Advocates of a lottery in the nation's No. 1 gambling state have faced a long run of bad luck in getting Nevada legislators to back the idea — but they're betting the time is right for one more attempt.
Among the 200-odd bills and resolutions introduced by a Monday deadline was a measure to remove a prohibition against lotteries that's now part of the Nevada Constitution.
Similar proposals have been rejected by the Legislature more than two dozen times since 1970, although in 1990 Nevadans did vote to allow charitable and religious organizations to hold small lotteries as fundraisers.
If the latest proposal wins approval from lawmakers this session, they'd have to endorse it again in the 2011 session and then let voters have final say in the 2012 elections.
Proponents have argued that a majority of Nevadans support lotteries, and that the state's cut of money generated by lotteries could be used for public schools or other state programs in need of funding.
But opponents from casino companies, in part fearing more competition, have maintained that lotteries don't create the investment and jobs that casinos do. They also ironically argued that amending the Nevada Constitution to allow a lottery would produce a regressive tax on the poor, who tend to spend a higher proportion of their income on lotteries, they claim.
When the idea came up during the 2007 session, proponents argued unsuccessfully that a lottery could generate up to $200 million for the state. But lawmakers also got a gambling industry report estimating a lottery would pull in $51 million in profits for the state, but those gains would be offset by a net loss of jobs.
Lotteries are operated in all but eight states now, and experts on such games estimate that Americans spent $57 billion on lottery tickets in 2006 alone — with no more than 2 percent of any of the ticket sales going into any state's coffers. The rest of the money went to pay for prizes and other expenses.
I hope they get it this time....I mean since they don't have a basketball team...
where will it go? education also?
Yes, we do hope the casinos will finally relent and let this finally pass.
The casino mentality has it that every dollar spent in a lottery is one less spent in their slots, meantime the state government considering raising room, tobacco and liquer taxes
Most Nevada ciizens want alottery and many drive to the State line to buy their tickets in CA.
Maybe we will get luxcky this time???
EddessaKnight
I think it would be nice for Nevada to have, but I don't see the casinos giving in without a fight. The economy is not very good at the moment and they are going to want as much money going to themselves as possible.
i don't understand, it seems like a bunch of casino owners are telling the state what to do when normally is the state who tells everyone what to do...
i don't understand because either way the state gets money and the question we should ask is: is the state going to make more money playing the lottery or with casino city provided that a percentage of the revenue of las vegas goes to the state [not all] and provided that casino i think not sure take 2% for themselves and the rest goes back to the players...i don't know maybe i got this one wrong so i heard...So can the lottery raise more revenue than what casinos give the state?
i think they will have to do like North Carolina and not offer a pick4 but instead offer a Pick3, and lottos and scratchoffs...And what about scratchoffs if they can't offer lottery can they offer scratchoffs? Can casinos sell scratchoffs?
i am kind of worry about this decision, don't know if is a well thought off decisions...But i am glad because if it works Nevada will be the best funded state....
Only two percent of sales going into the state coffers? I think not. The average return of investment from a player's standpoint for most state lotteries hovers around 50%. With an average of 15% going towards administrative expenses including salaries, advertising, the cost of printing scratchoffs, the purchase, maintenance and repair of lottery terminals etc., states are realizing a profit of an average of about 35% of sales. If it were only two percent I doubt if any state would consider a lottery worthwhile.
"The casino mentality has it that every dollar spent in a lottery is one less spent in their slots,"
yeah but las vegas is small and the State of Nevada is bigger..What i mean by that, i mean that they say that every dollar spent in a lottery is one less spent in their slots that might be correct but that's only in the city of Las Vegas...What about the ENTIRE state of Nevada where people dont live close to las Vegas....
Johnyp, i was referring to 2% that the casinos make and then they give a portion of that to the state [i guess is a big chunk since they got so much leverage]....Thinking about it really good i don't think casinos make 2% because even though the games make take 2% for them, people that go into las vegas go full and leave empty...
They should take a census and look at the population of Nevada and check other states that got the same population as the state of Nevada and check how much revenue that state rake in this way they can approximate how much the state of Nevada is going to rake in...And compare it with the money that the casino gives them...
what the casinos are going to do when onling gambling becomes a reality for online gambling surely will generate a lot of money more than what the casinos offer i will think...I guess they will have to ban it in Nevada...And what a problem that will be...
casinos make the claim that they only take 2% of any bet but what they don't see is that 100% of people that become full to a casino leave money empty...That's worse than the lottery...The lottery only asks your for 1 dollar...The most a person spends is 30 dollars...i have yet to hear of someone spending 200 dollars per drawing unless of course it was West Virginia Cash25..LOL...but even so West Virginia Cash25 not everyone will spend 200 dollars different from the casino where everyone goes and empty out their 200-800 dollars pockets...in 2 or 3 day...
Pumpi, you've said you live in Panama, so I'll just assume you've never traveled through Nevada. You keep writing that Las Vegas is the only place where people gamble. Since nobody else has responded to that comment, I will. Pumpi, that just is not true!
Gambling is legal in Nevada, not just Las Vegas. I won't list all the towns that have gambling, of course, since there are too many, but you can travel just about anywhere in Nevada to gamble. I mean, you don't have to go to a busy tourist place like Vegas. There are smaller towns all around Nevada, many of them really cool. What about the world famous ski resorts in the mountains like Reno and Lake Tahoe? A lot of people go skiing or golfing there and even white water rafting, depending on the season of course. There are several beautiful resorts with casinos. You don't have to go to a resort town either. If you go to the capital, Carson City, which isn't far from Lake Tahoe, you can attend a business meeting in the day and then spend an evening at one of their many casinos. I admit I haven't done much traveling for years, but when I was Nevada, you could even gamble at the airport. When I stepped off the plane there were slot machines there.
I do agree with you that casino owners try to run everything and control the gambling laws. But I wanted to point out that gambling is legal throughout the state, not just in one city as you indicate.
You are also wrong about Nevada & online gambling, since Nevada isn't against it at all. In fact, it was one of the first states to approve internet gambling back in 2001. Congress passed legislation in 2006 making it illegal to transfer funds from US banks to online casinos, but Nevada was not one of its supporters.
pumpi,
What justxploring pointed out above and a little more.
For one thing, most of the population of Nevada is in Las Vegas. The State of Nevada didn't reach 1,000,000 population until the late 1980s, then Las Vegas itself went over one million.
(Vegas itself is small, but made up of communities like Paradise and Winchester, all of which appear to be "in town" to tourists).
Nevada is among the top ten in size but somewhere around 46th in population.
Like most of the American West, most of the land is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. Nevada appears big when you look at a map, but most of what you are looking at is barren land. there's a U.S. Highway in Nevada that's called "the lonliest road in the world".
Also, justxploring mentioned slots at the airport. They're also in almost every grocery store and convenience store.