Resort industry looks to stop Nevada lottery proposal from reaching the ballot

The Legislature will once again consider a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove a 159-year-old prohibition on Nevada operating a lottery. The measure, AJR5, passed easily in both legislative chambers in 2023 but requires a second approval before it can be sent to Nevada voters in 2026.

History, however, isn’t on its side. More than two dozen legislative attempts to implement a Nevada lottery since 1887 have failed and never made it out of Carson City. 

The effort also faces headwinds this legislative session from the casino industry, which opposed the effort two years ago but is taking a more aggressive stance in 2025 and is determined to keep Nevada’s place as one of just five states without a statewide lottery. 

Soon after the gavel came down on the 2023 session, the Nevada Resort Association, the gaming industry’s lobbying and trade group, began an effort to persuade lawmakers — including legislative candidates in the 2024 election — that having a lottery doesn’t work in Nevada.

"To say that a statewide lottery is going to net a couple of $100 million a year in revenue is somewhat unfounded,” Resort Association lobbyist Nick Vassiliadis said in an interview, adding that there was little talk last session about the parameters of a proposed lottery, such as offering scratch-off tickets or becoming part of the multistate lottery system. 

"You need to get down into the weeds in terms of what type of lottery you plan on running,” he said. "That discussion never took place.”

Vassiliadis added that Nevada is unique among the five non-lottery states because it's home to a statewide casino industry that produced $15.5 billion in revenue in 2023, serving as one of the dominant economic engines. Gambling plays a minuscule role in the other four: Hawaii and Utah don’t have any forms of legal gambling, while Alabama and Alaska have only tribal casinos.

As casino expansion moved beyond Nevada, starting with New Jersey in 1978, gaming companies entered markets where they had to coexist with long-standing state-run lotteries.

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/resort-industry-looks-to-stop-nevada-lottery-proposal-from-reaching-the-ballot