Nevada may have many things setting it apart from the rest of the country, like gambling, prostitution -- and a Denny's where you can get married.
But one thing most of the rest of the country has that Nevada lacks is a state lottery.
After all, 44 states and the District of Columbia have lotteries.
Assembly Joint Resolution 6 would change that.
If passed, the resolution would allow Nevada to create a state lottery to benefit education and senior services.
Not everyone is in favor of the proposal, though: the gaming industry has consistently lobbied against lotteries in Nevada, and other groups say lotteries are inefficient and ineffective uses of state resources.
Assemblyman James Ohrenschall (D-Las Vegas) is a co-sponsor of the resolution. He said the money would be used to improve education and services for the state’s elderly.
He said without a lottery, Nevada is sending money for vital services across the state line into California and Arizona.
“It could be a long-term help for Nevada,” Ohrenschall said.
Ohrenschall said that under the resolution the money would have to be used to supplement education funding not supplant it.
A strong opponent to the Nevada lottery -- and all lotteries in general -- is Les Bernal with Stop Predatory Gambling.
“There isn’t a bigger public policy failure in the United States in the last 40 years than the government’s experiment with gambling, and state lotteries are the poster child for that,” Bernal said.
Bernal said only 1 percent of California's education budget comes from the lottery.
“State after state has shown it doesn’t increase overall spending on education or elder services or whatever social good they say it will,” Bernal said.
He said it feeds the growing inequality in the country and is the government encouraging people to do something against their self-interest.
The Nevada state constitution bans a lottery, so to actually set one up lawmakers will have to pass the most current resolution then pass it again in 2017 and then it would go before the voters in 2018.
While it has been proposed in the past, the lottery issue has never made it out of the Legislature to get it before voters.
Assemblyman James Ohrenschall (D-Las Vegas), co-sponsor, AJR 6; Les Bernal, national director, Stop Predatory Gambling
