The bombing took place at Harvey's on August 26–27, 1980, when three men planted a bomb containing 1,000 pounds of dynamite at Harvey's. The mastermind behind the bomb, millionaire John Birges, was attempting to extort $3 million from the casino, claiming he had lost $750,000 gambling there.

The bomb was cleverly built and virtually tamper-proof. After studying the bomb for more than a day through x-rays, bomb technicians decided that, although there were warnings from the bomb maker that a shock would trigger the device, the best hope of disarming it was by separating the detonators from the dynamite. They thought they could do this using a shaped charge of C-4. The attempt to disarm the bomb failed and it exploded, destroying much of the casino, although no one was injured. Harrah's casino (which was connected to Harvey's via a tunnel) was also damaged by the explosion, breaking many of the windows in Harrah's.

Birges was eventually arrested based on a tip. One of his sons had revealed to his then-girlfriend that his father had placed a bomb in Harvey's. After the two broke up, she was on a date with another man when they heard about a reward for information, and she informed her new boyfriend about Birges. This man then called the FBI.

Birges built one of the largest bombs the FBI had ever seen from dynamite he had stolen in Fresno. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. At the age of 74, he died of liver cancer at the Southern Nevada Correctional Center in 1996, exactly sixteen years and a day after the bombing. According to FBI experts, the Harvey's bomb remains one of the most complex improvised explosive device ever created and a replica of "the machine", as the extortionists called it, is still used in FBI training.