.

The sign of a man drinking with the sign "You've made it to LITTLE WALDORF" outside of the bar.

Rachel Jackson/Nevada Sagebrush
The beloved “Little Waldorf” bar.

I will say it is going to be a sad end to my typical Thursday evenings of peeking outside my bedroom window watching an endless line of underage students screaming outside Reno’s favorite little saloon.

But all good things eventually come to an end right?

A collection of new ID scanners had supposedly been installed in February and March around town at an assortment of bars, possibly including the popular ones like 1up, The Wal, The Z Bar, Virginia Street Brewhouse and so on. This means a typical fake ID will probably not scan at any local bars near you — however, this only seems to be happening to a handful of people.

And for my dear, sweet freshmen, you are not the exception. Don’t even risk it, your ID is probably not going to work. Trust me.

As I usually observe, The Wal has a line full of people and a packed bar with the music blaring. On the days that students call “Thirsty Thursdays,” the Wal’s attendance is straight insanity, just from observing the line outside. I want to bet there’s absolutely no personal space for anyone on the inside.

However, with the new scanners being introduced, it seems these bars around town will not be getting the loving attention they usually do on Thursday nights. Or Fridays, or Saturdays, or any other days of the week.

It’s more than likely that over half of their customers, as well as all the other Reno bars, were underage freshmen trying out their fake IDs to get drunk with their friends. I’ve been told a typical drink that’s all the hype for the little ones is called a “Fish Bowl.” However, it is a bit frightening to know what’s actually in that beverage.

Now, what are these bars going to do when they’re losing all of their revenue as the known company, “Old Ironsides”’s fakes, randomly stops working? Do you think they’ll stop the new scanners from taking over?

Maybe this means students will actually stop showing up to class hungover. Perhaps the University of Nevada, Reno will see an increase in GPA due to the ban.

Or maybe it just means they’ll continue to find clever ways around this miniscule obstacle and continue to skip class just for funsies.

I wonder how much longer these bars will actually want these scanners implemented though, seeing as it may be a while before the fake ID companies can discover a way around the advanced scanning systems.

Could some of these bars go out of business because of the loss of revenue?

If I’m being honest with you, I think there’s a high possibility they could.

People are starting to discover their fakes are no longer safe when they get into bars. They aren’t going to risk getting caught, even if it means taking a break from the bars for a while. And I think the bar owners are going to continue to knock down on the discovery of fakes.

If it makes you feel better, UNR is not the only university struggling with this new information.

Now, this is not to say underage students will not still find their ways into these bars and a collection of other bars elsewhere.

But it’s going to be a lot harder to do.

Students may just have to go back to frat party weekends or basic kickbacks with their friends drinking their own alcohol.

I guess it’s time to re-enter the world of listening to sad country music while clutching a bottle of Jack Daniels on your own time, my friends.

Either way, these young adults will find their way back to the bottle and no matter how many bars implement these new scanners, there will be a finesse around the system.

As for now, it’s time to wave goodbye to your adventurous nights at the little saloon around the corner and time for me to wave goodbye to my entertainment of living vicariously through the massive lines just outside my window.

Opinions expressed in The Nevada Sagebrush are solely those of the author and do not necessarily express the views of The Sagebrush or its staff. Jaedyn Young is a student at the University of Nevada studying journalism and English. She can be reached at jaedynyoung@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @jaedyn_young3.