A Nevada politician on his way out the door forever is making one final attempt to overturn his state’s ban on statewide lotteries.
Assemblyman Harvey Munford laid out his proposal to skeptical members of the Legislative Operations and Elections Committee on Thursday. There have been dozens of attempts to establish a statewide lottery in the past 40 years and they’ve all failed. But Munford is being term-limited out of office, i.e. he’s like a neutron bomb survivor who knows he’s doomed to die, so suicide missions hold no fear.
As ever, Munford is pitching a lottery as the way to “help our education system and the elderly constituents without raising taxes.” As ever, the casino industry is dead set agin’ it. Even if Munford succeeds in getting a bill out of committee, passing it would take approval by two consecutive legislative sessions and a ballot referendum.
Nevada is one of only six US states that has no government-backed lottery, which creates comical scenes whenever a Mega Millions jackpot climbs into the mid six-figures. Gas stations and convenience stores just across the state line can attract 1,000-person lineups with four-hour waits to get your tickets. (And probably, after that much time in the sun, a Big Gulp.)
In other legislative news, Nevada has amended legislation covering its interstate online gambling agreement with Delaware. The system, which is due to be launched any week now, was always assumed to be a way of boosting the meager online poker liquidity in each state’s regulated markets.
Nevada legislators now want to make that point extra clear by adding this sentence: “For the purposes of this section, “interactive gaming” does not include any gambling game other than Internet poker.” So all you Nevada online poker players who thought you were about to get your hands on some sexy Delaware slots are going to have to put your pants back on and traipse on down to a brick-and-mortar casino the way God intended.
